Language
Country/Area
No result found
The Sweet Secret of Sweet Sorghum: Why Is This Crop So Popular in the American South?
Sweet sorghum, or kaoliang, is a variety of the sorghum grass that has a stem high in sugars. Sweet sorghum thrives in dry conditions and warmer temperatures, an environment to which it is better suited than many other crops. The crop is mainly used for feed, silage and syrup production. Sweet sorghum syrup is called sorghum honey in some parts of the United States, but in most of the country, honey usually refers to the sweet syrup extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets.
Historical BackgroundSweet sorghum has been widely cultivated in the United States since the 1850s, primarily for use as a sweetener, particularly in the form of sorghum syrup. In 1857, James F. C. Hyde noted:
"It is probably well known to everyone how important the issue of sugar production is to our country, because the U.S. population consumes the most sugar in the world."
At the time, the United States began searching for sugar crops that could be grown in the Northern states as the price of sugar soared due to reduced production in the British West Indies and increased demand for food. Sweet sorghum, known as the "sugar cane of China", is seen as a crop with great potential.
As the American Civil War unfolded, the domestic market suffered a significant impact and the supply of Southern sugarcane and its refined products became scarce. In this context, farms in the South began to grow sweet sorghum to make syrup as a substitute for cane sugar and honey, which gradually integrated sweet sorghum into the Southern food culture. However, some anti-slavery families in the North chose to grow their own sweet sorghum to make syrup because sweeteners made from sugarcane were accused of being "blood-stained".
Cultivation Status
By the early 1900s, the United States was producing 20 million gallons of sweet sorghum syrup each year. Making sorghum syrup is a labor-intensive job. But as the agricultural labor force declined after World War II, production of sweet sorghum syrup declined dramatically. Currently, the United States produces less than 1 million US gallons of sweet sorghum syrup each year. Its introduction in India dates back to the 1970s, promoted by the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, for use in the production of ethanol and syrup.
Sweet sorghum syrup exhibits good antioxidant properties and has a wide range of uses in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Currently, the crop is cultivated mainly as fodder. Most sweet sorghum grown for syrup production is grown in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Missouri, and Tennessee.
Multiple uses
Sweet sorghum syrup and hot biscuits are a traditional breakfast combination in the Southern United States. Sweet sorghum syrup is also commonly used in pancakes, polenta, cornmeal, and other hot dishes. It can be used as a culinary ingredient with a similar sweetening effect, however in most respects blackstrap honey is still more nutritious. In India, sweet sorghum syrup is promoted as a health food.
Since the 1950s, sorghum cultivation has focused primarily on forage and silage production, particularly in the Great Plains of the United States (Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska are the main producing states). Currently, grain sorghum is also widely used by the ethanol industry because it provides ethanol yields per bushel comparable to corn. As new ethanol technologies are developed and improved, sweet sorghum's role in ethanol production is likely to continue to expand.
Future Development Direction
For example, Texas A&M University is conducting experiments to determine the optimal ethanol production potential of leaves and stems from different strains of sweet sorghum in the United States. In India and elsewhere, sweet sorghum stalks are used to produce biofuel by squeezing the juice and fermenting it into ethanol. The crop is particularly well suited to growing in drought conditions as it requires only one-seventh the water of sugarcane. A 2015 study found that getting farmers to switch from sweet sorghum to grain sorghum could increase their income by up to $40 per hectare per crop because it provides food, feed and fuel. With more than 11 million hectares in Asia and 23.4 million hectares in Africa planted with grain sorghum, a switch to sweet sorghum could have a significant economic impact on farmers.
Sweet sorghum is gradually gaining a place in people's lives due to its unique sweetness and diverse uses. Faced with future agricultural challenges, could this crop be the key to solving our food security and sustainable energy problems?
