The Advocate business writer Timothy Boone covered the American Sugar Cane League’s annual meeting and heard economist Jack Roney speak on United States sugar policy and prospects for the sugar market. Here’s Boone’s opening: An economist with a…
“Farming is a lifestyle that put me in touch with nature, which I see as a privilege.” The average size of the Louisiana sugarcane farm is 1,000 acres so that makes Gene Adolph’s farm an average-sized farm. But Gene the farmer? Gene the farmer is anything but average….
Grower Profile: The Vallot Family “They’ve seen the Vallots work hard all these years.” It’s fair to say the Grosse Isle community of Vermilion Parish is the “country” and it’s where the Vallot family has been farming sugarcane for five…
That golden hill behind this truck is raw sugar. By the end of the sugarcane harvest, this warehouse, which is about the size of a football field, will be filled with raw sugar. The truck/trailer will eventually haul all of the sugar refineries in the state and make…
The American Sugar Cane League has awarded grants of $3500 each to four museums in south Louisiana with exhibits on the sugarcane industry to help defer transportation costs for school field trips. The museums are the Bayou Teche Museum in New Iberia, the Jeanerette…
KADN-TV reporter Philip Boudreaux filed this video report on Tropical Storm Olga and its effect on the Louisiana sugarcane harvest. Here’s how he begins: Tropical Storm Olga comes at the peak of the sugar cane harvest so it brings challenges for farmers. “I…
Al Landry Jr. has been chosen to serve as King Sucrose LXXVIII at the 2019 Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival. In the eyes of Alton (Al) Landry Jr., all the past kings of the Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival are in the pantheon of sugarcane industry leaders. “I’ve always…
Louisiana’s sugarcane industry has a $3 billion impact on the state’s economy. The cane stalk is ground and squeezed forcing the plant to give up its juice to make sugar. Bagasse, the fibrous leftover of the plant, is burned to create energy in the steam…
Sugarcane is one of Louisiana’s top money makers and ensures a way of life for farmers across the state. Now, after a slow start to the year, sugarcane farmers anxiously await harvest. “This crop started out, it was really slow, and actually it was slow until…