The last factory in California that turns sugar beets into sugar is shutting down after 78 years, according to the company that owns the factory. The closure means the elimination of hundreds of local jobs and possibly the end of sugar beet farming in the state. The Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative last month started the process of decommissioning its processing plant in Brawley in the Imperial Valley, which it operates under its subsidiary Spreckles Sugar Co. The cooperative will instead “focus its resources” on a more profitable plant in Renville, Minn., the company said in a release earlier this year. Sugar beets — root vegetables that contain high levels of sucrose — are used to produce more than half the sugar in the U.S., alongside sugar cane. The beets grow in the Imperial Valley in Southern California with the help of its nutrient-rich soil and water from the Colorado River.
