Sugar is often the first and last thing we taste every day. Sugar can originated in Polynesia. By the time it got to Persia people were very impressed with it. European fascination was so intense that people kept their sugar under lock and key. Sugar plantation were enormously popular. An alternative to sugar cane was then sought. Magraaf figured out how to extract sugar from the plain white beet and sugar beet farming then caught on rapidly, becoming the a major product in Europe. Today sugar from cane is still the dominate source of sugar worldwide but beets still are harvested for sugar.