Special Episode: Sugar Beet Harvest - America’s Heartland

In this special episode, reporters Jason Shoultz and Sarah Gardner travel to Minnesota to get a first-hand look at the sugar beet industry in action. We’ll learn how farmers in the region work together and around the clock to transform sugar beets fresh from the fields into the sugar products we find in our pantries. At sugar processing factories across Minnesota, thousands of people labor almost without a moment’s rest to pull beets are out of the ground and process them into sweet sugar. You might not think of sugar coming from oversized white beets, but that’s exactly what happens once they get to the factory. Hundreds of workers are required to help deliver the beets, dumping them into huge piles, ready for processing. It all requires the perfect confluence of ideal weather, synchronized work, and relentless willpower.