"Growing research suggests that “black snow,” a byproduct of the sugarcane harvest, is harming residents’ health. The politically powerful sugar growers say the air quality meets standards."
"BELLE GLADE, Fla.—Of all the cane sugar produced in the United States, half of it originates in a remote area of Florida’s heartland, where from fall to spring the fires burn.
The region south of Lake Okeechobee, the state’s largest lake, is among the nation’s most bountiful, raising rice, sod, vegetables such as lettuce, celery and corn and most notably sugarcane, making Florida the country’s top producer of the crop.
The cane is harvested through a process that begins with fire.
Whole fields are set ablaze with the purpose of incinerating the grassy leaves that sprout from the bamboo-like stalks, which themselves are full of water and do not burn. The fires concentrate the sugar content within the stalks through evaporation, while emitting large plumes of smoke that rain black ash across three counties. Residents call the ash “black snow.”"
Advertisement 
