If sugar costs $1.70/kg, but takes 100kgs of sugarcane and over 2000L of water to produce that 1 kg, how is the end product profitable?

Question

If sugar costs $1.70/kg, but takes 100kgs of sugarcane and over 2000L of water to produce that 1 kg, how is the end product profitable?

In: 300

Answer 1

Rain is free, and sugarcane is *grass*. One acre of land can produce 25 metric tons of cane, at moderate yields. One acre is 4046.86 square meters, so you’re looking at over 6 kilograms of cane per square meter.

This is why you have to take all these “water use” calculations for “ecology” with a grain of salt. Unless you live somewhere drought-striken, and need to ship in water with pumps and viaducts, it’s just not that big a deal. And even if you do, you have to consider the alternative use for the land and resources which might require less water.

A good example of this is almonds, California’s water-intensive agriculture whipping-boy. One almond takes 1.1 gallons of water to produce. Sure. But California grows **75%** of the world’s supply of almonds. And they’re *really* expensive. If you’re a farmer and you’re going to convert water into money, then you might as well do it producing a scarce crop for which there is huge demand.