How We Get Sugar

Series: Everyday Geography

Year Published: 1930s

Description: "Everyday Geography," a silent educational film from the late 1920s or early 1930s, presents the processes of obtaining various types of sugar, including cane, beet, and maple sugar. The film begins with a child adding sugar to her cereal and then illustrates the harvesting of sugar cane by African American workers, its transportation to a factory, and the production of brown sugar and molasses. It also details the process of extracting sugar from beets and the collection of sap from sugar maple trees, which is boiled down to create syrup and, eventually, maple sugar. The film concludes with scenes of children enjoying syrup at breakfast and a man feeding a bear pancakes with syrup.