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Managing social and environmental risks is important for sugarcane growers, processors and food companies due to regulatory pressures as well as shareholder and consumer expectations for sustainably-produced goods. Additionally with prices of petroleum rising, ethanol from sugarcane is a growing market.
To date many industries have been unable to extend their social and environmental corporate profile to the way in which sugarcane is cultivated and processed; while many national or local producer groups have high social and environmental production standards, there is not an international set of sustainable-sugar standards by which industries, companies and investors can define their sugar purchasing principles.
The Better Sugarcane Initiative (BSI) is a collaboration of progressive sugarcane retailers, investors, traders, producers and NGOs who are committed to developing internationally-applicable baselines that define sustainable sugar cane. BSI is an international initiative with the Steering Committee based around the world.
The end result of BSI will be a set of standards which can be used by companies and investors across the globe as sourcing and investment screens and by producers to enhance the long-term sustainability of production.
Sugarcane is a water intensive crop that remains in the soil for 12 months of the year using approximately one million litres of water to produce 12.5 tonnes of commercial cane.
Some sugarcane is grown on steep hillsides without terracing, resulting in the loss of topsoil from the farm and a high sediment load in rivers and estuaries.
There is evidence that a mono-culture crop has an adverse effect on soil, health and fauna.
From a social perspective, jobs in sugarcane production are among the most hazardous in agriculture and in some cases, cane cultivation wages do not provide enough food to cover the calories burned on the job.
The Better Sugarcane Initiative (BSI) is focused on sugarcane due to its global prevalence... sugarcane is grown in 103 countries and accounts for 60-70% of sugar production, a figure which is expected to grow as the EU Sugar Regime is reformed and biofuels become prominent on the global market.
While sources of sugar include beet, differences in production and processing practices for beet and cane would necessitate different standards.
