Short answers, pulled from the story.
Sugarcane is a tall, perennial grass in the genus Saccharum whose jointed, fibrous stalks store sucrose and are used for sugar production. It accounts for 79 percent of the sugar produced globally, with most of the rest made from sugar beets. Beyond sugar, it yields ethanol, molasses, bagasse for fuel and paper, and many foods and beverages.
Sugarcane is native to New Guinea, where Saccharum officinarum was first domesticated beginning around 6,000 years before present from the wild Saccharum robustum. A second domestication center for Saccharum sinense arose in Taiwan and southern China among Austronesian peoples.
Global production of sugarcane reached 1.9 billion tonnes in 2020, making it the world's largest crop by production quantity. In 2022 it totaled 1.92 billion tonnes, with Brazil producing 38 percent, India 23 percent, and China 5 percent.
Toil in sugar plantations became a main basis for the Atlantic slave trade, forming one corner of the triangle trade alongside European goods and African slaves. After the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, planters turned to indentured workers from India and China, and the first ships carrying indentured labourers from India left in 1836. Forced labour persists today, including a debt-driven system in Maharashtra, India where workers earn less than 5 dollars a day.
Sugar is refined through affination, in which raw sugar is mixed with heavy syrup and centrifuged to wash away the crystals' less pure outer coating. The syrup is then clarified with phosphoric acid and calcium hydroxide, filtered through activated carbon to remove color, and crystallized in a vacuum to produce white refined sugar that is 99 percent sucrose.
Ethanol is a byproduct of sugar production and is widely used as a biofuel in cars in Brazil, where gasoline must contain at least 22 percent bioethanol. One hectare of sugarcane yields 4,000 litres of ethanol per year, and well-to-wheels CO2 emissions from integrated sugarcane ethanol can be 90 percent lower than conventional gasoline.