ISSUE 21, SUGAR & SORGHUM, Part 3: The Civil War & Sorghum's Rise

Of Strife and Sweetness

The American Civil War & the Rise of Sorghum

While the Civil War caused staple scarcities that led to replacement crops—chicory root for coffee, field pea mash for flour—only one substitute became a significant and enduring component of American agriculture and cookery: sorghum.[1] The disruption of the Louisiana cane sugar production by the Civil War oc…