Sugarcane
Cut sugar cane
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Panicoideae
Tribe:	Andropogoneae
Genus:	Saccharum L.
Selected species
Saccharum arundinaceum Saccharum bengalense[verification needed] Saccharum edule Saccharum munja[verification needed] Saccharum officinarum Saccharum procerum Saccharum ravennae Saccharum robustum Saccharum sinense Saccharum spontaneum

Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species (depending on which taxonomic system is used) of tall perennial true grasses of the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae). Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout jointed fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres (6 to 19 feet) tall. All sugar cane species interbreed, and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids.

Sugarcane belongs to the grass family (Poaceae), an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum and many forage crops. The main product of sugarcane is sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized mill factories, is used as raw material in human food industries or is fermented to produce ethanol, a low pollution fuel. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry.

Sugarcane is the world's largest crop.^[1] In 2010, Alex Hyner estimated it was cultivated on about 23.8 million hectares, in more than 90 countries, with a worldwide harvest of 1.69 billion tonnes. Brazil was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico.

The world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced; most of the rest is made from sugar beets. Sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions, and sugar beet predominantly grows in colder temperate regions of the world. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça (a traditional spirit from Brazil), bagasse and ethanol. In some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch. The young unexpanded inflorescence of tebu telor is eaten raw, steamed or toasted, and prepared in various ways in certain island communities of Indonesia.^[2]

In India, between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous "reeds that produce honey without bees". They adopted and then spread sugar and sugarcane agriculture.^[3] A few merchants began to trade in sugar - a luxury and an expensive spice until the 18th century. Before the 18th century, cultivation of sugar cane was largely confined to India. Sugarcane plantations, like cotton farms, were a major driver of large human migrations in the 19th and early 20th century, influencing the ethnic mix, political conflicts and cultural evolution of various Caribbean, South American, Indian Ocean and Pacific island nations.^[4][5]

Description[link]

Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, typically three to four meters high and about five centimeters in diameter. The stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature constitutes approximately 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is typically composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% non-sugars, and 63–73% water. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, and the harvest period. The average yield of cane stalk is 60-70 tonnes per hectare per year, however this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation. Sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder.^[6]

History[link]

The westward diffusion of sugarcane in pre-Islamic times (shown in red), in the medieval Muslim world (green) and by Europeans (violet)^[7]

Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia.^[8] Different species likely originated in different locations, with S. barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New Guinea.^[8] Crystallized sugar was reported 5,000 years ago in the Indus Valley Civilization, located in modern-day Pakistan and north India.

Around the eighth century A.D., Arab traders introduced sugar from South Asia to the other parts of the Abbasid Caliphate in Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Egypt, North Africa, and Andalusia. By the 10th century, sources state, there was no village in Mesopotamia that did not grow sugarcane.^[7] It was among the early crops brought to the Americas by the Andalusians from their fields in the Canary Islands, and the Portuguese.

"Boiling houses" in the 17th through 19th centuries converted sugarcane juice into raw sugar. These houses were attached to sugar plantations in the western colonies. Slaves often ran the boiling process, under very poor conditions. Made of cut stone, rectangular boxes of brick or stone served as furnaces, with an opening at the bottom to stoke the fire and remove ashes. At the top of each furnace were up to seven copper kettles or boilers, each one smaller and hotter than the previous one. The cane juice began in the largest kettle. The juice was then heated and lime added to remove impurities. The juice was skimmed, then channelled to successively smaller kettles. The last kettle, the "teache", was where the cane juice became syrup. The next step was a cooling trough, where the sugar crystals hardened around a sticky core of molasses. This raw sugar was then shovelled from the cooling trough into hogsheads (wooden barrels), and from there into the curing house.

A sugar plantation on the island of Réunion in the late 1800s

Sugarcane is still extensively grown in the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus first brought it during his second voyage to the Americas, initially to the island of Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). In colonial times, sugar formed one side of the triangular trade of New World raw materials, European manufactures, and African slaves. France found its sugarcane islands so valuable, it effectively traded its portion of Canada, famously dubbed "a few acres of snow", to Britain for their return of Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Lucia at the end of the Seven Years' War. The Dutch similarly kept Suriname, a sugar colony in South America, instead of seeking the return of the New Netherlands (New York). Cuban sugarcane produced sugar that received price supports from and a guaranteed market in the USSR; the dissolution of that country forced the closure of most of Cuba's sugar industry. Sugarcane remains an important part of the economy of Guyana, Belize, Barbados and Haiti, along with the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, and other islands.

Sugarcane plantations in the 19th century[link]

A 19th century lithograph by Theodore Bray showing a sugarcane plantation. On right is "white officer", the European overseer. Slave workers toil during the harvest. To the left is a flat-bottomed vessel for cane transportation.

Much like cotton, sugarcane plantations motivated large scale near-enslavement and migrations of human beings in the 19th and early 20th century.^[9]

Following the emancipation of slaves in 1833 in the United Kingdom, many liberated Africans left their former masters. This created an economic chaos for British owners of sugar-cane plantations. The hard work in hot, humid farms required a regular, docile and low-waged labour force. The British looked for cheap labour. This they found in China and India.^[10][11]

The British crafted a new legal system of forced labour, which in many ways resembled enslavement.^[12] Instead of calling them slaves, they were called indentured labourers. Indians and southeast Asians, began to replace Africans previously brought as slaves, under this indentured labour scheme to serve on sugarcane plantations across the British empire. The first ships carrying indentured labourers for sugarcane plantations left India in 1836. In the early decades of the sugarcane-driven migrations, indentured Indians were treated as inhumanely as the enslaved Africans had been. They were confined to their estates and paid the pitiful salary. Any breach of contract brought automatic criminal penalties and imprisonment. Many of these were brought away from their homelands deceptively. Many from inland regions over a thousand kilometers from seaports were promised jobs, weren't told the work they were being hired for, or that they would leave their homeland and communities. They were hustled aboard the waiting ships, unprepared for the long and arduous four-month sea journey. Charles Anderson, a special magistrate investigating these sugarcane plantations, wrote to the British Colonial Secretary declaring that with few exceptions, the indentured labourers are treated with great and unjust severity; plantation owners enforced work in sugarcane farms so harshly, that the decaying remains of immigrants were frequently discovered in sugarcane fields. If labourers protested and refused to work, they were not paid or fed: they simply starved.^[9]

The sugarcane plantation-driven migrations led to ethnically significant presence of Indians, southeast Asians and Chinese, in various parts of the world.^[13] In some islands and countries, these South Asian migrants now constitute between 10 to over 50 percent of the population. Sugarcane plantations and Asian ethnic groups continue to thrive in countries such as Fiji, Natal, Burma, Ceylon, Malaysia, British Guiana, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, St. Croix, Suriname, Nevis, Mauritius.^[9][14] Sugarcane crops have thus played a role in molding the ethnic distribution of distant lands in recent human history.

Old-fashioned Indian Sugarcane Press, c. 1905

Not just British colonies, sugarcane production affected human history in colonies controlled by other pre-World War II powers. France, for example, negotiated with Britain leading to Act XLVI of 1860, whereby large numbers of Indian indentured labourers were brought for harsh sugarcane plantation work in French colonies all over the world.^[5] Sugarcane plantations influenced many tropical Pacific Islands, including Okinawa and, most particularly, Hawaiʻi and Fiji. In these islands, sugarcane came to dominate the economic and political landscape after the arrival of powerful European and American agricultural interests, which too promoted immigration of workers from various Asian countries to tend and harvest the crop. Sugar was the dominant factor in diversifying the islands' ethnic make-up, profoundly affecting their politics and society.

Cultivation[link]

Sugarcane field on Madeira

A panoramic view of sugarcane plantations of Brazil, the largest producer of sugarcane in the world.

Sugarcane cultivation requires a tropical or temperate climate, with a minimum of 60 centimetres (24 in) of annual moisture. It is one of the most efficient photosynthesizers in the plant kingdom. It is a C₄ plant, able to convert up to one percent of incident solar energy into biomass.^[15] In prime growing regions, such as Puerto Rico, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Australia, Ecuador, Cuba, the Philippines, El Salvador and Hawaii, sugarcane crop can produce over 15 kilograms of cane per square meter of sunshine.

Sugarcane is cultivated in the tropics and subtropics in areas with plentiful supply of water, for a continuous period of more than six to seven months each year, either from natural rainfall or through irrigation. The crop does not tolerate severe frosts. Therefore, most of the world's sugarcane is grown between 22°N and 22°S, and some up to 33°N and 33°S.^[16] When sugarcane crop is found outside this range, such as the Natal region of South Africa, it is normally due to anomalous climatic conditions in the region such as warm ocean currents that sweep down the coast. In terms of altitude, sugarcane crop is found up to 1600 m close to the equator in countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.^[17]

Sugarcane can be grown on many soils ranging from highly fertile well drained mollisols, through heavy cracking vertisols, infertile acid oxisols, peaty histosols to rocky andisols. Both plentiful sunshine and water supplies increase cane production. This has made desert countries with good irrigation facilities such as Egypt as some of the highest yielding sugarcane cultivating regions.

Sugarcane flower on Dominica.

Although sugarcanes produce seeds, modern stem cutting has become the most common reproduction method. Each cutting must contain at least one bud, and the cuttings are sometimes hand-planted. In more technologically advanced countries like the United States and Australia, billet planting is common. Billets harvested from a mechanical harvester are planted by a machine which opens and recloses the ground. Once planted, a stand can be harvested several times; after each harvest, the cane sends up new stalks, called ratoons. Successive harvests give decreasing yields, eventually justifying replanting. Two to 10 harvests are usually made depending on the type of culture. In a country with a mechanical agriculture looking for a high production of large fields like in North America, sugar canes are replanted after two or three harvests to avoid a lowering in yields. In countries with a more traditional type of agriculture with smaller fields and hand harvesting, like in the French island la Réunion, sugar canes are often harvested up to 10 years before replanting.

Sugarcane mechanical harvest in Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil

Sugarcane is harvested by hand and mechanically. Hand harvesting accounts for more than half of production, and is dominant in the developing world. In hand harvesting, the field is first set on fire. The fire burns dry leaves, and kills any lurking venomous snakes, without harming the stalks and roots. Harvesters then cut the cane just above ground-level using cane knives or machetes. A skilled harvester can cut 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of sugarcane per hour.^{[citation needed]}

Mechanical harvesting uses a combine, or sugarcane harvester.^[18] The Austoft 7000 series, the original modern harvester design, has now been copied by other companies, including Cameco / John Deere. The machine cuts the cane at the base of the stalk, strips the leaves, chops the cane into consistent lengths and deposits it into a transporter following alongside. The harvester then blows the trash back onto the field. Such machines can harvest 100 long tons (100 t) each hour; however, harvested cane must be rapidly processed. Once cut, sugarcane begins to lose its sugar content, and damage to the cane during mechanical harvesting accelerates this decline. This decline is offset because a modern chopper harvester can complete the harvest faster and more efficiently than hand cutting and loading. Austoft also developed a series of hydraulic high-lift infield transporters to work alongside their harvesters to allow even more rapid transfer of cane to, for example, the nearest railway siding. This mechanical harvesting doesn't require the field to be set on fire; the remains left in the field by the machine consist of the top of the sugar cane and the dead leaves, which act as mulch for the next round of planting.

Pests[link]

The cane beetle (also known as cane grub) can substantially reduce crop yield by eating roots; it can be controlled with imidacloprid (Confidor) or chlorpyrifos (Lorsban). Other important pests are the larvae of some butterfly/moth species, including the turnip moth, the sugarcane borer (Diatraea saccharalis), the Mexican rice borer (Eoreuma loftini); leaf-cutting ants, termites, spittlebugs (especially Mahanarva fimbriolata and Deois flavopicta), and the beetle Migdolus fryanus. The planthopper insect Eumetopina flavipes acts as a virus vector, which causes the sugarcane disease ramu stunt.^[19]

Pathogens[link]

Numerous pathogens infect sugarcane, such as sugarcane grassy shoot disease caused by Phytoplasma, whiptail disease or sugarcane smut, pokkah boeng caused by Fusarium moniliforme, Xanthomonas Axonopodis bacteria causes Gumming Disease, and red rot disease caused by Colletotrichum falcatum. Viral diseases affecting sugarcane include sugarcane mosaic virus, maize streak virus, and sugarcane yellow leaf virus.

Nitrogen fixation[link]

Some sugarcane varieties are known to be capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen in association with the bacterium Glucoacetobacter diazotrophicus.^[20] Unlike legumes and other nitrogen fixing plants which form root nodules in the soil in association with bacteria, G. diazotrophicus lives within the intercellular spaces of the sugarcane's stem.^[21][22]

Processing[link]

Brown (top) and white sugar crystals.

Manually extracting juice from sugarcane

A truck hauls cane to a sugar mill in Florida

Sugarcane processing produces cane sugar (sucrose) from sugarcane. Other products of the processing include bagasse, molasses, and filtercake.

Bagasse, the residual dry fiber of the cane after cane juice has been extracted, is used for several purposes:^[23]

• fuel for the boilers and kilns,
• production of paper, paperboard products and reconstituted panelboard,
• agricultural mulch, and
• as a raw material for production of chemicals.

Santa Elisa sugarcane processing plant in Sertãozinho, one of the largest and oldest in Brazil

The primary use of bagasse and bagasse residue is as a fuel source for the boilers in the generation of process steam in sugar plants. Dried filtercake is used as an animal feed supplement, fertilizer, and source of sugarcane wax. Molasses is produced in two forms: blackstrap that is not edible, and a syrup that is edible. Blackstrap molasses is used primarily as an animal feed additive but also is used to produce ethanol, compressed yeast, citric acid, and rum. Edible molasses syrups are often blends with maple syrup, invert sugars, or corn syrup.

Evaporator with baffled pan and foam dipper for making ribbon cane syrup

Traditionally, sugarcane processing requires two stages. Mills extract raw sugar from freshly harvested cane, and sometimes bleach it to make "mill white" sugar for local consumption. Refineries, often located nearer to consumers in North America, Europe, and Japan, then produce refined white sugar, which is 99 percent sucrose. These two stages are slowly merging. Increasing affluence in the sugar-producing tropics increased demand for refined sugar products, driving a trend toward combined milling and refining.

Refining[link]

A video of Sugarcane juice extraction

Sugar refining further purifies the raw sugar. It is first mixed with heavy syrup and then centrifuged in a process called "affination". Its purpose is to wash away the sugar crystals' outer coating, which is less pure than the crystal interior. The remaining sugar is then dissolved to make a syrup, about 60 percent solids by weight.

The sugar solution is clarified by the addition of phosphoric acid and calcium hydroxide, which combine to precipitate calcium phosphate. The calcium phosphate particles entrap some impurities and absorb others, and then float to the top of the tank, where they can be skimmed off. An alternative to this "phosphatation" technique is "carbonatation", which is similar, but uses carbon dioxide and calcium hydroxide to produce a calcium carbonate precipitate.

After filtering any remaining solids, the clarified syrup is decolorized by filtration through activated carbon. Bone char is traditionally used in this role.^[24] Some remaining color-forming impurities adsorb to the carbon. The purified syrup is then concentrated to supersaturation and repeatedly crystallized in a vacuum, to produce white refined sugar. As in a sugar mill, the sugar crystals are separated from the molasses by centrifuging. Additional sugar is recovered by blending the remaining syrup with the washings from affination and again crystallizing to produce brown sugar. When no more sugar can be economically recovered, the final molasses still contains 20–30 percent sucrose and 15–25 percent glucose and fructose.

To produce granulated sugar, in which individual grains do not clump, sugar must be dried, first by heating in a rotary dryer, and then by blowing cool air through it for several days.

Ribbon cane syrup[link]

Ribbon cane is a subtropical type that was once widely grown in the southern United States, as far north as coastal North Carolina. The juice was extracted with horse or mule-powered crushers; the juice was boiled, like maple syrup, in a flat pan, and then used in the syrup form as a food sweetener.^[25] It is not currently a commercial crop, but a few growers find ready sales for their product^{[citation needed]}.

Pollution from sugarcane processing[link]

Particulate matter, combustion products, and volatile organic compounds are the primary pollutants emitted during the sugarcane processing.^[23] Combustion products include nitrogen oxides (NOX), carbon monoxide (CO), CO2, and sulfur oxides (SOX). Potential emission sources include the sugar granulators, sugar conveying and packaging equipment, bulk loadout operations, boilers, granular carbon and char regeneration kilns, regenerated adsorbent transport systems, kilns and handling equipment (at some facilities), carbonation tanks, multi-effect evaporator stations, and vacuum boiling pans. Modern pollution prevention technologies are capable of addressing all of these potential pollutants.

Production[link]

Worldwide sugarcane production^{[not in citation given]} (note: source verification, in February 2012, suggests cane yields above are off by an order of magnitude)

Top ten sugarcane producers — 2009[1]
Country	Production (Tons)	Footnotes
Brazil	672,157,000
India	285,029,000
People's Republic of China	116,251,272
Thailand	66,816,400
Pakistan	50,045,400
Mexico	49,492,700
Colombia	38,500,000	F
Philippines	32,500,000	F
Australia	30,284,000
Argentina	29,000,000	F
World	1,743,068,525	F,A
P = official figure, F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial/Semi-official/mirror data, C = Calculated figure A = Aggregate (may include official, semi-official or estimates); Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Division

Brazil led the world in sugarcane production in 2010 with a 719,157,000 tons harvest.^[1] India was the second largest producer with 277,750,000 tons, and China the third largest producer with 111,454,000 tons harvest.

The average worldwide yield of sugarcane crops in 2010 was 200 tons per hectare.^[1] The most productive farms in the world were in Peru with a nationwide average sugarcane crop yield of 250 tons per hectare.

The theoretical possible yield for sugar cane, according to 1983 study of Duke, is about 280 metric tons per hectare per year, and small experimental plots in Brazil have demonstrated yields of 236-280 metric tons of fresh cane per hectare.^[26][27] The most promising region for high yield sugarcane production were in sun drenched, irrigated farms of northern Africa, and other deserts with plentiful water from river or irrigation canals.

In the United States, sugarcane is grown commercially in Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Texas.^[28]

Brazil uses sugarcane to produce sugar and ethanol for gasoline-ethanol blends (gasohol), a locally popular transportation fuel. In India, sugarcane is used to produce sugar, jaggery and alcoholic beverages.Average yield of sugarcane in pakistan in 2010 was 115tons/ha

Cane ethanol[link]

A fuel pump in Brazil, offering cane ethanol (A) and gasoline (G).

Ethanol is generally available as a byproduct of sugar production. It can be used as a biofuel alternative to gasoline, and is widely used in cars in Brazil. It is an alternative to gasoline, and may become the primary product of sugarcane processing, rather than sugar.

In Brazil, gasoline is required to contain at least 22 percent bioethanol.^[29] This bioethanol is sourced from Brazil's large sugarcane crop.

The production of ethanol from sugar cane is more energy efficient than from corn or sugar beets or palm/vegetable oils, particularly if cane bagasse is used to produce heat and power for the process. Furthermore, if biofuels are used for crop production and transport, the fossil energy input needed for each ethanol energy unit can be very low. EIA estimates that with an integrated sugar cane to ethanol technology, the well-to-wheels CO2 emissions can be 90 percent lower than conventional gasoline.^[29]

A textbook on renewable energy^[30] describes the energy transformation:

Presently, 75 tons of raw sugar cane are produced annually per hectare in Brazil. The cane delivered to the processing plant is called burned and cropped (b&c), and represents 77% of the mass of the raw cane. The reason for this reduction is that the stalks are separated from the leaves (which are burned and whose ashes are left in the field as fertilizer), and from the roots that remain in the ground to sprout for the next crop. Average cane production is, therefore, 58 tons of b&c per hectare per year.

Each ton of b&c yields 740 kg of juice (135 kg of sucrose and 605 kg of water) and 260 kg of moist bagasse (130 kg of dry bagasse). Since the higher heating value of sucrose is 16.5 MJ/kg, and that of the bagasse is 19.2 MJ/kg, the total heating value of a ton of b&c is 4.7 GJ of which 2.2 GJ come from the sucrose and 2.5 from the bagasse.

Per hectare per year, the biomass produced corresponds to 0.27 TJ. This is equivalent to 0.86 W per square meter. Assuming an average insolation of 225 W per square meter, the photosynthetic efficiency of sugar cane is 0.38%.

The 135 kg of sucrose found in 1 ton of b&c are transformed into 70 litres of ethanol with a combustion energy of 1.7 GJ. The practical sucrose-ethanol conversion efficiency is, therefore, 76% (compare with the theoretical 97%).

One hectare of sugar cane yields 4,000 litres of ethanol per year (without any additional energy input, because the bagasse produced exceeds the amount needed to distill the final product). This, however, does not include the energy used in tilling, transportation, and so on. Thus, the solar energy-to-ethanol conversion efficiency is 0.13%.

Bagasse applications[link]

Sugarcane is a major crop in many countries. It is one of the plants with the highest bioconversion efficiency. Sugarcane crop is able to efficiently fix solar energy, yielding some 55 tonnes of dry matter per hectare of land annually. After harvest, the crop produces sugar juice and bagasse, the fibrous dry matter. This dry matter is biomass with potential as fuel for energy production.

Sugarcane bagasse is a potentially abundant source of energy for large producers of sugarcane, countries such as Brazil, India and China. According to one report, with use of latest technologies, bagasse produced annually in Brazil has the potential of meeting 20 percent of Brazil’s energy consumption by 2020.^[31]

Electricity production

A number of countries, in particular those devoid of any fossil fuel, have implemented energy conservation and efficiency measures so as to minimise cogenerated energy (steam and electricity) utilised in cane processing and to export excess electricity to the grid. Current technologies, such as those in use in Mauritius, produce over 100 KWh per tonne of bagasse. With a world harvest of over 1 billion tonnes of sugar cane stock per year, the global potential is over 100,000 GWh.^[32] In Africa alone, a potential for around 10,000 GWh of supplemental electricity exists from this annually renewable resource, if bagasse to electricity plants were installed there and they simply achieved the conversion efficiency already achieved in Mauritius.^[33] This would meet a significant portion of rural electricity needs, and between 1 to 5 percent of overall electricity demand in Africa.

More recent cogeneration technology plants are being designed to produce from 200 to over 300 KWh per tonne of bagasse.^[34][35] Sugarcane crops are seasonal. This requires that the supply of bagasse would peak just after harvest, and plants would need to manage the storage of bagasse.

Natural gas production

An alternate application of bagasse is in producing clean burning fuels.^[31]

Sugarcane as food[link]

Caipirinha, a cocktail made from sugarcane derived Cachaça.

Cane juice^[36]

Freshly squeezed sugarcane juice.
Nutritional value per serving
Serving size	28.35 grams
Energy	111.13 kJ (26.56 kcal)
Carbohydrates	27.51 g
- Sugars	26.98 g
Protein	0.27 g
Calcium	11.23 mg (1%)
Iron	0.37 mg (3%)
Potassium	41.96 mg (1%)
Sodium	17.01 mg (1%)
Nutrient Information from ESHA Research Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Sugarcane juice vendors in Dhaka, Bangladesh

In most countries where sugarcane is cultivated, there are several foods and popular dishes derived directly from it, such as:

• Raw sugarcane: chewed to extract the juice
• Sugarcane juice: a combination of fresh juice, extracted by hand or small mills, with a touch of lemon and ice to make a popular drink, known variously as usacha rass, guarab, guarapa, guarapo, papelón, aseer asab, ganna sharbat, mosto, caldo de cana.
• Cachaça: the most popular distilled alcoholic beverage in Brazil; a liquor made of the distillation of sugarcane
• Jaggery: a solidified molasses, known as gur or gud or gul in India, is traditionally produced by evaporating juice to make a thick sludge, and then cooling and molding it in buckets. Modern production partially freeze dries the juice to reduce caramelization and lighten its color. It is used as sweetener in cooking traditional entrees, sweets and desserts.
• Panela: solid pieces of sucrose and fructose obtained from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice; a food staple in Colombia and other countries in South and Central America
• Molasses: used as a sweetener and a syrup accompanying other foods, such as cheese or cookies
• Rapadura: a sweet flour which is one of the simplest refinings of sugarcane juice, common in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela (where it is known as papelón) and the Caribbean.
• Rum: is a liquor made of the distillation of sugarcane commonly produced in the Caribbean. Rum is more purified than the Brazilian cachaça.
• Falernum: a sweet, and lightly alcoholic drink made from sugarcane juice
• Syrup: a traditional sweetener in soft drinks, now largely supplanted in the US by high fructose corn syrup, which is less expensive because of corn subsidies and sugar tariffs.^{[citation needed]}
• Rock candy: crystallized cane juice
• Sayur nganten: an Indonesian soup made of trubuk stem (Saccharum edule)

See also[link]

• Sugar beet
• Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
• Sugar plantations in Hawaii

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saccharum

Look up sugarcane in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Sucropedia.com, an encyclopedia about sugar production
• Sugar and the Environment from the World Wide Fund for Nature
• CaneInfo from India's National Informatics Centre

Industry organizations:

• Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA)
• National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, Philippines
• The Better Sugar Cane Initiative
• Ethical Sugar, a French NGO

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Joey Stylez (born Joseph Laplante) is an aboriginal Canadian hip hop artist based in Vancouver.

A member of Moosomin First Nation, Stylez was moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at an early age and raised by his single mother. His life in poverty and the oppression he faced plays a major role in his lyrics.^[1] He remains an important figure in the First Nations hip hop scene in western Canada. Stylez is known for his at-times outlandish fashions including colourful sunglasses, headbands, etc.

His debut album The Blackstar was released on November 23, 2009.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.joeystylezmusic.com/
• Official "Sugar Cane ft. Big Sav" Video

Steve Reeves
Steve Reeves with bodybuilder Melissa Palmer
Born	(1926-01-21)January 21, 1926[1] Glasgow, Montana, USA
Died	May 1, 2000(2000-05-01) (aged 74) Escondido, California, USA[1]
Occupation	Athlete, Actor, Philanthropist. Bodybuilder Legend.
Spouse	Sandra Smith (1955–1956) Aline Czartjarwicz[1] (1963–1989) (her death)

Stephen L. Reeves (January 21, 1926 – May 1, 2000^[1]) was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.^[2]

Childhood[link]

Born in Glasgow, Montana,^[2] Steve Reeves moved to California at age 10 with his mother Goldie Reeves, after his father Lester Dell Reeves died in a farming accident.^[1] Reeves developed an interest in bodybuilding in high school and trained at Ed Yarick's gym in Oakland. By the time he was 17, he had developed a Herculean physique, long before the general interest in bodybuilding. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army during World War II, and served in the Pacific.

Acting[link]

After his military service, Reeves invested in an acting career. In 1954 he had a small role in his first major motion picture, the musical Athena^[1] playing the boyfriend of Jane Powell's character. The same year Reeves had a small role as a cop in the Ed Wood film Jail Bait. These two films are the only ones Reeves made where his own voice was used — for the remainder of his career, Reeves acted in Italian-made films where all dialogue and sound effects were added in post-production.

On December 17, 1954, Reeves guest starred in the ABC sitcom with a variety show theme, The Ray Bolger Show. Ray Bolger portrayed Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man repeatedly barely on time for his performances. Reeves played a well-built office employee whom Wallace sees in the company of Wallace's girlfriend, Susan, played by Marjie Millar. Others on the series were Richard Erdman, Allyn Joslyn, Betty Lynn, Sylvia Lewis, Gloria Winters, and Verna Felton.^[3]

In 1957, Reeves went to Italy and played the lead character in Pietro Francisci's Hercules, a relatively low-budget epic based loosely on the tales of Jason and the Argonauts, though inserting Hercules into the lead role.^[1] The film was a major box-office success, grossing $5m in the United States alone in 1959.^[4] Its commercial success led to a 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained.

From 1959 through 1964, Reeves went on to appear in a string of sword and sandal movies shot on relatively small budgets,^[1] and although he is best known for his portrayal of Hercules, he played the character only twice: in the 1958 film and its 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained (released in the US in 1960). He played a number of other characters on screen, including Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Glaucus of Pompeii; Goliath, the bane of the barbarians (actually called Emiliano in the Italian version); Tatar hero Hadji Murad; Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome (opposite Gordon Scott as his twin brother Remus); Pheidippides, the famous war-time messenger of the Battle of Marathon; pirate and self-proclaimed governor of Jamaica, Captain Henry Morgan; and Karim, the fabled Thief of Baghdad. Twice he played Aeneas of Troy and twice he played Emilio Salgari's Malaysian hero, Sandokan.

After the box office success of Hercules, Reeves turned down the role that finally went to Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) because he could not believe that "Italians could make a western".^[2] He also claimed to have turned down the James Bond role in Dr. No (1962).^[2] Mr. Reeves mentions in an interview that he was offered only $100,000 to play Secret Agent 007, whereas he was earning $250,000 per film in Italy, and as such was tied with Sophia Loren as the highest paid actor in Europe at the time; thus he turned down the role of James Bond to continue making pepla in Italy.

During the filming of The Last Days of Pompeii, Reeves dislocated his shoulder when his chariot slammed into a tree.^[1][2] Swimming in a subsequent underwater escape scene, he re-injured his shoulder. The injury would be aggravated by his stunt work in each successive film, ultimately leading to his retirement from filmmaking and weightlifting.^[1]

In 1968 Reeves appeared in his final film, a spaghetti western that imitated the Sergio Leone epics, which he also co-wrote, titled I Live For Your Death! (later released as A Long Ride From Hell).^[1] His last screen appearance was in 2000 when he appeared as himself in the made-for-television A&E Biography: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Flex Appeal.

In July 1997, Steve was interviewed by freelance writer, Rod Labbe. Entitled "Demi-god on Horseback," it ran as the cover story in "Films of the Golden Age" magazine #65, dated Summer 2011.

Death[link]

Later in his life, Reeves promoted drug-free bodybuilding and bred horses.^[1][2] The last two decades of his life were spent in Valley Center, California, near Escondido. He bought a ranch with his savings and lived there with his second wife Aline until her death in 1989.^[1][2] On May 1, 2000, Reeves died from complications of lymphoma.^[1][2]

Filmography in chronological order[link]

Films are listed in order of production, by their American theatrical release titles; translation of the original Italian titles are in parentheses following the date....

• Athena (1954) Hollywood film directed by Richard Thorpe
• Jail Bait (1954) Hollywood film directed by Ed Wood
• Hercules (1958) (The Labors of Hercules) released in USA 1959
• Hercules Unchained (1959) (Hercules and the Queen of Lydia) released in USA 1960
• Goliath and the Barbarians (1959) (Terror of the Barbarians)
• The Giant of Marathon (1959) (The Battle of Marathon)
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) (The Last Days of Pompeii)
• The White Warrior (1959) (Hadji Murad, The White Devil) directed by Riccardo Freda
• Morgan, the Pirate (1960) (Morgan, the Pirate)
• The Thief of Baghdad (1960) (The Thief of Baghdad)
• The Trojan Horse (1961) (The Trojan War)
• Duel of the Titans (1961) (Romulus And Remus)
• The Slave (1962) (Son of Spartacus)
• The Avenger (1962) (The Legend Of Aeneas) a.k.a. The Last Glory of Troy (sequel to "The Trojan Horse" (1961))
• Sandokan the Great (1964) (Sandokan, the Tiger of Mompracem) directed by Umberto Lenzi
• Sandokan, the Pirate of Malaysia (1964) (The Pirates of Malaysia) a.k.a. Pirates of the Seven Seas, directed by Umberto Lenzi
• A Long Ride from Hell (1967) (I Live for Your Death) directed by Camillo Brazzoni, produced and co-written by Steve Reeves

Reference in other Films[link]

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Lyrics to "Sweet Transvestite" performed by Tim Curry.

See also[link]

• List of male professional bodybuilders

References[link]

• Chapman, David. "On The Cover: Steve Reeves", Hardgainer, November 1992.

External links[link]

• An Interview with Steve Reeves by Roy Frumkes, from The Perfect Vision Magazine, Volume 6, Issue #22, July 1994
• How Steve Reeves Trained by John Grimek, Muscular Development November 1964, account of how Reeves trained to prepare for the 1950 Mr. Universe competition at the York Barbell Club gym
• http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/hercules.html
• Steve Reeves at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve Reeves at the Internet Broadway Database
• Steve Reeves at Find a Grave
• Feature Films: Hercules
• Feature Films: Hercules Unchained
• Steve Reeves Gallery

Missy Higgins
Missy Higgins, Majestic Theater, Madison, Wisconsin, 10 July 2008
Background information
Birth name	Melissa Morrison Higgins
Born	(1983-08-19) 19 August 1983 (age 28)
Origin	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genres	Alternative, Indie, Acoustic
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, piano, synthesiser, guitar, melodica, xylophone
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Eleven Reprise Warner Bros.
Website	missyhiggins.com
Notable instruments
Roland RD-700, Maton

Melissa "Missy" Morrison Higgins (born 19 August 1983) is an Australian pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress. Her No. 1 albums in Australia are The Sound of White (2004) and On a Clear Night (2007), and her Top Ten singles are "Scar", "The Special Two", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". From a musical family in Melbourne, she played piano by age six and sang at twelve. While boarding at Geelong Grammar School, she wrote a song for an assignment which was then entered into the national Unearthed radio competition for unsigned artists. Higgins won and signed recording contracts with Eleven and Warner Bros. After taking time off, backpacking in Europe, she recorded her first album The Sound of White, which was released in 2004. The album, and its first single, "Scar" both went to No. 1 on the relevant Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Charts. Its second single, "The Special Two", went to No. 2. Higgins was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards that year and won 'Best Pop Release' for "Scar". In 2005 she was nominated for seven more awards and won five. She won her seventh ARIA in 2007.

In 2006, Higgins wrote new material for her second album, and following a US tour she recorded On a Clear Night, which gave her another No. 1 single with "Steer". Higgins has conducted several well received Australian tours and performed at high-profile charity events WaveAid (2005) and Live Earth (2007). She has toured internationally and lived and worked in the United States for ten months in 2008. Her song "Where I Stood" has been used in television shows including Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill, Lipstick Jungle and So You Think You Can Dance while her song "Warm Whispers" was used in Ghost Whisperer. Her third album, The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, is due to be released in June 2012.

Alongside her music career, Higgins pursues interests in animal rights and the environment, endeavouring to make her tours carbon neutral. She is also the patron of One in Five, an Australian mental health charity. In 2007, following years of press speculation about her sexual orientation, she came out as bisexual, saying that she prefers interviewers to focus on her music. In 2010 she made her acting debut in feature Bran Nue Dae, and performed on the related soundtrack.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Melissa "Missy" Morrison Higgins was born 19 August 1983 in Melbourne, Victoria to Christopher Higgins, an English-Australian general practitioner, and Margaret (née Morrison), an Australian childcare centre operator.^[1][2] Her sister, Nicola is seven years older, and brother, David is six years older.^[2] She learned to play classical piano from age six, following in the footsteps of Christopher and David, but realised she wanted to be a singer at about 12 when she appeared in an Armadale Primary School production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.^[3] Bored with practice, she gave up playing piano at that time.^[4] Hoping for more freedom, she urged her parents to send her to Geelong Grammar School, an independent boarding school attended by her siblings. At Geelong she took up the piano again, this time playing jazz including performing with David's group on weekends.^[5] She was introverted and found that piano practice helped her cope with living at boarding school.^[4]

At 15, she wrote "All for Believing" for a school music assignment and completed it just hours before the deadline.^[6] The assignment earned an A and she performed her song in front of classmates. She approached a Melbourne record company and was told that they wanted more than one song.^[4] She wrote more songs and worked with the Kool Skools project, which enables students to record music.^[7] In 2001, Nicola entered "All for Believing" on Higgins' behalf into Unearthed, radio station Triple J's competition for unsigned artists. The song won the competition and was added to the station's play list.^[8] Two record companies showed an interest in Higgins—Sony and Eleven.^[4] She signed with Eleven, partly because they agreed that she would not be "made into a pop star"^[9] and partly because they were happy for her to take time off for backpacking.^[4] Her manager is Eleven's John Watson, who also manages rock band Silverchair.^[1] He later said "Missy's the only time in my career I knew after 90 seconds I really wanted to sign her."^[10] The backpacking trip had been planned with a friend for years and they spent most of 2002 in Europe; while she was travelling, "All for Believing" started to be played by Los Angeles radio station KCRW.^[11] This brought attention from US record labels and, by year's end, an international recording deal with Warner Bros.^[12]

[edit] 2003–2005: The Sound of White

Higgins, San Francisco, United States, 11 August 2005
Courtesy Nabeel Hyatt

Higgins was the support act on a 2003 Australian tour by folk rock band The Waifs and rock band george.^[12] She travelled to the US to work with producer, John Porter, and recorded her first extended play (EP) entitled Missy Higgins,^[13] which was released in November and entered the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Singles Chart Top 50 in August 2004.^[14]

She toured Australia, supporting both Pete Murray and The John Butler Trio.^[15] Her second four-track EP Scar was released in July.^[16] The title track "Scar", co-written with US songwriter, Kevin Griffin, debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Charts.^[14][17] Her first album, The Sound of White, was released in September, and debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart.^[14] Also produced by Porter, it sold over 500,000 copies.^[18] She was nominated in five categories at the ARIA Music Awards of 2004 for "Scar": Best Female Artist', 'Single of the Year', 'Best Pop Release', 'Breakthrough Artist – Single' and 'Best Video' (directed by Squareyed Films).^[19] At the awards ceremony on 17 October she received the award for Best Pop Release, beating Delta Goodrem, The Dissociatives, Kylie Minogue and Pete Murray.^[19] This was followed by her first national headline tour.^[20] Her second single "Ten Days" was co-written with Jay Clifford (guitarist in US band Jump, Little Children) and was inspired by Higgins' 2002 break-up with her boyfriend before she travelled to Europe.^[21] Released in November, it peaked at No. 12.^[14]

On 29 January 2005 Higgins performed with other local musicians including Nick Cave and Powderfinger at the WaveAid fundraising concert in the Sydney Cricket Ground.^[22] The concert raised A$2.3 million for four charities supporting the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.^[23] In March Higgins performed at the MTV Australia Awards and won the prize for 'Breakthrough Artist of the Year'.^[24] The following month she released her third single, "The Special Two", which was a radio hit and reached No. 2.^[14] "The Special Two" was released on an EP which included her cover of the Skyhooks song, "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good In Bed", recorded for Triple J's 30th anniversary. The song had been the first track played on Triple J when it launched (as Double J) in 1975.^[25] In May, Higgins won the 'Song of the Year' and 'Breakthrough' awards for "Scar" from the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).^[26] She continued touring in mid-2005 and released her fourth single, "The Sound of White", in August.^[14] In September she played a sold out performance at the Vanguard in Sydney with the proceeds going to One in Five, her sponsored mental health charity.^[27] She was nominated for seven more ARIAs and in October won 'Album of the Year', 'Best Pop Release', 'Breakthrough Artist – Album' and 'Highest Selling Album' (all for The Sound of White) and 'Best Female Artist' (for "Scar").^[28] She teamed up with fellow ARIA award-winning singer Ben Lee in late 2005 for a national tour.^[29]

[edit] 2006–2009: On a Clear Night

Higgins, Live Earth concert, Sydney, 7 July 2007
Courtesy Itapp

During 2006, Higgins lived in Broome, Western Australia for six months, away from the entertainment industry. The relaxed lifestyle helped her focus on writing new material.^[30] The landscape made a big impression, "It was the first place I'd ever felt honestly connected with my country, with the physical land of my country" and inspired her to write "Going North".^[31] She then toured the United States and South Africa, writing more material on the road.^[32] In September she based herself in Los Angeles to record her second album, On a Clear Night, with producer Mitchell Froom.^[33][34] "Steer" was released as an EP, followed a fortnight later by its album on 28 April 2007, both debuted at No. 1 on their respective charts.^[14]

In February, Higgins had contributed a tribute song to the album, Cannot Buy My Soul, for noted indigenous singer, Kev Carmody, singing "Droving Woman" with musician Paul Kelly and group Augie March.^[35] On 7 July, she participated in the Live Earth concert in Sydney, performing her own set before joining Carmody, Kelly and vocalist John Butler on stage for the song "From Little Things Big Things Grow".^[36] Emily Dunn in The Sydney Morning Herald wrote "[the song] could have been the event's anthem".^[37] Rolling Stone's Dan Lander pointed out a highlight, when the "whole crowd sung along – all eleven verses."^[38]

Higgins returned to Los Angeles to focus on the US market—she spent September and October touring—where she was still relatively unknown.^[39] On 26 October, backed by the Sydney Youth Orchestra, she headlined the annual Legs 11 concert, a breast cancer benefit held in The Domain, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.^[40] Two days later Higgins performed at the 2007 ARIAs where she was nominated for 'Best Pop Release', 'Highest Selling Album' and 'Highest Selling Single' (for "Steer") and won 'Best Female Artist' (for On a Clear Night)—her seventh ARIA Music Award.^[41] On 31 October, she was a guest at television music channel MAX's inaugural Concert for the Cure, a private concert for people affected by breast cancer. She sang headline act Powderfinger's "Sunsets" with front man Bernard Fanning and joined in with the encore of "These Days".^[42][43] She spent November and December on her For One Night Only Tour, taking in Cairns, Sydney and Perth. You Am I lead singer, Tim Rogers, joined her on some shows.^[44]

On a Clear Night, was released in the US on 26 February 2008, supported by a tour in March. Her ten-month stay in Los Angeles during 2008 promoted her songs for films and television shows.^[33][45] Her first US single "Where I Stood" was featured in US series including Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill and So You Think You Can Dance.^[46] During 2008, Higgins supported the Indigo Girls and then Ben Folds on their respective US tours.^[47] February and March 2009 saw her co-headlining a US tour with Canadian Justin Nozuka.^[48] On 31 March she released an EP, More Than This in Australia featuring cover versions of "More Than This" by Roxy Music, "(I'm) In Love Again" by Peggy Lee, "Breakdown" by Tom Petty and "Moses" by Patty Griffin.^[49] "Moses" had been included on Triple J's 2005 compilation album Like a Version: Volume One and "More Than This" was recorded as part of Covered, A Revolution in Sound, a Warner Bros. tribute album also released in March 2009.^[50]

[edit] 2010–present: The Ol' Razzle Dazzle

Higgins started writing music for her third album in 2009.^[51] After about seven years of touring and recording she took a break from the music industry to pursue other interests.^[52] In 2010 she enrolled in a course in indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne.^[53] Her acting debut was as Annie in 2010 film Bran Nue Dae directed by Rachel Perkins. The film is an adaptation of the 1990 musical, Bran Nue Dae, "Australia's first Aboriginal musical".^[54] Although Higgins would consider future acting projects she has no plans to actively pursue it as a career.^[51][55]

In July and August 2010, Higgins played several dates of Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair tour in the US.^[56][57] At Lilith Fair, she met Australian musician Butterfly Boucher and they decided to work together. In 2011, Higgins travelled to where Boucher was living in Nashville to record her third album, which is co-produced by Boucher and Brad Jones.^[58] Titled The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, the album is due for release on 1 June 2012.^[59] Its first single, "Unashamed Desire", co-written with Boucher, was released on 23 April.^[60] In November 2011, at the ARIA Music Awards, Higgins performed a duet with Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.^[61]

Personal life[link]

As a vegetarian, Higgins promoted the health benefits of not eating meat in a 2005 advertising campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA);^[62] and has supported their anti-fur stance.^[45] She is interested in environmental issues and is involved with the Sierra Club, a grassroots organisation based in California.^[45] She has protested against the proposed industrialisation of the Kimberley region of Western Australia and donated the royalties from her 2009 EP More Than This.^[49] Since early 2007, Higgins has tried to make her tours carbon neutral, she purchases green energy to power venues, uses hybrid cars where possible and purchases carbon offsets.^[63]

From 2004 to 2007, Higgins' sexual orientation was the subject of media speculation based partly on interpretations of her lyrics and her interviews.^[A] In an October 2007 interview with Australian lesbian magazine Cherrie, she was asked if she fell under the moniker of "not-so-straight" girls. She replied "Um, yeah, definitely. ... I think sexuality is a fluid thing and it's becoming increasingly more acceptable to admit that you're that way."^[64] In November her MySpace page reported, "I’ve been in relationships with both men and women so I guess I fall most easily under the category 'Bisexual'".^[65] She went on to say that she wanted future interviews to focus on her music rather than her sexuality. In a March 2008 interview with AfterEllen.com, Higgins said that her song "Secret" was written about an ex-girlfriend who was not comfortable, at first, about going public with their relationship; "I was so head over heels in love with her I kind of wanted to shout it out to the world, so it was just a song about keeping something under the covers ... keeping it away locked in a little room."^[66]

Higgins has been a patron of Australian mental health charity One in Five since 2003.^[67] She described her younger self as "a bit of a depressed child" and "introverted", and that she had "experienced various degrees of depression".^[13][68] Prescribed antidepressant medication while in high school, she learned to channel low moods into song writing, calling music her "emotional outlet".^[2][69] In a 2006 interview she said that her songs were "coming from more of a happier place".^[70] While recording her second album she discovered a passion for rock climbing, as a "meditative pursuit"^[71] and that, "It's the first thing I've had—other than music—that I'm passionate about."^[69]

Musical influences and technique[link]

Higgins grew up in the 1980s and 1990s listening to artists that her older siblings liked—Nicola played Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, while David favoured Queen and Kiss.^[69][72] Departing for boarding school at age 13, she was exposed to alternative artists like Nirvana and Courtney Love and started teaching herself guitar and writing her own music.^[72] She also began singing with David's jazz group on weekends. As an adult she prefers Nina Simone and Ray Charles to "poppy dance music".^[72] She has cited Patty Griffin, Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright, Paul Kelly and Sarah McLachlan as influences.^[4][51][73] Material from her yet-to-be-released third album is influenced by ambient music from Low, Jon Hopkins, Icelandic band Sigur Rós and Estonian classical composer Arvo Pärt.^[51]

Higgins' song writing grew out of a desire to express her emotions when she was at school and her lyrics describe her feelings about her own life and relationships.^[74][75] The piano was the first instrument she learned to play, and she continues to use it as well as digital pianos including a Roland RD-300SX, RD-700 and KR-15.^[76][77] She also uses guitars extensively in her music particularly when touring, due to their portable nature and favours the Australian brand, Maton.^[77] On occasion she plays xylophone and melodica during performances.^[31][78]

Discography[link]

	Book: Missy Higgins
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• 2004: The Sound of White
• 2007: On a Clear Night
• 2012: The Ol' Razzle Dazzle

Filmography[link]

• 2010: Bran Nue Dae as Annie

Awards[link]

Higgins has won seven ARIA Music Awards from nineteen nominations.^[79] She has won two APRA Awards for songwriting and an MTV Australia Video Music Award.^[24][26]

• 2004 ARIA Awards, Best Pop Release for "Scar"
• 2005 MTV Australia Video Music Awards, Breakthrough Artist of the Year
• 2005 APRA Awards, Breakthrough Award for "Scar"
• 2005 APRA Awards, Song of the Year for "Scar"
• 2005 ARIA Awards, Breakthrough Artist – Album for The Sound of White
• 2005 ARIA Awards, Best Pop Release for The Sound of White
• 2005 ARIA Awards, Highest Selling Album for The Sound of White
• 2005 ARIA Awards, Best Female Artist for The Sound of White
• 2005 ARIA Awards, Album of the Year for The Sound of White
• 2007 ARIA Awards, Best Female Artist for On a Clear Night

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Missy Higgins

• Official website
• Missy Higgins discography at MusicBrainz