Food - Drink
Most Of The World's Sorghum Comes From This Country
By MELISSA CORBIN
Sorghum is an ancient grain with origins tracing back to 8000 B.C. near the Egyptian-Sudanese border. The grain arrived in America by the 1700s via the trans-Atlantic slave trade and became known as “guinea” corn; African-Americans made everything from it, like using it in baked goods, making brooms with it, and even feeding it to chickens.
Americans have a long history of using sorghum as a sweetener, especially when sugar cane became scarce during the Civil War. Primarily grown within the American Sorghum Belt extending from South Dakota to South Texas, today, the United States is the world’s largest producer of sorghum, with 373 million bushels produced in 2020.
U.S. farmers raise the crop to be used in many applications, from cereal to biomass to syrup. Also called Milo, sorghum is non-GMO and gluten free, making it ideal for those with gluten sensitivities or celiac disease, and per WebMD, it packs a nutritional punch with 5 grams of protein and 12% of the daily recommended value of iron.