成人快手

A million tonnes of sugar is produced each year in the UK from home grown sugar beet. Charlotte Smith joins the harvest or the 'beet campaign' as it is known at a 1,400 acre farm in Nottinghamshire. Contractors are working in the field to bring in the sugar beets, which look a little like a large turnip, before the crop is taken to the nearby British Sugar factory in Newark.

The bulk of the beets grown in the UK are used to make sugar but its bi-products are used many other products. These included a bio fuel which is added to petrol, clothing and makeup. Belinda Townsend from the UK's National Centre for Sugar Beet Research, Rothamstead Research Brooms Barn talks about the crops versatility.

Anna Hill is given rare access to one of the four British Sugar factories at Wissington in Norfolk. The site is processing sugar 24 hours a day for 6 months of the year.

At the moment the European Union imposes quotas limiting the amount of sugar which can be processed. The EU is considering dropping these quotas in five years time. In theory, that could mean that British farmers would be able to produce as much sugar beet as they wanted. The National Farmers Union explains its concerns over the plans saying the industry would need time to adjust and sugar prices for consumers could go up.

On the Trent Valley farm, Charlotte Smith talks to farmer James Fisher as he watches the harvesting process in action, she samples the raw sweet vegetable in the farmhouse kitchen and talks to horse owners at the farm's livery stables as they feed sugar beet bi-products to the animals.

Presenter: Charlotte Smith; Produced in Birmingham by Angela Frain.