Wholesome Sweeteners

Wholesome Sweetners believes in promoting traditional, artisanal production methods which have a minimal environmental footprint. Founded in 1995 in Sugar Land, Texas Wholesome has pioneered the Fair Trade movement in this historically unconscionable industry. They focus their production in the tropics, where the climate and conditions are perfectly suited for growing sugarcane. Their products carry both Fair Trade^TM and Organic certification.

The Fair Trade certification tells consumers that a fair premium price is paid to the farmers’ cooperatives. The cooperatives which are made up of the farms are paid directly with no middlemen. Additionally loans are made available to the cooperatives.

The USDA Organic certification promise that the products have been grown and milled without the aid of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or chemicals.

Wholesome’s cane fields are never burned. During the harvest, trimmings are allowed to stay where they fall, decomposing naturally, returning nutrients to the soil, helping protect topsoil and ground water and providing habitat for wildlife. At the small mills in Costa Rica, Malawi and Paraguay, their sweeteners are made simply and the spent sugar cane, called /bagasse/, is often recycled as fuel to generate electricity for the mill and nearby villages.