California’s last sugar beet harvest may be happening right now. The Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, which owns the historic Spreckels Sugar Company factory in Imperial Valley, announced this spring that it will shut the doors on the 78-year-old plant.
That closure doesn’t just end a crop, it ends an era. The Imperial Valley facility is the last of its kind in the state, and with its shutdown, California sugar beet farming may disappear for good.
More than 700 local jobs gone, another hit to Southern California’s working families. A factory that once fueled an industry will now sit silent, leaving behind generations of history and a community scrambling for answers
