The average sugar beet weighs 2 lbs. and contains 5 oz. of sugar. It takes 40 2 lb. beets to make a 10 lb. bag of sugar. Sugar has 15 calories per teaspoon. Sugar generates $20 billion in economic activity for the U.S. Over 1 ton of sugar is produced per minute. 120 countries produce sugar. Sugar prices in the US are lower today than 30 yrs ago, yet the price of a candy bar has increased 300% over that time. Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative tare lab analyzes up to 55,000 sugar beet samples per harvest. MDFC processes up to 12,000 tons of beets per day and produces 3,500,000 pounds of sugar per day.