Plants produce sugar and oxygen in a process called photosynthesis, by using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. This is an important process on Earth, since it removes carbon dioxide from the air and provides food for us. Photosynthesis happens in small compartments within the plant cells, called chloroplasts. In a two-step process, plants obtain chemical energy from sunlight. The collected energy is used in a second reaction to produce the sugar glucose. Glucose is combined with fructose, which is fruit sugar, to create sucrose, our well-known table sugar. Sugar beets take ~7 months to grow and provide ~32% of the world’s table sugar production. As they grow, they must be protected from weeds and diseases. Once they have grown sufficiently, the sugar beets can be harvested and processed in a sugar factory to obtain table sugar.