Actually, sugar cane is still harvested this way, alhtough there are safety guards and "off" swithches now. It's still backbreaking labour to cut, especially in places where they "fire" the cane to get the sap rising just before cutting. Sugar made from beet is harvested and processed in a more civilised manner- if only becasue it's a temperate, not tropical crop.

And to think that Napoleon tried to create a sugar beet industry based on plantations within Europe...because Britain had cut him off from the cane.....