The last sugar beet factory in California is closing after almost 80 years in business. The Spreckels Sugar Company factory in Brawley in the Imperial Valley has already begun the closure process that will soon lead to the loss of 700 local jobs. The Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, which owns and runs the factory, said it could no longer keep up with declining sugar prices as well as post-pandemic inflationary pressures. The factory was the last of its kind in the state that turned the root sugar beet into sugar, and marks the latest of a series of companies...