In america if you want to grow corn, the goverment writes you a check, free money, because you are growing corn.
Due to this, corn is effecitvely very very cheap (ignoring of course that you pay for it through your income taxes)
So modern science invented some really efficient to grow corn, resistant to bugs and pesticides. The trick is you can’t eat it.
But you can make corn syrup out of it. And then add corn syrup to everything, coke, bread, hot dogs, and so on.
But we want to sell still more corn to take advantage of the free money, so we start feeding it to cows. It makes the cows fat FAST. So it makes beef cheaper…but also worse for you, it is also bad for the cows.
But still more corn needed to be sold, so the corn industry lobbied that it be made a LAW that our gasoline have 10% ethanol in it. (and thereby making our cars slightly less powerful, and slightly worse MPG too!) All this despite the total net energy gain on ethanol is approximately 0, and that the whole procedure is only profitable becuse you get free tax dollars to grow corn.
So, how do you feel about this?
I don’t like it. Its pretty tough to go shopping and not buy any corn syrup though.
“EL CAMPO, Tex. – Even though Donald R. Matthews put his sprawling new residence in the heart of rice country, he is no farmer. He is a 67-year-old asphalt contractor who wanted to build a dream house for his wife of 40 years.
Yet under a federal agriculture program approved by Congress, his 18-acre suburban lot receives about $1,300 in annual “direct payments,” because years ago the land was used to grow rice.
Matthews is not alone. Nationwide, the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Washington Post.”
Just more government welfare.
Against it. I would be for a farm subsidy that encouraged farmers to diversify their crops and animals, much like what was suggested in the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” Our current farm subsidy policy is a disaster.
The worst is that it’s just plain extra calories. Sucrose (table sugar) is broken into glucose and fructose, then used for energy by the body. Weight gain and excessive sugar consumption often lead to impaired glucose tolerance… type 2 diabetes. Massive healthcare debacle in our country.
Some contend that HFCS (55 + percent fructose, as opposed to table sugar being 50%) is metabolized differently by the body, and winds up as fat more easily. I’m not current on the research there. For my money, HFCS is bad b/c it’s cheap calories with no redeeming nutritional value. It’s damn near impossible to not eat it these days.
If sounds more like a problem with a person eating too much rather than a breakdown of the particular sugar. I don’t understand the demonization of corn syrup. It is just a product used to make something sweet that is cheaper than cane sugar. Is there something mysteriously dangerous about this sugar?
But we want to sell still more corn to take advantage of the free money, so we start feeding it to cows. It makes the cows fat FAST. So it makes beef cheaper…but also worse for you,** it is also bad for the cows.**
Funny, I thought it was that bullet to the head that was so bad for them.
Corn syrup is put in/on things that have no business being sweet. Humans like sweet, and will eat more of it. A little clever use of this knowledge coupled with society’s propensity for laziness and we’ll be watching that Biggest Loser show for the next 300 years!
If there were no HFCS, the higher cost of cane sugar would result in less added sweeteners. Better for us overall. Man, I could go on for hours, but it’s time for bed. Suffice to say, eating a bunch of sugar is the culprit- HFCS facilitates that, but likely isn’t any worse that Dixie Crystals per comparable amount.
I see your point but it seems to me if you are going to reach for a bottle of gatorade, you are going to do it whether it is sweetened with HFCS or cane sugar.
I’d rather not have them, but because of farm subsidies our country has the capacity to feed its people in the event of a crisis. Please tell me another way to guarantee this.