Not because higher gas prices will spur people to walk or ride bicycles instead of driving. No, I’m thinking it might work like this:
– Notwithstanding the recent drop, high oil prices have driven a demand for ethanol made from corn.
– Accordingly, the price of corn is rising fast, with July contracts at $4/bushel, about 60 percent higher than last summer.
– With corn so much more expensive, food manufacturers who use corn in so many forms in so many foods will look for substitutes. As the writer Michael Pollan puts it, “Corn is the keystone species of the industrial food system… If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food, as 99 percent of Americans do, what you are is corn.”
– Because corn was so cheap for so long, high-fructose corn syrup has become a common substitute for cane sugar. Pollan and others have argued that corn syrup is a great contributor to national obesity.
– Already, one boutique soda company has trumpeted its return to using cane sugar instead of corn syrup. “It’s better for you, it’s better-tasting and, overall, it’s better for the environment,” says the CEO of Jones Soda.
So, as higher oil prices continue to drive demand for corn-based ethanol, which drives the price of corn higher, which makes cheap corn syrup more expensive, which leads food manufacturers to seek out potentially less fattening sweeteners, will Americans get skinnier?
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It’s interesting to notice the taste difference between cane sugar and corn syrup sodas. In Australia there is a huge cane sugar industry so that sweetener is used in soda, here in the States of course we use corn syrup.
Can’t say that sugar does it for me overall but if I were to choose I’d have to say Aussie soda tasted better.
Maybe Jones Soda is on to something?
It’s interesting to notice the taste difference between cane sugar and corn syrup sodas. In Australia there is a huge cane sugar industry so that sweetener is used in soda, here in the States of course we use corn syrup.
Can’t say that sugar does it for me overall but if I were to choose I’d have to say Aussie soda tasted better.
Maybe Jones Soda is on to something?
No. Americans will continue to suffer obesity and many others on the other side of the globe will become skinnier.
No. Americans will continue to suffer obesity and many others on the other side of the globe will become skinnier.
Corn subsidies and sugar import tariffs both contribute to the usage of high fructose corn syrup in lieu of cane sugar. It would be nice to see some of the tariffs dropped to further encourage the replacement of HFCS to see if a noticeable drop in obesity can be observed.
Corn subsidies and sugar import tariffs both contribute to the usage of high fructose corn syrup in lieu of cane sugar. It would be nice to see some of the tariffs dropped to further encourage the replacement of HFCS to see if a noticeable drop in obesity can be observed.
The current demonization of all things corn syrup is very amusing. I remember a time, in the 60′s, when cane sugar was the big evil. It was the major cause of the drain of swamps for cropland. And it was made into that evil of all evils, processed sugars.
And we were assured, corn was brought to us by the New World and the American Indian. Clearly and demonstrably more politically correct. At least, back then.
The current demonization of all things corn syrup is very amusing. I remember a time, in the 60′s, when cane sugar was the big evil. It was the major cause of the drain of swamps for cropland. And it was made into that evil of all evils, processed sugars.
And we were assured, corn was brought to us by the New World and the American Indian. Clearly and demonstrably more politically correct. At least, back then.