[IWE] 'Live by the corn syrup, die by the corn syrup'

[Ashton Brown]

Love. It.

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/02/20/high_fructose_corn_syrup/index.html?source=newsletter

> Last week, Coca-Cola announced losses of $1.71 billion in the fourth 
> quarter of 2006, 
> <http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10009073.shtml> 
> and said the company plans to cut 3,500 workers from its payroll. One 
> of the main reasons: rising prices for both the aluminum that goes 
> into its cans and the high-fructose corn syrup that sweetens its soda.
>
> Relief on the aluminum front may already be on the way. Although the 
> cost of aluminum has been surging for years, largely owing to 
> voracious Chinese consumption, since May 2006 prices have begun to 
> drop, <http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/18/bloomberg/sxasia.php> 
> partly as a result of a huge ramp-up in domestic Chinese production.
>
> But the corn syrup situation is a bit stickier. Corn syrup prices have 
> spiked upward because of the diversion of corn into ethanol 
> production. Given the Bush administration's continued emphasis on 
> boosting ethanol consumption, the days of dirt-cheap corn syrup may 
> not soon return.
>
> Add the woes of soda pop makers to the food vs. fuel debate. 
> <http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2006/11/28/food_and_fuel/index.html> 
> Coca-Cola joins the cattle industry, chicken and pig farmers, and 
> Mexican tortilla consumers in a consortium that is giving ethanol the 
> evil eye. But even if you don't believe 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/business/yourmoney/02syrup.html?ex=1309492800&en=49fdce8d3bd886c5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss> 
> <*http://tinyurl.com/2aks93*> that consumption of high-fructose corn 
> syrup is linked to obesity <http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/79/4/537> 
> <http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/79/4/537> and diabetes and is the 
> unnatural child of corn lobby Satanic forces, one has to wonder 
> whether rising costs for the highly processed sweetener are such a bad 
> thing. If it weren't for the system of sugar subsidies and tariffs 
> that prop up the price of sugar in the United States, there would be 
> plenty of cheap sugar imports to replace all that corn syrup. And 
> eliminating those artificial restrictions on the sugar market would be 
> a boon to farmers of developing nations in the South who desperately 
> need markets for their harvests, if not for the waistlines of those 
> who continue to guzzle non-diet soda beverages.
>
> In a perfect world, our biofuels would be coming from sustainably 
> harvested switchgrass and we'd all be drinking organic fruit juice 
> grown from trees in our backyards. We've got a ways to go on that 
> front. But if the corn-based ethanol gold rush helps break down the 
> agricultural subsidies that work against the interests of the world's 
> poorest farmers, maybe there's a reason to cheer those ethanol 
> prospectors on.
>
> -- Andrew Leonard
>