If consumers rebel against high fructose corn syrup, what do you think will be the economic results for corn farming? Are beet and cane sugars more or less expensive to raise than corn? Which crop is the least caustic to the soil?

I don’t know any of the details… but…

My understanding is that U.S. government subsidizes the corn industry so much that it’s not economically feasible for sugar cane manufacturers to compete as a food additive.

Why the corn industry gets so much traction at the expense of other farmers, I have no idea.

In other countries where no such subsidy exists, cane sugar as a natural sweetener is much more prevalent in use. Hence why you can buy Coca-Cola made in Mexico that uses real cane sugar instead of HFCS.

@robmandu: Like you, I don’t know the details either but I don’t like the idea of subsidies. I’d like to see the most healthy products (environmentally and human) be the ones that support themselves and grow to legitimately anchor or bolster the farming economy.

I don’t know the answer, but in response to your link: they use sugar instead of corn syrup in most of Europe (at least from what I can tell from the Coke, etc that I drank over there, particularly the UK) and seriously, the stuff just tastes better.

According to what I have been reading lately, we have to worry about a completely different problem with corn. As it rises in favor for an alternative fuel, the food industry will be taking a big hit, because it is already becoming too expensive to eat.

In my opinion, corn as a fuel alternative won’t ever go far. It has a terrible energy yield when compared to other sources, like sugar cane.

I’d even go so far as to say that if ethanol ever really does take off, corn won’t be competitive even with today’s level of government subsidy, and certainly not without.