Corny nation

A friend today sent along a link to a story in The Economist about the evils and ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup. The stuff is everywhere, used to sweeten hundreds of products because it is cheaper than sugar. As a result, Americans are getting fatter and suffering the resulting health consequences.

As I read a little on the subject on the Internet I found a review of Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which discusses where our foods come from -- and in an overwhelming number of instances the answer is: corn. Subsidized by the US government (translation: our tax dollars pay for Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill and ConAgra -- all multibillion dollar companies -- to grow the stuff) corn is used to make sweeteners, artificial colors and preservatives, as well as to feed the chickens, pigs and cows that we eat.

Check out this passages from The Omnivore's Dilemma: "Corn is in the coffee whitener and Cheez Whiz, the frozen yogurt and TV dinner, the canned fruit and ketchup and candies, the soups and snacks and cake mixes…everything from the toothpaste and cosmetics to the disposable diapers, trash bags, cleansers, charcoal briquettes, matches, and batteries, right down to the shine of the magazine that catches your eye by the checkout: corn. Indeed, even the supermarket itself — the wallboard and joint compound, the petroleum and fiberglass and adhesives out of which the building itself has been built — is in no small measure a manifestation of corn."