oh my ears!

I am not sure where to start with the discussion of food, because this is the issue I am the most passionate. I feel this subject is inextricably linked to issues with the environment and our economy, and possibly the leader in creating our future demise.

Let’s start with the substance that is a very close second to oil as a commodity that we are addicted to… High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Simply, HFCS is a sugar that is added to almost every single food item that is manufactured. The obvious is sodas, cookies, and chocolate. The not so obvious is ketchup, pretzels, and green tea…. oh yes, you bottled green tea drinkers. You think it’s healthy? READ LABELS!!!

HFCS is made by converting corn kernels into corn starch, and then through the additional of enzymes and a chromatography step it is converted from glucose into a highly concentrated fructose. Yum. Oh, and if you are a consumer that tries to avoid genetically modified food… you might want to stay away from HFCS… cause two of the three enzymes the manufacturers use are GMO. (This brings up a much larger discussion of GMO food, which 80% of the corn industry is made from GMO seeds by Mansanto. But that deserves its own discussion, later.)

There are numerous health issues affiliated with HFCS. First off, HFCS is blamed by most people in the health professional to be the major cause of obesity. One theory being that your liver, not knowing what to do with this engineered product, turns the fructose into fat. Another issue is that it doesn’t switch the trigger in your body that tells you that you are full. So, you can drink a liter bottle of soda, which is the caloric equivalent of a Thanksgiving dinner, not feel full and so you continue to consume even more food. Research has also found a direct link between fructose and higher levels of diabetes and high cholesterol. I think, however, the most shocking information is that, last year, HFCS surpassed alcohol as the leading cause of cirrhosis of the liver. SURPASSED.

Look…. you would no sooner put strychnine in your body because of the effects and resulting death… it just happens quicker. However, the general population has no problem guzzling it down as soda or bread or ketchup or fruit juice, creating the same effect… death… it just takes longer.

Why did HFCS become the commodity it is? It has a long history starting with a Farm Bill, subsidizing corn, in the 80’s which also coincided with self imposed limitations of importing sugar. Essentially we have created a system in which the cost of importing sugar is artificially high, and the price of corn is artificially low. In addition, we have an abundance of corn. I’m sure some person who is a part of the “powers that be” realized that, because of the overabundance, we were subsidizing a product that we inevitably threw away. Why don’t we do something with it? Let’s make a fake sweetener out of it, put it EVERYTHING, and make some money back.

Of course, the farmers see none of the reward. It costs $3.20 to make a bushel of corn. This includes seed cost, equipment, labor, etc. The farmer makes back $2.20 on that same bushel. This creates another issue affecting the environment. Because of the high cost, low reward, it is only beneficial to the farmer to have huge plots of land. This results in having to buy huge pieces of equipment that burn fossil fuel. In addition, as any good farmer knows, soil needs turn over. It doesn’t do well with one crop, over and over and over again. The corn industry is creating large areas of land that are dead zones. The soil cannot grow food. Without the plants, there are no insects, without the insects there are no birds and so on and so on and so on. Currently, it is estimated that each American has access to 1.2 acres of cultivated food per year. Most scientists estimate that in 5 years…. really let this sink in…. 5 YEARS… each American will only have access to 0.6 cultivated acres. Half of what we have now, in 5 years!! (I bet most of you reading this have plans for five years that you think are reasonable expectations. Do you want to rethink your plan?) The reason behind the 50% decrease in food… more farms converting to industrialized crops like corn, soybean, and canola combined with an ever increasing population.

You think that’s bad…..

Here’s an ironic twist. As discussed, it is making us sick. But because YOUR tax dollars are subsidizing the corn industry, we don’t have the tax dollars to supplement the health care which is needed because we are consuming so much HFCS and getting fat and sick.

Links:
The Future of Food
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
The End of Food by Paul Roberts
Mansanto Watch