Why Is HFCS So Cheap?

High Fructose Corn Syrup is dirt cheap. Why? Well, let’s look at where your tax money goes.

As we already mentioned in our What is HFCS article, it is a well known fact that the US government subsidizes the corn growers of America and heavily taxes the import of table sugar from other countries. How much, exactly, of your tax money goes towards supporting the corn growers?

$3,975,606,299

That’s correct – America spends almost four billion dollars on corn subsidies. And that’s only in 2009. The total amount of subsidies given throughout 1994-2009 is a mind-boggling 75 billion dollars! What amount goes towards subsidizing sugar beet production? $0. To top things off, not only does the government discourage domestic sugar production, it also places taxes (tariffs) on import of table sugar from other countries.

Why is that?

The original intent of the subsidies was to ensure a stable food supply in our country. Now, much surplus corn rots in large piles outdoors due to over-production. The excellent documentary, King Corn, available on Netflix goes into much detail about corn subsidies in the U.S.

One doesn’t need a degree in economics to see what’s wrong with this picture. The result? Once you can get the cost of a raw ingredient down next to nothing, economic forces dictate finding uses for it. But it’s hard to believe the original intent of corn subsidies was to create a fat America.

At the end of the day, it’s practically impossible to find foods that don’t contain corn by-products, especially refined corn syrup, which, in the amounts the average American is consuming it, has been shown to cause a variety of health problems.

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