A Sweetener by Any Other Name

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”
– William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet –

Corn growers and corn refiners would like to see a new name on food labels for their much-maligned product, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). They prefer the name “corn sugar” instead.

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration in September requesting approval for food and beverage manufacturers to have the option of using the new term on product labels.

“Consumers need to know what is in their foods and where their foods come from and we want to be clear with them,” said CRA president Audrae Erickson. “The term ‘corn sugar’ succinctly and accurately describes what this natural ingredient is and where it comes from – corn.”

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) agrees and recently sent a letter to the FDA supporting use of the term. “We are calling upon the FDA to eliminate the confusion of the safety of high fructose corn syrup,” NCGA President Bart Schott said. “Permitting use of the term ‘corn sugar’ on labels will allow manufactures to more clearly describe high fructose corn syrup as a natural ingredient, nutritionally equivalent to sugar.”

Contrary to all the brouhaha raised over the increasing amounts of “corn sugar” in the diets of Americans, statistics indicate it is actually going down. According to USDA, the average American consumed 35.7 pounds of HFCS in 2009, down 21 percent from 45.4 pounds 10 years before. On the other side of the cake, cane and beet sugar consumption has remained steady at about 44 pounds per person per year since the 1980s when HFCS became a less expensive alternative for food processors.

Since “corn sugar” and cane or beet sugar are virtually the same, it makes sense to “re-brand” the ingredient with a less scientific and not as scary sounding name. It could take up to two years for the FDA to make a decision, but let’s hope they agree that a sweetener by any other name is just the same.

WSJ Editorial Errs on Ethanol

The Wall Street Journal this past weekend published its usual monthly anti-ethanol editorial, this time complaining about how much of the corn crop is used for ethanol. They never propose alternatives to ethanol (possibly because the only alternative is more foreign oil), but that’s beside the point.

What is continually problematic is what the Journal’s editorialists always leave out. For example, they say that the USDA data show that 39 percent of the corn crop will be used for ethanol. True, but they leave out the fact that it will not be used only for ethanol. This corn used for ethanol makes other stuff, too, that the USDA does not track, but others do.

For example, according to the ProExporter Network, an economic research and analysis firm, the corn that becomes ethanol also makes a lot of dried distillers grains and corn gluten feed, enough to displace 1.2 billion bushels of corn used as livestock feed.

And each week the kind folks at the Renewable Fuels Association send over up-to-date reports on ethanol production. Here’s what else ethanol producers are making, from the Jan. 20 report:

“On the coproducts side, ethanol producers were utilizing 13.843 million bushels of corn to produce ethanol and 103,000 metric tons of livestock feed, 91,000 metric tons of which were distillers grains. Additionally, the industry was providing 3.95 million pounds of corn oil daily.”

So when the Wall Street Journal writes that four out ten rows of corn “now go to produce fuel for American cars or trucks, not food or feed,” they are, in a word, wrong.

The Journal also uses outdated information to say that ethanol will not have a meaningful impact on foreign oil. In reality, the production and use of 10.6 billion gallons of ethanol in 2009 displaced the need for 364 million barrels of foreign oil. This is the equivalent of eliminating oil imports from Venezuela for 10 months. Looked at another way, it would mean that the United States would not have to import any oil for 33 days.

And then there are the dubious claims about what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. The EPA recognizes that corn ethanol provides a greenhouse gas reduction of up to 52 percent, compared to regular gasoline. That’s far from a “minimal to negative” impact on the environment.

Allergies Nothing to Sneeze At

I noted a recent comment on this blog about a woman named Maureen whose daughter suffers from a corn allergy. According to her, corn “is the 2nd leading allergy and growing numbers of children are being diagnosed with this allergy daily” in the United States.

Since I had never heard of it, that just didn’t seem right to me, so I decided to do some research on it. In fact, I could not find anything that backs up the claim that it is the second leading allergy in the country. According to AllergicChild.com, corn allergies are becoming more common, “yet still aren’t considered to be one of the top 8. The top 8 food allergies are: wheat, dairy, soy, peanut, tree nut, shellfish, fish and egg” which account for 90 percent of food allergies.

On another site, allergies.about.com I read that, “Unlike wheat, which is a common food allergen, there are relatively few reports of allergic reactions to corn.”

Any serious allergies are nothing to sneeze at, and there is evidence that some people do have severe corn allergies – even getting a reaction from corn-based yarn! Many of us probably know someone who has a severe allergy to one or more of the top eight, where just coming in contact with peanut dust, for example, can cause airways to close bringing them close to death. However, peanut allergies have not caused airlines to stop serving them as snacks!

I couldn’t find an estimate of the people who may be affected by corn allergies, but it is believed that six to eight percent of children under the age of three have some type of food allergy and nearly four percent of adults have food allergies. Allergies serious enough to be potentially life-threatening are just a fraction of those percentages.

It seems that Maureen’s daughter is suffering from a relatively rare, but very difficult to control allergy, not unlike people who suffer from Celiac disease and are unable to eat anything with gluten in it. Like people with any allergy, she will have to read the labels on any products she wants to consume or use. But, she can still lead a happy and productive life, despite that.

The fact that corn can be used to make a variety of products is a great thing, especially if it can replace petroleum, such as in plastics, and result in more environmentally-friendly, bio-based products. And that is also nothing to sneeze at.

The Word is Out- Girl Scouts Aren’t Always Sweet

As Girl Scout cookie sale season launches across the country, the organization is taking back to the streets with a message that leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of agvocates as they take their formerly internal anti-ag messages to our doorsteps.

Last summer, Corn Commentary (Volumes 1 and 2) looked at the blatant hypocrisy inherent in profiting from the sale of cookies that incorporate a myriad of corn products while bashing the farmers who supply them. Now, the Girl Scouts are taking it one step further by offering Shout Outs!, an HFCS-free cookie.

Are they serious? This is still a cookie that has approximately the same fat and calorie content as many of their other options. This is another blatant case of jumping on the anti-HFCS bandwagon without considering either sound science or even the message that this sends about our childhood favorites like Thin Mints and Trefoils?

Prairie Farmer writer Holly Spangler took the Girl Scouts to the mat this time for their continued anti-agriculture stance, citing Corn Commentary while proving her case. Carefully delineating their continued hypocrisy, Spangler asks that each of us speak up as advocates for agriculture and active members of our community. While she does not call for a boycott- fighting cookies as good as Samoas would be futile- she does call for action.

As Holly suggests, contact the Girl Scouts on their official Facebook cookie page or by emailing here. If you need a few HFCS facts, take a look at both pages (8 and 9) of this excellent HFCS story from Farm Progress- Prairie Farmer.

New Congress Provides Educational Opportunity

The historic 112^th Congress convenes today in Washington.  Not only are we seeing a new wave of freshmen, including 87 Republicans and nine Democrats, we are also witnessing a change of power from a previously Democratically controlled House of Representatives to Republican.  While there will be a bit of organized chaos in the nation’s capital as they settle into new roles, this provides a great opportunity for corn growers.

With such a high volume of new members of Congress and a significant change in those members sitting on the House Ag Committee, NCGA can use this opportunity to educate our new political leaders and their staffs about our priorities and about our organization.  Over the next year, we are planning to send a copy of the 2011 World of Corn to each office on Capitol Hill as well as bring the Corn Farmers Coalition back to DC a third time. But there is still an important piece missing.

The new Congress provides farmers the chance to build those imperative relationships with their new members.  Now is the time to reach out and let your voice be heard.  Offices appreciate hearing from constituents, and many use the information shared as a way to make voting decisions.  Share your story and make clear to them what is important to you.  Pick up the phone, write a letter or an email, or stop by your new representative’s office and start fostering those personal relationships.  It is your voice they want to hear.