Chew on this: Bad business
July 1, 2008
Under the new Farm Bill, government buys sugar for 23 cents a pound, resells it to ethanol producers for 3 cents a pound.
Source: Rolling Stone, June 12, page 36
“Sugar should be pure, not corrupted through genetic tinkering.”
Investors belonging to Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) are urging more than 60 leading food, beverage, restaurant and other companies to protect their brand, reputation and consumer confidence by opposing the spring 2008 planting of genetically modified sugar beets. Among the companies being targeted by the campaigners are McDonald’s, Campbell Soup, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Sara Lee, PepsiCo and Hershey’s.
The genetically modified sugar beet crop would be used to make the sugar consumed in thousands of the most widely consumed food products in the U.S. (Sugar is extracted from the beet’s root.)
Sugar beets have been modified to insert a gene that makes the plant resistant to the glyphosate, a toxic herbicide, sold under the trade name Roundup. At the request of Roundup pesticide maker Monsanto, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently increased the allowable amount of glyphosate residues on sugar beet roots by 5,000 percent! Read the rest of this entry »
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) compiles data for the per capita consumption of *high fructose corn syrup (hfcs). They estimate 2006 consumption was 41.5 lbs per year (other studies report a much higher annual use – anywhere from 50-62 pounds). The USDA also reports per capita sugar consumption in 2006 was 44.5 lbs per year.
Using their numbers, the combined per person intake of hfcs and sugar per year in the US is 86 pounds! Does anyone wonder why we have an obesity problem? Is the USDA partly responsible for this epidemic? How much of that corn is genetically modified?
If you haven’t already, read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” You’ll never look at corn (or food for that matter) the same.
*Introduced in the 1970′s, high fructose corn syrup is a sweetener made from corn. It is used in tens of thousands of processed food products, especially soft drinks and fruit juices.
A too sweet day in the life of an average teenager or how we’re slowly killing our kids
December 15, 2007
Tom (15 years old) is in Junior High. Here’s a list of what he eats on a typical day, followed by the teaspoons of sugar in each item:
For breakfast Tom had:
2 Pop Tarts® – 9
For locker break between classes:
1 chocolate bar from the vending machine – 5
Tom brought his lunch to school:
1 ham sandwich – 0
1 can pop (355 mL) – 10
1 bag chips – 0
1 package of gummies – 6 Read the rest of this entry »
