Monday, February 2, 2009

High Fructorse Corn Syrup: "The Facts"

My girlfriend sent me a link to this website - http://www.hfcsfacts.com/ - which purports to "correct the record" regarding high fructorse corn syrup's bad reputation. The website looked a bit too slick, so I looked into who owns the site, and it turns out that it's run by the Corn Refiners Association, which is a corn industry trade association that represents, among other companies, Archer Daniels Midland.

A Wikipedia search says this about ADM:
"Archer Daniels Midland has been the subject of several major federal lawsuits related to air pollution. In 2001 the company agreed to pay a $1.46 million fine for violating federal and Illinois clean-air regulations at its Decatur feed plant and to spend $1.6 million to reduce air pollution there. [6] Based on year 2000 data,[7] ADM was listed as the tenth largest air polluter in the USA by the Political Economy Research Institute.[8] In 2003, ADM settled federal air pollution complaints related to the company's efforts to avoid New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act that require pollution control upgrades when a plant is modernized."
The Corn Refiners Association also represents Cargill, which is the largest privately held company in the world and, also according to Wiki, is responsible for 25% of all US grain exports. Michael Pollan mentions the company frequently, and not in a good way, in Omnivore's Dilemma because it refuses to divulge information about its foodmaking processes.

An interesting website, nonetheless. But I hesitate to trust "facts" that are coming from a source with such a clear bias.

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