Corn Porn

Just read this report that 9 out of 20 samples of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury. Mercury. Yet another reason the HFCS is a major health hazard and should probably be outlawed or extremely restricted. I paid a visit to my friend Steve who's originally from England, and he mentioned that HFCS is banned in England for food products... this was relevant because he offered me a bottle of Coca-Cola from Mexico, made with real sugar the way it used to be here, and the way it's made in most of the world. Hard to believe we've reached the point where a sugar-filled soda is considered the HEALTHY alternative.

But why do we use HFCS so much here in the US? Because way too much of the economy is tied up in corn, and the corn lobbyists seem to have a death grip on the government. Corn growers are subsidized and price supported and now for some reason we're using corn to make ethanol (instead of using something more efficient, like sugar beets). Is it just so Presidential aspirants have the favor of corn growers when the Iowa caucuses roll around every 4 years? Why corn? Are American farmers too stupid to grow something else? Our corn industry is even causing problems in other countries, like Mexico, where local farmers can't compete with the prices of imported subsidized US corn, spreading poverty and hunger there, too.

Corn has its place, but for some reason, it's everywhere. Most livestock are fed corn in massive quantities, rather than grass or other feeds that their digestive systems are designed for. So, corn is even messing with meat products, and by extension, humans who eat meat (or other products with HFCS). And humans aren't designed to digest so much corn either. HFCS is the cheapest sweetener, so it's now in everything from breads to snacks to sauces to ketchup. A huge percentage of processed or semi-prepared foods, especially inexpensive foods that more and more people are resorting to as the economy collapses.

On a brighter note, as Tia mentioned on her blog, I received the prints that I'll have for sale at Dirty Show, and I was quite pleased with how they turned out. Doubly pleased in that it means that my monitor appears to be properly calibrated to my lab, so I'll be able to relax a bit that I'm on the right track now at least as far as that's concerned.

So, if you're planning to be at Dirty Show, be sure to stop by the "museum store" and look for my prints (including the lovely Spilt Sugar here) to see how spiffy they turned out. Feel free to buy a few, too.