Older Than Dirt wrote:  "Most of our table sugar now comes from third world countries like Indonesia or Mexico, where it is priced much lower than we could produce it domestically.  These are some of the same countries that are suffering from the price increases in food corn.  The US produces most of the corn and other grains they depend on to feed their people.  Our diversion of that grain to ethanol production has put a big dent in their food supply.  IMHO, that's the big slam on hfcs.  The thinking is that if we use less hfcs, there will be more corn to feed these hungry people - or more to convert into ethanol.

Wouldn't it be more effective for us to give up on ethanol (which, when the production and transportation is considered, cause more pollution than gasoline), and use energy sources that don't starve people?"  

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Okay, I know this isn't the orignal subject (hfcs), but a resultant side-thread....bear w/ me, plz...

LOVE your handle, btw...

This subject is interesting to me, because it simply doesn't have to be this way.  Case in point:  

My first husband, to whom I was married for nearly 20 years, is an engineer, but never worked "for the man."  Lately, his project has been producing his own fuel, since he has been telling everyone for years that it is not only cost effective, contrary to what we're told, but it DOESN'T deplete the animal food source (i.e., stock feed).  The results?  Check this out....

This year, he used apples, and the conversion rate was one-and-one-half bushels of apples to one gallon of fuel produced.  Yeah.  AND, rather than become useless, the "waste" (processed grain or apples or potatoes, or anything else, for that matter) actually produces a better stock-feed source (livestock feed) after processing (this is a de-naturing process, w/out removing the resultant fusile oil, so don't drink...LoL!)—it doesn't deplete the food value, and makes the food easier to digest, making usage by stock animals more efficient.  ALSO....and get THIS one....nearly zero carbon footprint in the burning, because CO2 is claimed from the atmosphere in the processing (denaturing, not distillation, remember), and then released back in the burning.  Burns more efficiently, too, 60% higher mpg ratings.  Hm.....

....have we been lied to again??  Follow the money trail.....  The idea isn't defunct; the people wanting to make use of it are corrupt.

Kymelian

 water wrote: 
Thanks, I needed to get that out of my system. 

Sweeteners - mostly a hedonistic thing, I guess.  But what's life without some comforts?

Milk?  Later. I gotta get fired up again first.

 OlderThanDirt wrote: 


good points all...ever wonder why almost all food contains sweetners (usually a form of hfcs)...sugar addiction...keeps you comin' back and buying more!

are you saying you know something about a milk conspiracy?...

 water wrote: 
I haven't seen the DVD yet, so I can't comment on its content.

I have my own thoughts on hfcs, though, if you don't mind my spouting them off the top of my head. 

OK, no objections heard, so here it is.  High fructose corn syrup has been around as long as I can remember, and that's a pretty long time.  Remember Karo?  The dark variety, maple flavored, was pretty nasty as a pancake topping, but the white, totally useless on pancakes, was a staple in my mom's baking.  "Pure Cane Sugar From Hawaii" was preferred, but the Karo served the purpose at a lesser price.

Pure Cane Sugar From Hawaii is no longer available.  After the late 1950's, when Hawaii became a state, and TV showed the cane workers how the rest of the US was living, the cost of providing the cane workers with a standard of living commensurate with the rest of the country priced that commodity out of existence.  Best I know, there are now only two working sugar refineries in Hawaii.  One of them is experimenting with turning the sugar into ethanol,  the other one producing, I think, "boutique" sugar for the gourmet market.  Even the domestic Spreckles beet sugar is pretty much a thing of the past.

Most of our table sugar now comes from third world countries like Indonesia or Mexico, where it is priced much lower than we could produce it domestically.  These are some of the same countries that are suffering from the price increases in food corn.  The US produces most of the corn and other grains they depend on to feed their people.  Our diversion of that grain to ethanol production has put a big dent in their food supply.  IMHO, that's the big slam on hfcs.  The thinking is that if we use less hfcs, there will be more corn to feed these hungry people - or more to convert into ethanol.

Wouldn't it be more effective for us to give up on ethanol (which, when the production and transportation is considered, cause more pollution than gasoline), and use energy sources that don't starve people?  HFCS is not harmful, per se.  Its caloric content is equal to that of cane sugar, and neither contain significant amounts of any other nutrient.  They are both sweeteners, pure and simple.

Got more questions?  Ask me about the great milk conspiracy.

...pffft...like I'm gonna' tell you guys...

 mem_313 wrote: 

   

 ed wrote: 
as i have gotten older, i am realizing how much more obsessive compulsive I am becoming. that completely frightens me.

 ed wrote: 
are our discussions your obsession?

 ed wrote: 


are you obsessed with  my obsessions?

jewelquest III

 hippiechick wrote: 
That sounds serious!  Is it trouble?

 Servo wrote: 
bummer. can't sleep, just pondering my fate. 

 hippiechick wrote: 
I'm on allergy season time.  Plants start releasing pollen at sunrise, and stop at sunset.  So while most people are opening their eyes and starting their day, my eyes are starting to swell shut.

 Servo wrote: 
What are you doing up so late?

 water wrote: 
No, thanks for the lead!

My mom's father and brothers ran the local Phillips 66 dealership in Castro County, TX, and supplied plenty of anhydrous ammonia, as well as the fuel to run farm implements, from the 1930s to the 1960s.  Armour Foods opened up a gigantic corn processing factory in the same county circa 1970.  I took a tour of the plant a long time ago.  That was before HFCS came into widespread use.  I suppose that those huge corn processing factories made HFCS possible, though.

I've spent enough time in rural/farming communities, and Chicago (not far from Bubbly Creek), that I doubt that anything in the film will surprise me.  I'd like to see it hit the theaters, though.



(HFCS free!)

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
i have been there a few times...and yes, it's amazing...life down there is

...so are the scallops

Tasman Outflow
The Tasman Outflow Rocks - better than crack cocaine!