Dear Mr. President,
"Corn Sugar" might be my new phrase for anything attempting to improve its image with a benign name. Like Blackwater becoming Xe or torture becoming "enhanced interrogation", the high-fructose corn syrup industry would like to have their product renamed into something slightly more suggestive of sunshine and real food. I'm not really a huge fan of marketing in general, but especially not when it comes to food. The deceptive practices many companies use to encourage consumption are incredibly manipulative. While ultimately we are all responsible for the food choices we make, I don't think companies should make it harder for a consumer to know what, exactly, is in the food they are consuming. That being said, I really don't care what HFCS is called.
HFCS is used primarily in items I don't consume; processed foods, sweetened beverages, and the kinds of candy I didn't even like as a child. I've still never had a Coca Cola, but popular opinion among my well-traveled friends is that Coke tastes better in countries where cane sugar is still used to sweeten it. While one might not have to look very far to see the potential health risks of HFCS consumption, my objection to the substance has nothing to do with it being better or worse for you than sugar. HFCS is popular with the makers of processed food because it is cheap and it is cheap because of the way corn is grown and subsidized in this country. HFCS's real danger is not in its consumption but its environmental, social and economic impacts. When it costs less and is more convenient for me to buy a jar of tomato sauce sweetened with corn than a decent-tasting tomato, well, that's when I get really angry. (Friends can surely attest that I take my tomatoes way too seriously.)
Our nation's health would surely improve if we lowered the amount of sweeteners we consumed overall. Our planet's health would likewise benefit from a complete overhaul in the way we raise our crops. If changing the name from corn syrup to "planet-killing cancer-causing death juice" is the way to accomplish that, well, I'll be the first to start editing the Wikipedia page. I think an informed consumer doesn't need to worry about what a substance is named, so long as they have all the information available to understand the impact their purchase will have on their own health and the health of the planet. What we need more than anything is a national food system that makes healthy food choices the easiest and least expensive options, that encourages sustainable agricultural practices and fair wages for agricultural workers. A food system that places the overall health of our nation above efficiency and profit. Until we change the way we produce and consume food as a society, we're just going to keep getting fatter and sicker while the planet gets hotter and the poor get poorer. Anything else is just corn sugar.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
Showing posts with label sugar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sugar. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Day 179- The sweetness
It's another Earth Day Monday! Since I'm a baker, I thought I'd talk about some ways to reduce the HUGE environmental impact from the sugars that we use.
Dear Mr. President,
Lately, in an attempt to distract myself from the absence of my friend, I've been watching The X-files probably more than is healthy. Remember the good old days when we thought the government was covering up the truth about UFOs? The abuses and crimes ignored, tacitly approved, or even ordered by our government that have come to light since 9/11 are so much worse than fiction. At this point, I think a good revelation about extraterrestrials would probably help the government so much that Robert Gibbs would announce it from the press room himself. Anyway, my other method of coping with this has been to bake- A LOT. I've been a stress-baker for years, and as college classmates and coworkers can attest, some of my best experiments come during the most trying times in my life.
But all of this baking can be bad for my figure, and for the earth. Sugar production and processing is hugely destructive to the environment, and largely responsible for the current sad state of the Everglades. I've taken to buying the bulk containers of a organic, fair-trade, sustainably farmed evaporated cane juice. I know where it comes from and how it is produced, and I believe that it is far less harmful to the environment than the cheaper white sugar, but it still has to be shipped quite a distance. I think I can do better. Last week, I baked Orange Zucchini bread, and used half of the sugar, replacing the rest with orange juice. (I have a million oranges from my produce box, so oranges will probably continue to be used this way in my baking adventures.) In Washington, we're famous for our apples, and apple juice is another alternative sweetener that is easy to get from local sources in the right season. Another great alternative is to actually make your own sugar, from sugar beets. This fall, when the beets come into season again, I'm going to try making my own from local, organic beets. Finally, I'm resolving to stop using individual sugar packets entirely. This is an incredibly wasteful practice that too many coffee shops perpetuate. It may be convenient, but I think that reducing the amount of packaging and processing in the foods we consume is worth a little inconvenience from time to time.
Yesterday, my mother took me shopping for groceries at Costco. I know buying some items in bulk reduces the amount of packaging and can be environmentally beneficial. But then I saw the inside of Costco. So much stuff in one place is really overwhelming. I had a hard time imagining how a person from any of the number of countries on this planet with food shortages would feel, walking into any of the hundreds of stores like that in this country. The carbon footprint of just one Costco and all its products must be astounding. Suddenly, surrounded by swarms of carts and people queueing up for samples, shrinking in the shadows of endlessly high stacks of product, it all seemed useless. How could buying a 10lb bag of sugar to save a few inches of plastic, or walking instead of driving, or all the sustainably grown organic local produce I could eat ever stand up to that? How could I make even a dent? If I save a few gallons of oil every week, how does that help when barrels of it are spent each day just to produce the dead animal in one meat section of one Costco? (Never mind the concession stand, or the frozen food aisle.) Can I make any significant difference?
I don't know. I can't shake this feeling of smallness, but I can sleep at night knowing I'm not participating in some of the worst parts of our consumption. Maybe that's all I can hope for, just to feel OK about the small changes I'm making in my own life, and hope that others want to do the same. Anyway, on this earth day monday, I am so grateful for the earth that produces the food I eat, and I promise to continue looking for alternatives that are healthier for it and for me.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
Dear Mr. President,
Lately, in an attempt to distract myself from the absence of my friend, I've been watching The X-files probably more than is healthy. Remember the good old days when we thought the government was covering up the truth about UFOs? The abuses and crimes ignored, tacitly approved, or even ordered by our government that have come to light since 9/11 are so much worse than fiction. At this point, I think a good revelation about extraterrestrials would probably help the government so much that Robert Gibbs would announce it from the press room himself. Anyway, my other method of coping with this has been to bake- A LOT. I've been a stress-baker for years, and as college classmates and coworkers can attest, some of my best experiments come during the most trying times in my life.
But all of this baking can be bad for my figure, and for the earth. Sugar production and processing is hugely destructive to the environment, and largely responsible for the current sad state of the Everglades. I've taken to buying the bulk containers of a organic, fair-trade, sustainably farmed evaporated cane juice. I know where it comes from and how it is produced, and I believe that it is far less harmful to the environment than the cheaper white sugar, but it still has to be shipped quite a distance. I think I can do better. Last week, I baked Orange Zucchini bread, and used half of the sugar, replacing the rest with orange juice. (I have a million oranges from my produce box, so oranges will probably continue to be used this way in my baking adventures.) In Washington, we're famous for our apples, and apple juice is another alternative sweetener that is easy to get from local sources in the right season. Another great alternative is to actually make your own sugar, from sugar beets. This fall, when the beets come into season again, I'm going to try making my own from local, organic beets. Finally, I'm resolving to stop using individual sugar packets entirely. This is an incredibly wasteful practice that too many coffee shops perpetuate. It may be convenient, but I think that reducing the amount of packaging and processing in the foods we consume is worth a little inconvenience from time to time.
Yesterday, my mother took me shopping for groceries at Costco. I know buying some items in bulk reduces the amount of packaging and can be environmentally beneficial. But then I saw the inside of Costco. So much stuff in one place is really overwhelming. I had a hard time imagining how a person from any of the number of countries on this planet with food shortages would feel, walking into any of the hundreds of stores like that in this country. The carbon footprint of just one Costco and all its products must be astounding. Suddenly, surrounded by swarms of carts and people queueing up for samples, shrinking in the shadows of endlessly high stacks of product, it all seemed useless. How could buying a 10lb bag of sugar to save a few inches of plastic, or walking instead of driving, or all the sustainably grown organic local produce I could eat ever stand up to that? How could I make even a dent? If I save a few gallons of oil every week, how does that help when barrels of it are spent each day just to produce the dead animal in one meat section of one Costco? (Never mind the concession stand, or the frozen food aisle.) Can I make any significant difference?
I don't know. I can't shake this feeling of smallness, but I can sleep at night knowing I'm not participating in some of the worst parts of our consumption. Maybe that's all I can hope for, just to feel OK about the small changes I'm making in my own life, and hope that others want to do the same. Anyway, on this earth day monday, I am so grateful for the earth that produces the food I eat, and I promise to continue looking for alternatives that are healthier for it and for me.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
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