13.3.3: Corn, Sugar, Farm Policy and Public Health

CORN, SUGAR, FARM POLICY AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Today, the operation of Von Thünen’s Model is also affected by numerous government policies that greatly influence what farmers do and what we eat. To provide you some insight into how geography is useful in analyzing complex questions, the section below offers a quick case study into some of the relationships between politics, farming, dietary practices, and public health.

Figure : Infographic - Since 1970 cheaply produced HFCS has replaced cane sugar, driving a significant increase in total sugar consumption in the US. Source: Wikimedia

Perhaps the most important food in the world is maize, popularly known as “corn” in the US. Domesticated by the indigenous people of Mexico thousands of years ago, maize has proven an exceptionally versatile and hardy plant. It’s so adaptable, that much of the world eats maize in some fashion today. There are multiple varieties of maize. Most Americans know maize as sweet corn or corn on the cob Sweet corn is also available canned and frozen and appears in a wide variety of dishes. Less well known are the dozens of maize varieties known as field corn, even though vastly more field corn is grown than sweet corn. Field corn is processed into dozens of other products. Some of it is ground into cornmeal and cornstarch, which we use to make things like corn chips, tortillas, and sauces. We also convert millions of tons of field corn into corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Corn syrups are used as sweeteners, thickeners, and to keep foods moist or fresh. Since the early 1970s, HFCS has become a common and inexpensive replacement for cane sugar and beet sugar. HFCS is now the most common sweetener used in processed foods and soft drinks.

Figure: Sweet Corn. This variety of maize is consumed directly by humans, unlike field corn which is generally processed into flours, syrups or used for animal feed or fuel. Source: Wikimedia

Figure Croatia. Field corn is the most common crop in the US, and ranks only behind wheat and rice worldwide. Source: Wikimedia

Cost is the main reason the displacement of granulated cane and beet sugars by HFCS in the American diet and the geography of sugar production explains the difference in costs. Field corn grows well in much of the US, so lots of it can be produced, which drives supply up and costs down. Sugar cane, on the other hand, is poorly adapted to most American climates. Sugar cane yields are highly dependent on climate. A good crop of sugarcane requires plenty of rain and a very long growing season. In the US, only Hawaii has ideal conditions for profitable sugar cane production. Cane yields in Hawaii are triple those in Louisiana, but delivery costs from Hawaii and competition for prime farmland on the islands drive up the price of Hawaiian sugar. Sugar beets grow well in a variety of climates. You might drive past a field of sugar beets in the desert of California and up in Minnesota. Half of the US granulated sugar production is made from sugar beets. Climate conditions and cheaper labor outside the US make foreign-produced sugar cheaper than domestic sources.

Figure: Brawley, CA. This massive sugar beet factory relies upon irrigation waters and helps promote the local dairy industry via by products. Note the sea-level marker

Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the US government has provided special subsidies to cane sugar producers to help keep them in business via tax breaks and a variety of other incentives. The government even buys cane sugar at prices above world market value if American sugar producers cannot profitably sell it on the international market. The US government also restricts sugar imports, especially from Cuba, which supplies sugar cheaply to Mexico and Canada. Tariffs on imported sugar also increase prices within the US.

These trade protection policies help sugar farmers stay in business, but they create burdens elsewhere in the economy that are often hidden. Those hidden costs are known as externalities or external costs. Geographers tend to be very interested in identifying and calculating external costs because our discipline approaches most topics holistically. Geographers think it is important to calculate all costs and benefits of government programs including those that subsidize sugar production. Geographers keep a keen eye on hidden environmental and societal costs often overlooked by economists and accountants.

Figure: US Sugar Production Corn sweeteners are produced in the Midwest. Sugar Beets (green) are produced in California and elsewhere. Sugar cane is grown in Louisiana, Florida, Hawaii and Texas. Source: US Sugar Alliance

In addition to costing taxpayers billions of dollars, sugar subsidies and tariffs act to make cane sugar more expensive at the grocery store than it would be otherwise. Candy and soda manufacturers also pay higher prices for sugar because of these policies. As a result, many thousands of manufacturing jobs involving sugar (i.e., candy making) have left the US for foreign countries where sugar is cheaper. For example, in Mexico, where the industry is not subsidized or protected by tariffs, cane sugar costs about half of what it does in the US, so numerous candy factories have moved there. Brach’s Confections and Kraft Foods have both moved candy manufacturing plants out of the US in recent years because of the high costs of cane sugar. Many of you have probably drunk a so-called Mexican Coke: a Coca Cola produced in Mexico. Many cola aficionados prefer these because in Mexico Cokes are still made with cane sugar, rather than the cheaper HFCS used to make Coke at most US bottling plants.

Figure: Coca Cola bottles from Mexico. Soft drinks produced outside the US are more likely to contain cane sugar because those manufacturers outside the US may buy cheap cane sugar from Cuba and elsewhere. Flickr

While the US government drives up the price of granulated sugar, US farm policy simultaneously drives down the price of corn and products made from corn. In 2014, there were about 1.63 billion bushels of corn left unsold at harvest. So abundant and cheap is field corn, that Americans are wasteful with it. About half of the yearly US crop of field corn is used (along with excess sugar cane bought by the government) to make biofuels, particularly ethanol fuel that is blended with gasoline. Much of the additional corn crop (both grain and silage) is used to feed cattle. Rather than feeding cattle grass and/or hay, which is their natural diet, we feed them corn because it is cheaper and fattens animals quickly. Chickens and hogs are also fed corn. The government even tries to get rid of corn by manipulating the definition of what counts as “healthy” in school lunches. In 2011, the US Congress famously declared pizza sauce a “vegetable”, over the objections of health advocatesin an effort to help specific agribusiness interests.

Figure US Map - Each point on this map represents 2,000 acres of corn grown for silage. Why might so many dots appear in Wisconsin? Source: USDA

Government policies make corn-based products cheaper than they would be in a free-market environment. Farmers growing fruits and vegetables are subsidized so those products are relatively more expensive. The differential government subsidies help explain why it’s a lot cheaper to buy a burger combo than a green salad in most places.

Figure: Northridge, CA - An advertisement for a burger combo meal at a campus fast food restaurant. A salad at a nearby restaurant on campus cost double on the day this photo was taken.

Poor people, whose health is often at risk from a variety of other factors, often become over-dependent on a diet of cheap, but fatty (corn-fed) meats, sugary processed foods, and starchy carbohydrates. Some scientists suspect that corn sweeteners play an additional role in the worldwide obesity crisis. They argue that although corn sugars taste similar to traditional sugars, HFCS alter human metabolisms, pointing to the fact that in the years since HFCS replaced cane sugar as the most common sweetener, a variety of obesity-related health issues have appeared in the US and elsewhere. Of course, the corn industry disputes these charges. Even if HFCS is not worse for you than granulated sugars, it is commonly accepted that diets high in fats and carbohydrates and low in vegetables invite a variety of chronic health issues, which in turn costs taxpayers even more via government-subsidized health care for the poor – yet another external cost perhaps overlooked by others.

Figure: US Map - The number of fast food restaurants and the rate of adult obesity are depicted simultaneously on this map. What criticisms of this map would you provide? Source: Wikimedia.

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This text was remixed from the following OER Texts under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share and Share a like 4.0 international license unless otherwise specified.

1. OER (1 of 2): Introduction to Human Geography edited by Dorrell & Henderson, Published by University of North Georgia University Press. https://web.ung.edu/media/university-press/human-geography_v2.pdf?t=1700179494361
2. OER (2 of 2): Introduction to human Geography A Disciplinary Approach 3rd Edition by Graves. Published California State University Northridge Department of Geography https://sites.google.com/site/gravesgeography/introduction-to-human-geography

Food Section Conclusion

Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, domesticating species of plants and animals and creating food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. It began independently in different parts of the globe, both the Old and New World. Throughout history, agriculture played a dynamic role in expanding food supplies, creating employment, and providing a rapidly growing market for industrial products. Although subsistence, self-sufficient agriculture has largely disappeared in Europe and North America, it continues today in large parts of rural Africa, and parts of Asia and Latin America. While traditional forms of agricultural practices continue to exist, they are overshadowed by the global industrialization of agriculture, which has accelerated in the last few decades. Yet, commercial agriculture differs significantly from subsistence agriculture, as the main objective of commercial agriculture is achieving higher profits.

Farmers in both the core and the periphery have had to adjust to many changes that occurred at all levels, from the local to the global. Although states have become important players in the regulation and support of agriculture, at the global level, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has significant implications in agriculture. Social reactions to genetically engineered foods have repercussions throughout the world food system. Currently, the focus is especially on the option that a balanced, safe, and sustainable approach can be the solution not only to achieve sustainable intensification of crop productivity but also to protect the environment. Therefore, agriculture has become a highly complex, globally integrated system, and achieving the transformation to sustainable agriculture is a major challenge.