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A Convenience, Not A Necessity

According to Karl Marx’s concept of commodity fetish, because of its accessibility and easy productivity, corn is the perfect commodity. The adaptability of the starch makes it a commodity. Easy to grow, easy to sell, and easy to use, Americans use the commodity corn in many variations, all used in the processed foods we consume. One manifestation, corn syrup, is a cheaper version of sugar cane. It takes less money to produce something of equal taste. However, sometimes cheaper does not mean it is a healthier choice. There are many unhealthy secrets to HFCS, but it is still used greatly in the United States today. If money was not a deciding factor in the everyday life, would Americans still choose high-fructose corn syrup over other contending, healthier sweeteners? Would corn products in general be as popular as they are? Corn is a convenience to the United States, not a necessity.
Many Americans would not suspect that more than a quarter of the forty-five thousand items in an average supermarket contain corn (Pollan, 19). Batteries, potato chips, cake mixes, cereals, and even frozen yogurt, has corn in it. More often than not, corn is just thought of as the yellow kernels off the cob, or the fluffy pieces popped in the microwave. However, corn in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the principal ingredient, after water, in many items. Since the 1980s virtually all sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold in the supermarket have been sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (Pollan, 18). HFCS was the first cheap domestic substitute for sugar cane. Today it is the most valuable food product refined from corn, accounting for 530 million bushels every year (Pollan, 89). The consumption of fructose has risen greatly among the general population in the past few years. In 1984 the average person ate 39 pounds of fructose and 84 pounds of sucrose. In 1994 the average person ate 66 pounds of sucrose and 83 pounds of fructose (Appleton)....