I’m sure you’ve heard that the price of corn is on the rise in America. A huge increase in demand for ethanol is causing unnatural price increases of a subsidized commodity crop.
The subsidized part is most interesting. Bina, my genius health conscience little sister – who is studying public health at UC Berkeley, tells me that almost all foods in America use corn because the US farm bill pays farmers to grow it. It shows up in everything! Notice how the primary sweetener in America is – corn syrup? Since when does chocolate have corn in it?
My favorite example is the McDonald’s Happy Meal. I can’t remember the exact percentage, but its like 40% CORN. Between feeding the cows corn, putting corn filler in the buns and using corn syrup to addict us… a more appropriate name is clearly needed.
Today, the far biggest consequence of all this ethanol use hit the mainstream news. Fox News is reporting that our movie theatre popcorn is about rise! After all, as movie theatre popcorn prices have always tracked very closely with the price of the raw corn – its only natural that as the dried corn prices go up, so will the finished product. After all, movie theatres have been struggling to keep their costs under $5/bucket for years. Now, all is lost…
What’s shockingly gone unreported is how this will effect England. Here – movie goers regularly enjoy sweet popcorn in theatres. With both the price of corn syrup AND dried corn on the increase, it won’t be long till the popcorn will cost more than the movie.
Do they think we are ALL idiots? Just most of us?
Finding Nilay 