Why indeed? Sugar beets grow just fine in northern climes. Plenty of farmland in the plains and midwest that can and do grow sugar beets.

Sugar-sweetened products in my opinion taste better than HFCS. Less cloying and oversweet.

As Pollan points out too, we get so many nutrients from corn in some form that we are not the omnivores that we should be--corn fed dairy (which should be grass fed), corn sweeteners, corn fattened pork and beef, corn additives in just about everything. Not that sugar is an improvement as far as nutrients, but I think diversity is better than monosourcing.

I frankly see no problem with keeping out foreign sugar. The last thing we want to do is make it cheaper. And as far as free "trade" goes, what are THEY going to buy from US?

One environmental factor that was not considered is wildlife. I've grown sugar beets and corn. Sugar beets are very hard on the ground, but more importantly, they offer virtually no food or protection for wildlife. A corn field, on the other hand, provides food and shelter for deer, raccoons, badgers, birds, etc. If the field is irrigated, it also provides water. I can't speak for sugar cane fields; I don't know how they help or hurt wildlife. Corn fields are great wildlife habitat, though.

Corn used to produce HFCS and other processed foods is Genetically Engineered using poisonous bacterium genes. This prevents the need to spray crops with poison pesticides. Unfortunately the corn IS poisonous, and can not turn off its poisonous nature. The Monarch butterfly will become extinct in our lifetime due to GMO corn poisoning its eggs. The Monarch butterfly is majestic and migrates from Canada to Mexico each year. The Monarch butterfly is responsible for pollinating the entire west coast. GMO corn will likely cause the collapse of the a signifigant portion of our food supply. Still wondering where the bees went? These patented genes will infiltrate non-GMO corn crops through usual weather paterns and storms. Self pesticide generating GMO corn alone is enough to cause blight and environmental collapse of the North American continent.

Unfortunately this is only one "small" example of the danger of these technologies. Bye bye bees.

This article points out the greatest information of the impact each products makes on the earth.

I would love to see a study on the impact each product makes on our bodies, seeing that diabetes rose with the increase in HFCS usage in our food.

Monarch butterflies do not eat corn. They eat milkweed as caterpillars and build their cocoons there. Milkweed is bitter; that is why monarchs taste bad to birds. There are millions of milkweed plants growing right next to our cornfields and there are lots of monarchs here, too.

Corn is a monoculture. That means that there are no other plants. Corn must be grown with pesticides and fertilizers that destroy the soil. If milkweed can grow on the edges of fields, it is poisonous to Monarch larvae, because it is full of the poisons that have been put in the soil.

So, is your next plan to advise people to jump in front of buses and reduce their carbon footprint by dying?

Twit.

According to the person who brought up Monarchs, the GMO corn doesn't need to be sprayed with pesticides, and is the cause of the Monarch's decline. Some scientists believe the cause of the Monarchs' decline is deforestation in their winter breeding grounds in Mexico.

It doesn't really matter - any time you have a monoculture such as corn, herbicides are used to remove any chance of other plant life surviving in the pristine fields. And you are dreaming in Technicolor if you sincerely believe that there are no pesticides used on GMO corn. Just because those strains were developed to be unappetizing to MOST pests doesn't mean that ALL pests will stay away.

I don't have a sincere belief one way or the other about whether pesticides are sprayed on GMO corn. The earlier poster claimed GMO corn by itself is harmful to Monarchs (or implied it, anyway), and that GMO doesn't need to be sprayed. I don't doubt for a second that pesticides are used.