Sugar market has soured

Mr. Randall Hansen, in his Oct. 1 letter (“Regulations are needed”), refers vaguely to the “dangers of high fructose corn syrup.” The American sugar market has historically been supplied by domestic beet and cane sugars in competition with lower-cost imports of tropical cane sugar. For example, today’s prices are: corn at roughly 13 cents per pound; world sugar, 26 cents per pound; and domestic sugar, 37 cents per pound.

This discrepancy is supported by establishing maximum import quotas on the foreign producers (government intervention). The advent of chemically and functionally similar corn high fructose has led to unsubstantiated claims of health problems. Excessive consumption of any of these sugars could lead to obesity or even diabetes, but there is no way of distinguishing among them.

The high fructose threat is to domestic sugar producers, not consumer nutrition.

W. Robert Schwandt

Spokane Valley