Boise ID – Two sides of the agricultural industry are squared up for a court battle. Sugar producers, including Idaho’s Amalgamated Sugar, are suing corn producers. But it’s not about land use or water it’s over… words.
There’s a series of TV commercials. They all show two people and a sweet treat. This one features two women with a gallon of punch at a kids’ party.
First woman “Wow, you really don’t care what the kids eat do you?”
Second woman “Excuse me.”
First woman “That has high fructose corn syrup in it.
Second woman “And?”
First woman “You know what they say about it.”
Second woman “Like what.”
What she could say is some studies suggest the body has a hard time using high fructose corn syrup and it might contribute more to weight gain than sugar. But the scientific jury is still out. Instead she says nothing. The commercials have a long pause then the friend comes to the rescue.
Second woman “That it’s made from corn, it’s natural, and like sugar it’s fine in moderation.”
Cane and beet sugar producers like Idaho’s Amalgamated Sugar call this false advertising. A group of them have sued for damages and to block the campaign. The Corn Refiners Association had asked federal regulators for permission to call their product “corn sugar.” That decision could take years. Meanwhile, sugar producers say the corn folks aren’t waiting for permission. At the root of the lawsuit is the word sugar…. So let’s talk definitions. That’s where Boise State University chemistry professor Henry Charlier comes in. Charlier puts his hands behind his bald head and leans back in his desk chair almost parallel with the floor.
Henry Charlier “I just looked up in about half a dozen different chemistry text books and I could not find a simple definition for the word sugar.”
Sugar is so basic to chemistry; college textbooks don’t define it. But Charlier says you can find a passable definition in the dictionary.
Henry Charlier “A small simple, crystalline, water soluble carbohydrate, that is sweet to the taste.”
That applies to table sugar or sucrose, the stuff made from Idaho’s beets. But when you bite into an ear of corn, you get a mouthful of another sugar, glucose. To get High Fructose Corn Syrup refiners extract the glucose and bombard it with enzymes that transform it into other sugars until you get a sweet goo.
Henry Charlier “High fructose corn sugar is about 55% fructose and about 42% glucose and the rest is some other sugars.”
But it is all sugar.
Henry Charlier “From a purely scientific point of view, I would say it would be perfectly justified to call corn syrup, corn sugar.”
Charlier ads a “but” here. He leans forward in his chair and says the way we speak is not decided by scientists. He says that’s even true for scientists. He points to the paper coffee cup on his desk.
Henry Charlier “Sugar could mean any number of things in my lab, but when I’m, you know, at Starbucks or wherever, when I say sugar, I’m referring to table sugar.”
Charlier says he’s glad a judge will decide the issue and not him. Sugar and corn growers are going to court over the use of the word “sugar,” but not because they’re passionate about linguistics. There are billions of dollars on the line. Take the most recent study of the sugar industry in Idaho.
Paul Paterson “Over 7 thousand jobs and it had a gross sales value of just over a billion dollars.”
Paul Paterson is an agricultural economist with the University of Idaho. He says even though Idaho has about twice as much land planted in corn as sugar beets, sugar does more to sweeten the state’s economy. Most of Idaho’s corn he says, goes right into the belly of cows.
Paul Paterson “The corn industry in the state of Idaho basically plays a supporting role to the dairy industry.
But nationally, corn is king.
Paul Paterson “Corn is certainly the 800 pound gorilla when you start looking at agricultural commodities.”
That gorilla has muscled its way into the sweetener business over the past three and a half decades.
Paul Paterson “I grew up in the Rupert area. And they used to move a lot of the sugar syrup out of the Paul plant in tankers. It went to Coke and Pepsi, and the other companies that produced soda. Over that period of years, the sugar was all replaced by the high fructose corn syrup.”
Sales of sugar have remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s, about ten-thousand tons a year. In that time, sales of high fructose corn syrup have grown from a few hundred tons a year to now… where sales nearly match those of sugar. Still the issue over whether high fructose corn syrup can be called “corn sugar” remains. Sugar producers filed their lawsuit to block the “corn sugar” media ads in April. Meanwhile, the corn refiners have filed a motion to toss the case out. That issue goes before a federal court Tuesday morning in Los Angeles.
Amalgamated Sugar declined to talk about its role in the law suit. We also reached out to beet farmers and the Idaho Sugar Beet Growers Association to hear what they had to say. They responded that Amalgamated asked them not to talk about the lawsuit.