Mexican soft drinks are somewhat legendary for being made with real cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup—but that could all change next year, thanks to a 2006 addendum to NAFTA’s sugar policy. Under that agreement, Mexico was supposed to partially open its markets to U.S. HFCS exporters this year, with full-on free trade coming in January 2008. Since many south-of-the-border beverage makers would likely switch to the cheap, eerily tongue-coating syrup, it would seem that the clock is ticking on corn-free cola.
But on Monday, House ag committee chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) released a draft proposal that would extend the current restrictions until 2012, as FarmPolicy.com reports. (Yeah, I’m on the listserv—what about it?!) And judging from recent industry testimony before Peterson’s committee, U.S. corn pushers would be none too happy if his proposal passed. Check out some of these funny turns of phrase:
We will no longer be able to limit imports of sugar from Mexico effective January 1, 2008. If imports of Mexican sugar are restricted in any way, exports of corn sweeteners will be held hostage.
the top export market for HFCS has been Mexico, our North American Free Trade Agreement partner. Regrettably, our industry has been embroiled in a ten year HFCS dispute with Mexico, in large part because the United States limited Mexico’s sugar access during this period. In short, corn sweeteners became the victim in a tit-for-tat trade dispute.
End this senseless persecution of corn sweeteners! Free the fructose! Never thought I’d hear those arguments.
Hate to bust your bubble, but a sizeable percentage of Mexican soft drinks have been made with HFCS for years, and the percentage is growing.
Agree with above–I think this is something of a romanticized urban legend, and most Mexican soft drinks are actually made with HFCS.
Indeed HFCS is now a significant part of the soft drink industry, much to the dismay of our cane sugar industry which is really struggling due to the history of lousy administration and corruption that branded us for ages (still does, probably).
Bring back the Cane Cola.
you can still get cane cola in Canada – yet another reason to come up north for a visit!
You can buy cane cola here in the US — Boylan’s makes one, and so does Jones Soda. I sell Boylan’s in my cafe, and it’s developing quite a following. It tastes very different than Coke and Pepsi — more like Moxie, if you’ve ever tried that. I like it.
7 UP is made with cane sugar…and Coke that is sold in kosher food stores is made with cane sugar
The bottle of 7-Up sitting on my counter says “high fructose corn syrup” as does 7-Up’s website. They recently switched the flavorings in 7-Up to all natural ingredients — I wonder why they didn’t get rid of the HFCS.
I prefer cane sugar. tastes less sweet to me.
High-fructose corn syrup is considered all natural (because of the corn). That is why it was removed. The new 7-Up is not really natural.