How often do consumers eat corn? People may think they only eat corn on the cob at picnics, barbecues, summer dinners, and Fourth of July parties. However, Americans consume around 700 kg of corn each year. Corn is found in many products, from steak in a fancy restaurant to gas used to fuel cars to soda. Why do Americans eat so much corn? The answer dates back to the Nixon administration, when Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture, revised the farm bill to encourage overproduction of corn and large-scale farming, developments that later led to obesity and pollution. The previous bill it replaced, the Farm Bill passed by the Roosevelt administration, had kept the price of corn stable by paying farmers to keep excess grain off the market; farmers of all sizes prospered and no more corn was grown than the market could absorb. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIn contrast, Nixon's farm bill, which is still in effect today, primarily supports farmers who produce large quantities corn. Farmers only receive more money when they produce more, and only farms with annual income of $250,000 or more receive the majority of federal subsidies, leaving an ever-decreasing percentage of subsidies for smaller farms each year. Thus, the bill bankrupted many small farms that could not produce enough corn to obtain sufficient subsidies, while larger farms survived because federal subsidies allowed them to profit from their crop corn annual. This process contributed to the doubling of the average farm size in the United States, as small farmers had to sell their land to larger farmers to pay off debts; in addition, corn production increased. The overproduction of corn led to the development of various corn-based sugar substitutes, including high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which were cheaper to use than the real ingredient. Due to overproduction, xylose isomerase, the enzyme that creates HFCS, became widely used. It's easy to obtain and some types are sweeter than regular sugar. HFCS is found in almost everything today, although most people are not aware of it. The existence of HFCS and other corn-based substitutes has led to HFCS-containing foods that originally did not contain added sugar, leading to obesity. Originally, Nixon's changes to the bill helped the economy and obesity was not an epidemic; However, over the decades, scientists continued to find new uses for surplus corn. As each new use was introduced into the processing industry, the original recipes for popular foods constantly changed, replacing almost every ingredient with different forms of corn. For example, many sodas such as Coca-Cola use corn that can be manipulated to look exactly like caramel in order to color their drinks instead of a more expensive true caramel color. According to the Yale Sustainable Food Project, the average American ages 12 to 29 drinks about two and a half bottles of soda per day, or about fifty-six ounces, or about 300 calories that don't give less,.