While President Trump claimed on Wednesday that he has convinced the Coca-Cola company to wean itself off of high-fructose corn syrup and begin using sugar cane in its soft drinks, the Coca-Cola company has remained mostly quiet, other than defending their use of high-fructose corn syrup as “a safe sugar alternative that has about the same number of calories per serving as table sugar and is metabolized in a similar way by the body.”
While the details may still need to be ironed out, Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. Mike Strain, joined WWL’s Tommy Tucker to discuss how this potential change could impact the state of Louisiana.
“We believe our cane sugar is the most delicious in the world, and we are the largest producer of cane sugar in the United States, producing more than even Florida,” Stain explained.
While there are corn farmers in Louisiana, Strain emphasized that they would largely be unaffected by the switch to cane sugar, even though high fructose corn syrup derives from corn.
“Most of our corn here in Louisiana goes into chicken feed, and then we export the rest. So, we don’t really process much of our corn here in the state,” Strain told Tommy Tucker, in what could essentially be a “win-win” situation.
“For us, this is a big step forward. This is a big step for our sugar cane farmers in the state. Cane sugar is a very natural sugar, and we think it tastes better,” Strain added.
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