#209 The Corn Syrup Controversy w/ Benjamin Cohen
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2021
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How did corn syrup get such a bad reputation? While there are certainly differences between this corn-based sweetener and the sugar that comes from beets & cane, the opinions many of us hold about what separates them are rooted in much more than the scant scientific evidence on their differing impact on human health. In this episode, Benjamin Cohen joins us to talk about the history behind the corn syrup controversy, the deep roots that lie beneath our understandings of food and purity, and how understanding this story might help us make better decision moving forward.
Dr. Benjamin R. Cohen is Associate Professor of Engineering Studies and Environmental Studies at Lafayette College and co-editor w/ Michael Kideckel & Anna Zeide of the new collection Acquired Tastes: Stories About the Origins of Modern Food (MIT Press, 2021). His previous book, Pure Adulteration: Cheating on Nature in the Age of Manufactured Food (University of Chicago Press, 2019), was the topic of his previous appearance in RTN #161 Food in The Era of Adulteration. Learn more about his work at his personal website or by following him on twitter at @BRCohen95.
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. |
| 0:09.3 | Today's topic is going to be food, and particularly food in the Gilded Age. |
| 0:15.9 | I'm excited we've got Ben Cohen back on. |
| 0:18.0 | You may recall him from his last appearance in February of 2020, or as I call |
| 0:22.8 | it the before times, the just before times. So I'm excited to have him back. He's got a new edited |
| 0:27.7 | collection out called Acquired Taste Stories about the Origins of Modern Food, which he edited |
| 0:32.5 | with Michael Kadekle and Anna Zady. And I'm excited to talk to him about this, and particularly about his |
| 0:38.2 | chapter on corn syrup, something that, I don't know, my father won't consume if he can't help |
| 0:44.1 | it, something people have strong feelings about, and we will look into the history of this and |
| 0:48.6 | kind of figure out maybe where we got some of this from. Before we bring Ben in, though, |
| 0:53.4 | I just want to say a couple of things. |
| 0:55.3 | First of all, speaking of the Gilded Age, friends, the very day that this episode airs, |
| 1:00.1 | you've got Monday off, hopefully. And so that means you've got some extra time to listen to |
| 1:03.8 | some podcasts. Well, go check out our conversation that I had with Greg Jackson on History |
| 1:10.5 | That Doesn't Suck that is dropping the same |
| 1:12.7 | day as this episode. So you can go over there and check out our friend Greg Jackson, who you got |
| 1:16.7 | to hear a clip from last week. We aired our conversation about the Articles of Confederation, |
| 1:21.4 | and we shared a little bit of that episode with you. Turned out great. Couldn't be more excited. |
| 1:26.9 | Finally, as always here, thank you to our patrons. |
| 1:31.0 | You guys keep this show going, literally keep this show going. And we could not be more grateful to you. |
| 1:37.1 | Guys, if you aren't a patron, please check us out at patreon.com slash the road to now. And we would love to have you there. We're actually, uh, if you're |
| 1:46.3 | listening this episode on Monday, then tomorrow we are doing an interview on the history of Miss |
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