You probably know that there’s too much corn syrup in the American diet – the problematic kind is High Fructose Corn Syrup, which can be found in everything from ketchup to baked goods, sweet drinks, and soup.

Apparently the publicity has the corn industry worried, because now it’s using the term “corn sugar” in place of High Fructose Corn Syrup.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) thinks this is not a good idea and has told the corn industry to stop using “corn sugar.” This warning has not had any effect, according to a story in the Associated Press this week, and the term is still being used. As you can imagine, the folks who make beet sugar and cane sugar aren’t happy, either.

I’m not a chemist, but I try to be media literate, and whenever an industry’s solution to a problem is to think up a new name, I’m suspicious. In their book Trust Us, We’re Experts, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber expose the tactics used by industry to convince us that their products are safe and useful. It’s not a pretty picture.

What you can do: Read labels. Teach children to do the same. Choose products that have little or no HFCS. And look askance at new names for old problems.

Sometimes we have to choose between two moral principles when two good causes vie for our support. Here’s a case in today’s news. The California legislature has passed a bill banning the trade in shark fins, which are procured by catching a shark, cutting off its fins while it is alive, and throwing it back into the ocean to die a slow, agonizing death.

Pretty obviously a good thing, right, to reduce cruelty?  Yet the ban runs up against values of some non-western cultures. Shark fins are used in soup in some Asian cuisines.  So some Asian-American legislators are calling the bill “racist.” According to today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Sen. Ted Lieu of Torrance and Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco are fighting the ban.

Respect for other cultures is a good thing. Reducing torture of animals is a good thing. So what should we do when these values collide?

One could write to Sens. Lieu (info@tedlieu.com)and Lee (http://lcmspubcontact.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.php?district=SD08). Or you could telephone Lee (415 557 7857).

You do not have to participate in cruelty to obtain healthful, delicious food. So let’s hope Governor Brown signs the bill into law.

At Whole Foods, you’ll see fish coded by color: green for “sustainable,” yellow for “not-so-sustainable,” and red for “you really shouldn’t be buying this, but we’ll sell it to you anyway.” While sockeye salmon might make you feel virtuous, knowing you’ve chosen responsibly using the color codes, there are some factors that aren’t on the codes.

The International Program on the State of the Ocean released a report that over-fishing and pollution from aquaculture have triggered a “phase of extinction unprecedented in human history.” The solution goes beyond consulting your Seafood Watch card. since these cards and color-coded systems don’t take into consideration the carbon impacts fisheries create while their fleets are chasing down fish species the whole Earth over. For instance, Seafood Watch classifies salmon caught in Alaska, which is over 2,200 miles away from the Bay Area, as the best choice you could make on your next grocery run. Tilapia caught somewhere in South America, which could mean anywhere from 6,000 to 9,000 miles of one-way travel, is listed as “a good alternative.”

So simply following the guides will not solve the over-fishing crisis. These guides help, but they should be improved. The world’s governments should create more marine conservation areas, with small organic fisheries located near the coast of most countries. Other solutions are being enacted. Will all this happen in time? Let’s hope so, as something needs to be done, soon.

The best thing you can do is to stop eating fish and other seafood. If you feel you must have them, buy small quantities of sustainable fish from a trusted source, as you never know how much of the information provided (such as how the fish were caught – one hook per line, or in a mile-long net that scoops up everything in its path?) is true.

Grist has a good story about this, and a great graphic.

Note: Mina Arasteh contributed to this story