Ok, so it's all a big business... and that's why you have so many fat people there.. companies make big cash at the expenses of fat people's health.
"Because of a system of price supports and sugar quotas imposed since May 1982, importing sugar into the United States is prohibitively expensive. High-fructose corn syrup, derived from corn, is more economical since the American price of sugar is artificially far higher than the global price of sugar[10] and the price of #2 corn is artificially low due to both government subsidies and dumping on the market as farmers produce more corn annually.[11][12]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup