Sugar is in so much of the food we eat every day. Often, it's in foods where it would make sense, such as soda, candy, cake, pie, cookies, donuts, etc. It can also be found in foods where it makes less sense like in ordinary bread, ketchup, BBQ sauce, and such. Either way, we go through a lot of sugar every year and it has to come from somewhere.
Recently, the corporations that go through a lot of sugar or sweetener have become increasingly dependent on palm oil, despite the controversies and devastation surrounding it. But, just why would they pick palm oil of all things to get their sweet fix?
High fructose corn syrup has problems too, but at least corn can be grown in significant amounts on existing cropland to provide enough a massive quantity of sugar.
What about sugar beets or sugar cane? They can also be grown on existing farmland (including USA farmland) in massive quantities. Every year in the area where I live, at least a few farmers are planting and harvesting sugar beets. Both the crop field outside my house and the one across from my house on the other side of the road have had lots of sugar beets grown and harvested in them.
If USA farmers can't produce enough sugar through corn or sugar beet/cane, when why not just import those types of sugars from other nations instead of relying on palm oil?