One bushel of corn produces enough syrup to sweeten 400 cans of soda.

A bushel is a unit of measurement for crops that weighs about 56 pounds (25.4 kilograms). To make sweetener, workers use a process called wet milling to break the corn down into parts like fiber and starch. They use special proteins called enzymes to turn that starch into a sugary syrup.This syrup is usually 55% fructose and 45% glucose. One bushel of corn creates about 33 pounds (15 kilograms) of this syrup. A standard 12-ounce (355 ml) can of soda uses about 40 grams of sweetener. When you divide the total syrup by the amount in each can, it equals roughly 400 sodas.In the late 1970s, sugar became expensive in the United States. Companies looked for a cheaper way to make drinks sweet and chose corn. By 1984, the biggest soda brands switched from cane sugar to corn syrup. Today, the U.S. grows over 14 billion bushels of corn every year. This high production keeps the cost of soda low for consumers.