Susan-
The bulk of the corn grown in the US comes from large agribusiness companies, not small farmers. Their lobbying is what prompted the government to subsidize ethanol from corn--one of the sillier ways to produce biofuels. Subsidies have placed high-fructose corn syrup in a more-than-competitive position with cane sugar, which is why the soft drink industry has almost completely switched to corn syrup for sweeteners.