You are doing your weekly food shopping at the local supermarket. You travel down one of the aisles looking for a healthy snack food for your family. You come upon a whole section dedicated to all kinds of popcorn. There is microwave popcorn, already popped popcorn, ready to be popped, new ways to pop, carmelized, cheddarized, low fat, buttered, unbuttered and suddenly you ask yourself: “Who is behind this variety of popcorn at my local grocer?” Well, believe it or not, it is the United States Government and an agency formed under the United States Department of Agriculture.
In 1995, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) proposed establishing a new government program:
“To enable processors of popcorn to develop, finance, and carry out a nationally coordinated program for popcorn promotion, research, consumer information, and industry information, and for other purposes.” -S.1336
His Senate Bill 1336 in 1995 established the Popcorn Board. Operating under the United States Department of Agriculture and its Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) the agency engages in research and promotional services for popcorn and its related products.
Six cents per hundredweight
Financed by a fee of six cents per hundredweight from processors of more than four million pounds of popcorn annually, the Popcorn Board encourages furthering the popcorn industry, protecting domestic producers, and encouraging the consumption of popular food. The current income from this fee is $650,000 according to the board’s financial statement. It does not receive funding from the US taxpayers.
Rachel Foley, Senior Agriculture Operations Specialist at Conagra Brands is the current chair of the five-member board. The board, among other tasks, oversees the website Popcorn.org to inform the consumer, promote research and increase consumer love for food.
In one section, entitled , the site debunks false information about the product. For example despite what you may have heard: GMO popcorn does not exist in the US and there is no current knowledge of it existing elsewhere. The food is gluten-free, it is not junk food because it is a whole-grain snack. Also when microwaving your popcorn only use the…