Who are the players in Big Sugar who would exploit this? Can’t be the likes of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, because they’d also be part of Big Aspartame.
They are also the ones that pushed ethanol on us and told us it wouldn't hurt our engines (even though it absolutely did. Most engines now are designed with ethanol in mind, but ethanol gas destroyed a lot of otherwise perfectly fine engines before people realized it was a huge lie. By then it was too late anyway)
With the presidential primaries coming up we'll get another big reminder about how disproportionately influential the Iowa corn farmers are.
The sugar industry’s escapades are well known. Most notably, the SRF’s (Sugar Research Foundation) war on dietary fats[0][1].
[0]: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...
Edit to add something more concrete, we already have the "sugar tax" in the UK, to avoid it soft drinks went mostly sugar free or reduced sugar substantially, and replaced it with sweeteners.
And now: https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/artificial-sweeteners-to-face-go...
Simultaneously: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deposit-return-scheme-for...