Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables

 By MARK BITTMAN

Published: July 23, 2011

NY Times

WHAT will it take to get Americans to change our eating habits? The need is indisputable, since heart disease, diabetes and cancer are all in large part caused by the Standard American Diet. (Yes, it’s SAD.)
Though experts increasingly recommend a diet high in plants and low in animal products and processed foods, ours is quite the opposite, and there’s little disagreement that changing it could improve our health and save tens of millions of lives.
And — not inconsequential during the current struggle over deficits and spending — a sane diet could save tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in health care costs.
Yet the food industry appears incapable of marketing healthier foods. And whether its leaders are confused or just stalling doesn’t matter, because the fixes are not really their problem. Their mission is not public health but profit, so they’ll continue to sell the health-damaging food that’s most profitable, until the market or another force skews things otherwise. That “other force” should be the federal government, fulfilling its role as an agent of the public good and establishing a bold national fix.
Rather than subsidizing the production of unhealthful foods, we should turn the tables and tax things like soda, French fries, doughnuts and hyperprocessed snacks. The resulting income should be earmarked for a program that encourages a sound diet for Americans by making healthy food more affordable and widely available.
The average American consumes 44.7 gallons of soft drinks annually. (Although that includes diet sodas, it does not include noncarbonated sweetened beverages, which add up to at least 17 gallons a person per year.) Sweetened drinks could be taxed at 2 cents per ounce, so a six-pack of Pepsi would cost $1.44 more than it does now. An equivalent tax on fries might be 50 cents per serving; a quarter extra for a doughnut. (We have experts who can figure out how “bad” a food should be to qualify, and what the rate should be; right now they’re busy calculating ethanol subsidies. Diet sodas would not be taxed.)
Simply put: taxes would reduce consumption of unhealthful foods and generate billions of dollars annually. That money could be used to subsidize the purchase of staple foods like seasonal greens, vegetables, whole grains, dried legumes and fruit.
We could sell those staples cheap — let’s say for 50 cents a pound — and almost everywhere: drugstores, street corners, convenience stores, bodegas, supermarkets, liquor stores, even schools, libraries and other community centers.
Full Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24bittman.html

NM Public Health Association 7th Annual Health Policy Legislative Forum

The NMPHA Annual Health Policy Legislative Forum provides the only opportunity in New Mexico for organizations and individuals working to improve their community’s health by engaging in the state legislative process to come together and share their legislative agendas for the upcoming state legislative session. Organizations are given a chance to make a brief statement about their legislative proposals and also submit summary information to be included in a booklet. The booklet is distributed to all Forum participants, as well as many policymakers and other interested parties after the Forum. The Forum provides an environment in which policy advocates can identify allies and possible collaborators, as well as request support from NMPHA and other participating organizations.

Special highlights of the 2010 Forum will include:

• A keynote presentation by Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO of Policy Link. Sponsored by the NM Health Equity Working Group, Ms. Glover Blackwell will address institutionalized racism.

• HSD Secretary Katie Falls will provide a high-level overview of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and how the state is gearing up to implement its many policies, programs, and responsibilities. This will be followed by a panel of experts and advocates, all of whom will lead afternoon workshops, to comment on specific parts and aspects of the health reform bill of interest to the New Mexico public health community.

• Afternoon breakout sessions on PPACA and its implications for Public Health in New Mexico, including sessions on provisions affecting the Native American community, school-based health care, and the health care workforce, as well as how to move from PPACA to a single-payer system, the race and wealth gap, and tax-policy possibilities that can improve public health.

To Register Online, Go to:   http://www.nmpha.org/

For more information, contact Tracy at tmcdaniel.nmpha@gmail.com