Yesterday Mark Bittman published an article on the soda tax. In “Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke?“, Bittman explores the controversy of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages. The impetus for such concern are the rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes, both modern epidemics for children and adults in America. This is clearly a serious issue. And yet, the cure for this problem could not seem more ridiculous!
The abundance of HFCS – high fructose corn syrup is overwhelming. The scientific research on HFCS and obesity is growing. (For example.) And the popular (and controversial) response to the destructive evolution of food production is taxation. Let me explain why I believe this conclusion – a soda tax – is absurd or downright illogical.
The Farm Bill, our nation’s official policy on major agricultural issues, is the building block of industrial food’s influence on our food system. Of the many complex topics covered in the bill, one of particular interest here is the subsidization of corn: the millions, if not billions of dollars spent by the federal government paying farmers to grow corn. This cash incentive creates a lot of corn, so much corn that new means of using the surplus are invented regularly. One of the more commonly known “inventions” of subsidized corn is high fructose corn syrup.
Because corn is subsidized we have A LOT of corn. All this excess corn = excess corn products, one of which is sweeteners. And so it is no coincidence that HFCS is overly popular among producers of processed foods. Over the years the popularity of HFCS has exploded. And now we are faced with an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes, for which links between the two are evident. Somehow the great minds that be have decided that taxing beverages with HFCS (and other sugary sweeteners) is the solution to this widespread public health concern.
Soda is the new tobacco.
But why tax soda when you can remove subsidies for corn? Isn’t that the problem?! Isn’t the abundance of cheap corn the reason for the abundance of HFCS, and thus the abundance of super cheap soda pop?! If corn farmers lost their subsidy, that would surely rise the cost of soda, let alone other products that rely on corn-based sweeteners. This line of reason raises another important concern…
If HFCS is scientifically proven to cause obesity and/or type 2 diabetes, why stop at taxing soda? If the subsidies are reinstated and the taxation seems more likely, shouldn’t we tax all food producers that use HFCS? The justification of taxing sugary beverages doesn’t seem to make the most sense. I fear this missing link would weaken the proposal in the first place. If taxation is the cure to correcting people’s behavior (a sad fact in and of itself), let’s not limit ourselves to beverages. Tax all of the greedy, sugar-pushing companies that feed off of our addictions and ignorance.
Or better yet, since everyone hates taxes anyways, stop subsidizing cheap food and let us reap the benefits of paying the real cost of real food!
Related posts:
- To Tax or Not To Tax? Obesity is the Question.
- Drink Soda, Get Fat or “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat”
- Food Subsidies – Our Biggest Threat
- Health Eating, Healthy Junk Food?
- Michael Pollan strikes again!
Tags: Food Politics, Mark Bittman, subsidies, USDA
[...] The last time I wrote about the soda tax, I argued against the logic of it. I think it’s ludicrous to tax soda and still subsidize corn. This time around, it is clear that subsidization of healthy foods must happen. In another article, Laskway writes, “It’s nice that we are finally willing to start taxing unhealthy food. But without doing something about the good stuff, we’re only fighting half the battle.” For a country that prides itself on the “free market,” the grocery store is an awful example of this economic ideal. At any grocery store, you have whole foods competing with processed foods, and the latter has the advantage of subsidized ingredients. If we want to practice what we preach, the least we could do is subsidize the whole foods too. [...]
[...] hypertension, heart disease, etc. And yet, any reader of this blog probably knows this stuff (see here and here .) I can’t help but write about obesity and its discontents. The problems are too [...]