Mark Bittman's Bad Food (Tax)

Everyone has their own opinion of what constitutes good food.  In Sunday, July 24th's New York Times Mark Bittman officially confirmed his place along side Michael Pollan as an advocate for healthy, unprocessed foods.  Many may take issue in his jump from recipe purveyor to opinion writer but we can only hope that his ideas have a positive influence on future food policy. His article, "Bad Food? Tax It",  offers a glimpse into the possibilities of a federally supported soft drink excise tax.  Bittman argues in support of such a tax.  (Why he omits diet sodas from the equation is baffling; are they not just as noxious as sugar laden drinks?)  He acknowledges the artificially low prices of soft drinks due to current subsidies for corn (and high-fructose corn syrup) yet he fails to make a critical connection: the passage of a beverage tax without the full eradication of this subsidy is simply a means of recuperating the funds the government has already given farmers and corporations to grow and manufacture the very product we would be taxing.

Bittman  suggests a transfer of commodity based subsidies to other "staples" such as seasonal greens, vegetables and other healthy foods.  While noble in its ideals this transfer of subsidies would benefit neither farmers nor the public.  Artificially low food prices (of any food) do not adequately convey the true cost of growing food.  Food is not free, even if you grow it yourself, as farmers well know.  The average American spends less than 9.5% of their income on food; this is the lowest percentage of income spent on food of any other country on the planet (Italy spends 25%, Japan 19%, France 16%, and the UK 11%; middle-income countries spend 35% and low-income countries 55%).  We need to focus on changing the American diet through sustainable, cost-effective means.  A beverage tax may help get us there; redirected subsidies will not.

Regardless of one's stance on subsidies, taxing unhealthy foods is certainly one means of persuading Americans to change their high calorie, saccharine-rich diet.  Mark Bittman's front page opinion in the Times' Sunday Review helps focus our attention on one aspect of this diet; it's time to impose an excise tax on soft drinks and help America work off its ever increasing waist line.

Click here for Mark Bittman's "Bad Food? Tax It"