America has been known for their poor eating habits which have been the causes of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Bittman argues that the food industry is not concerned about the public health, only profit, unless the federal government makes changes. He emphasizes on the topic of reversing the food industry by taxing unhealthy foods and subsidizing healthy foods, to better the eating habits of Americans. Doing so, should result in less consumption of unhealthy foods and making healthy food more affordable and available. Some states already have a sales tax on unhealthy food which get added to the total at the register. However, Bittman expresses that unhealthy foods should have an excise tax because they are already shown on the shelf price, influencing the decision on purchasing. Typically, when purchasing an item many look at the shelf price and forget about the slight sales tax that is placed, so having the excise tax already in the price will result in less purchasing of unhealthy foods because of its higher price. Bittman explains how the pricing of food is determined based on the ingredients, and that other countries are putting in place a tax on saturated fat foods or unhealthy foods, something that should be done nationwide.
Although some say that taxing unhealthy food will not benefit those of low income, who are the majority of the people who buy unhealthy foods because they're cheaper. But Bittman argues that it would benefit them more by taxing the unhealthy foods, upsetting the food industry, and funding healthier alternatives to make them be as available and affordable as soda and saturated fats foods were. A huge benefit would be that it would generate billions of dollars that would go to funding healthier foods and protecting the public health by lowering the risks of diseases. Overall the government only cares about profit and so far unhealthy foods make more profit but harm the public health, whereas subsidizing healthy foods would make more profit and improve the public health of americans.
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My topic is on the impact of food advertisement and low income communities affecting the increasing number of child obesity. Here are a few sources:
- Food environments and obesity—neighbourhood or nation?
- The impact of food advertising on childhood obesity
- The State of Childhood Obesity
Prices are definitely a big factor when it comes to people buying their foods. I didn’t realize that more profit would come from taxing the crappy foods and that would turn into money to fund for healthy programs, interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe government does indeed prioritize revenue over the health of the people. This is an undeniable fact ergo unhealthy foods will continue to prevail. Simply taxing the unhealthy foods isn't so simple. Agriculture is an industry worth approximately $136 billion whereas the fast food industry is worth well over $500 billion. It is clear which of the two is the dominant business. Putting taxes on the half a trillion dollar business will make a massive dent on the government's revenue; the cost is much too great.
ReplyDeleteI feel that if we added taxes as you mentioned earlier on products like junk food, people would stop biting their product and possible take the time to see where this product came from. It would also reduce the obesity rate by a large amount. We live in a capitalist country where money is the main goal of businesses and they will do whatever they can to keep it going even if it involves selling junk food. People of lower income would benefit from the money to support healthier alternatives as you said for them to eat healthy. It’s crazy to see how we have grown as a country and what food is served to us at lunch or on the streets such as fast food restaurants that are all over the place.
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