When food campaigners don’t like something, their basic reaction is
to tax it.
The latest example (Kamerow, Yankee Doodling, 17 July), is the soft drink
tax
in the US --- successor to the junk food tax, the fat tax, the sugar tax.
All
have failed. So we keep getting fatter and fatter.
Of course, we need to raise the price of unhealthy foods. Of course,
food
companies fund consumer organisations to front their fight --- just like
drug
companies.
But when are public health advocates going to get clever, instead of
crying
conspiracy every time they lose?
Let’s start from Square One. People hate taxes. Americans hate them
more
than most. After all, the TEA Party stands for “taxed enough already”.
Most of all, people resent taxes on pleasures. The more visible the
tax, the
more they hate it. So proposing a tax on soft drinks is guaranteed to
provoke
consumer backlash --- whether drink manufacturers bribe them or not.
So how do you raise the price of soft drinks without a tax? Here are
some
options, using America’s bloated agricultural support system for public
health
ends.
1. Raise the support price for sugar. Yes, raise it --- so the
powerful sugar
lobby won’t resist. The higher sugar price will feed through to higher
prices
for all sweetened foods, not just soft drinks. That includes
confectionery, ice
cream, biscuits, breakfast cereals. Then….
2. Cut the production quotas for US sugar. Having had a price rise,
producers
won’t scream too loudly when quotas are reduced a bit. But a smaller
supply
will put further upward pressure on prices. That will only work if you
also….
3. Raise the tariffs and cut the quotas on sugar imports, so that
cheaper
foreign supplies do not undercut the new higher US domestic price. And
also….
4. Eliminate the tariff free quotas on some foreign sugar that are a
distinctive
feature of US policy.
The higher price for sugar will lead quickly to a price gap opening
up between
sugared and sugarless soft drinks. This will give an economic incentive
to the
healthier choice.
The World Health Organisation has a slogan: make the healthy choice
the easy
choice. This strategy extends that logic --- make the healthy choice the
cheaper choice.
The tactical advantage of this approach is that the mechanisms behind
the
price rise are virtually invisible to the public. Few consumers ever
understand agricultural policy.
And by making sugarless soft drinks look cheaper, it even seems to
create a
bargain. The strategy also carries a nationalist halo, appearing to
protect
American farmers.
It is not only American health policy makers who should adopt this
cunning.
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy recently CUT the price of sugar by 36%
-
-- in the midst of an obesity epidemic! The same policy prescription
applies,
with even greater force, in Europe.
Rapid Response:
How to Raise the Prices of Unhealthy Foods
When food campaigners don’t like something, their basic reaction is
to tax it.
The latest example (Kamerow, Yankee Doodling, 17 July), is the soft drink
tax
in the US --- successor to the junk food tax, the fat tax, the sugar tax.
All
have failed. So we keep getting fatter and fatter.
Of course, we need to raise the price of unhealthy foods. Of course,
food
companies fund consumer organisations to front their fight --- just like
drug
companies.
But when are public health advocates going to get clever, instead of
crying
conspiracy every time they lose?
Let’s start from Square One. People hate taxes. Americans hate them
more
than most. After all, the TEA Party stands for “taxed enough already”.
Most of all, people resent taxes on pleasures. The more visible the
tax, the
more they hate it. So proposing a tax on soft drinks is guaranteed to
provoke
consumer backlash --- whether drink manufacturers bribe them or not.
So how do you raise the price of soft drinks without a tax? Here are
some
options, using America’s bloated agricultural support system for public
health
ends.
1. Raise the support price for sugar. Yes, raise it --- so the
powerful sugar
lobby won’t resist. The higher sugar price will feed through to higher
prices
for all sweetened foods, not just soft drinks. That includes
confectionery, ice
cream, biscuits, breakfast cereals. Then….
2. Cut the production quotas for US sugar. Having had a price rise,
producers
won’t scream too loudly when quotas are reduced a bit. But a smaller
supply
will put further upward pressure on prices. That will only work if you
also….
3. Raise the tariffs and cut the quotas on sugar imports, so that
cheaper
foreign supplies do not undercut the new higher US domestic price. And
also….
4. Eliminate the tariff free quotas on some foreign sugar that are a
distinctive
feature of US policy.
The higher price for sugar will lead quickly to a price gap opening
up between
sugared and sugarless soft drinks. This will give an economic incentive
to the
healthier choice.
The World Health Organisation has a slogan: make the healthy choice
the easy
choice. This strategy extends that logic --- make the healthy choice the
cheaper choice.
The tactical advantage of this approach is that the mechanisms behind
the
price rise are virtually invisible to the public. Few consumers ever
understand agricultural policy.
And by making sugarless soft drinks look cheaper, it even seems to
create a
bargain. The strategy also carries a nationalist halo, appearing to
protect
American farmers.
It is not only American health policy makers who should adopt this
cunning.
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy recently CUT the price of sugar by 36%
-
-- in the midst of an obesity epidemic! The same policy prescription
applies,
with even greater force, in Europe.
Prof J T Winkler
Director, Nutrition Policy Unit
28 St Paul Street
London N1 7AB
www.nutritionpolicy.org
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests