Will New Yorkers agree to a tax on sugary soft drinks?

That is yet to be determined, but both proponents and opponents are not taking any chances. The Alliance for a Healthier New York is airing the above commercial til mid March. Will this counterpunch to the well oiled marketing and PR machine of the American Beverage Association succeed?

We’re highly doubtful that the campaign will succeed, despite the fact that soft drinks are a major contributor to our obesity problem. Some interesting stats from the alliance:

• Each can of soda a child consumes per day, increases their odds of becoming obese by 60%.
• High soft drink consumption increases the risk of diabetes in women by 83%.
• The Soda and Sugary Drink Tax is expected to decrease consumption up to 15%.

We suggest that instead of taxing consumers, the manufacturers be taxed directly for the damage they are causing to our health. This can be done through a levy on each ton of sweetener they use to produce sugary drinks. This is the just approach, if the industry broke it, they should fix it, not the consumers.

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If you have not been following the soda tax controversy lately, here’s a quick update. In the past year,  Capitol Hill and even the President have said that taxing sugary soft drinks may be a good way to reduce consumption and create a $50B revenue stream for the federal government over the next decade.

The American Beverage Association spun into action in order to kill any such legislative ideas, using TV commercials, direct lobbying efforts, and through persuading additional organizations representing Hispanics to join the fight. Why Hispanics? Because the numbers show that they are more apt to consume soft drinks on one hand, but have less to spend on the other. The soft drink industry repeatedly stated it is “protecting working families”.

All told, the ABA spent $18 million. The efforts succeeded, and just a few weeks ago it seemed as if all the congressmen who supported the tax suddenly had a change of heart. In launching her new campaign against childhood obesity, the First Lady also steered clear of the soda tax issue. In return, Coca Cola and Pepsi pledged to prominently display beverage calorie counts on their products.

Now for the news. Not content with the federal response, California is considering a state tax on soda, according to the Los Angeles Times:

Legislators last week pledged to pass such a tax in light of new studies linking soft drink consumption to obesity in children and adults. One study suggests that obesity and related problems cost California alone $41 billion a year in medical expenses and reduced productivity.

…When California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) introduced his soda tax bill, he said one penny of tax per teaspoon of added sugar in any sweetened beverage would generate as much as $1.5 billion each year. That money would pay for parks, recreation and school health programs, Florez said. “The Legislature is primed for this bill,” Florez said, adding that he expects bipartisan support. read more…

And in an interesting turn of events, one of the Hispanic organizations that initially aligned itself with Coke decided to break away, and 2 Californian chapters of other organizations split from the still-in-bed-with-Coke national organizations. Bravo!

Our take on this issue is a bit different. While we certainly applaud any and all actions meant to decrease sugar consumption on a massive scale, the tax should be levied directly on manufacturers. Read more about “calorie offsets” that will squeeze the cash from rich corporation instead of “working families”.

What to do at the supermarket:

Whether you’re a working family or not, the easiest way to save $500 a year is to quit soft drinks and switch to tap water (for a family of four). You’ll save not just 5 Benjamins, but also several pounds of body weight, along with a decrease in tooth decay, and a general contribution to a greener earth.

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Remember the proposed soda tax? The added penny per fluid ounce, generating $50 billion in funds to combat obesity in the next 10 years?

Well, forget about it.

Never mind obesity. To hell with diabetes.

The beverage industry needs to grow its bottom line, and no one is going to to tax its products. Certainly not a bunch of do gooders on behalf of the “nanny-state”.

You see, in this great democracy called America, money votes. And through a series of contributions and investments of the American Beverage Association, the proposed tax has been all but buried.

In a saddening-as-much-as-it-is-enlightening article in the Los Angeles Times, the money trail is revealed. A series of well planned moves by beverage industry lobbyists included:

1. Discrediting researchers from Yale and UCLA who linked soft drink consumption with obesity.

2. Funding of research that showed no relationship between soft drink consumption and obesity. The researchers are or have been on the payroll of the beverage industry at one time.

3. Contribution to Hispanic organizations. Reasoning: the soda tax will hit the poor the most. Hispanic groups are now against the tax, despite diabetes hitting Latino youths especially hard.

4. A $10 million Ad campaign aired on prime time and playing on chords of hard working moms not needing to pay extra in these tough times.

5. Enlisting the aid of other industries in order to thwart the tax:

“The industries in our coalition realized that this is a slippery slope, that once government reaches into the grocery cart, your business could be next,” said Kevin Keane, senior vice president, public affairs, for the American Beverage Assn.

6. A big bribe (north of $600,000) to the American Academy of Family Physicians, to be used to underwrite “educational materials to help consumers make informed decisions.”

What you need to know:

Make no mistake, soda pop and sweetened beverages are a major contributing factor to obesity. The price poor people are paying for their soda now is minuscule compared to their health expenses 10 or 20 years down the road.  Unfortunately, there is no ANTI-Beverage-Association with deep pockets to coordinate a counter offensive.

As long as companies externalize the true cost of their products, gullible consumers will choose cheap and sweet satisfaction now, with heart disease and heartache down the road. This must end, but as you can see, there are no effective mechanisms, even at government levels, to stave off the power of corporate lobbies.

And with the recent supreme court decision to allow unlimited campaign contribution by companies to our politicians, you can rest assured Washington DC will NOT make an effort to change things.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you want to impact change, stop buying liquid calories. Switch to tap water. Switch your whole family. Switch as many of your friends and neighbors as you can to do the same. You’ll save money, you’ll save your health.

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New York City is plastering subways with graphic ads depicting human fat pouring out of soda bottles into serving glasses. In a provocative question, the ad asks “Are you pouring on the pounds?”

“Sugary drinks shouldn’t be a part of our everyday diet,” said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas A. Farley. “Drinking beverages loaded with sugars increases the risk of obesity and associated problems, particularly diabetes but also heart disease, stroke, arthritis and cancer.”

read NYC Press Release…

What you need to know:

This is part of a campaign to get people to make more nutritious choices, after  an ill-fated attempt at a soda tax by NY state earlier this year.

Americans are consuming 300 calories more today than we did a generation ago. Many of those come in liquid candy form, aka soda, juice drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, and vitamin waters.

As an example, a 12 oz can of soda pop contains 8 teaspoons of sugar. That’s 8 teaspoons our bodies do not need. As rates of obesity in adults and children have soared, governments at the state and local level are trying to help in reversing the trend.

As expected the  beverage industry is furious and denounced the ad, saying it was “more focused on the sensational rather than the substance” and would “do more harm than good.”

We agree, this campaign will do more harm than good to the beverage makers’ bottom line. But just possibly they’ll do some good to our bottoms.

What to do at the supermarket:

Here’s a radical idea – try skipping the beverage aisle altogether. A family of 4 can save over $500 a year by switching to tap water. Not to mention all the health benefits.

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