On Thursday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he had asked the US Department of Agriculture to allow the city to exempt soda from the permitted list of items its 1.7 million food stamp recipients can purchase with their benefits. This ban would last for two years, enough time to assess its effects and determine whether the ban should be continued on a permanent basis. New York City food stamp recipients spend an estimated $75 million to $135 million of their $2.7 billion in food stamps annually on soda. read more
Should taxpayers be subsidizing the purchase of soda and other sugary drinks, and thus the obesity epidemic?
What are we doing to make nutritious food and drink more affordable? Is there a way to create an incentive to purchase healthy food, rather than a disincentive to purchase unhealthy food?
Should the government be dictating what types of food low income people have access to?
How to we make the healthy choice the easy choice for all Americans?
To what extent will powerful corporations that have a vested interest in the sales of unhealthful food influence the decision of the USDA? Is it really about human dignity, or is it about money?
I don't have answers. Only a lot of tough questions.
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