A New York City plan to ban the purchase of soft drinks with food stamps has sparked fierce opposition from the food and beverage industries, and both sides in the debate have taken the fight to Washington.
As The New York Times reports, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sees the food-stamp ban, which would be launched as a two-year pilot program, as a way to combat obesity and prevent weight-related maladies such as heart disease and diabetes.
“This initiative will give New York families more money to spend on foods and drinks that provide real nourishment,” Bloomberg said.
His adversaries in the food industry respond that the government has no right to decide between good food and bad food.
“Once you start going into grocery carts, deciding what people can or cannot buy, where do you stop?” said Kevin W. Keane, senior vice president of the American Beverage Association, an industry group.
Critics, including some from antihunger groups, also say that such a move would unfairly penalize and stigmatize food stamp recipients, as well as create confusion in the checkout line of grocery stores.
Because food stamps are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bloomberg’s plan needs federal approval. While the Agriculture Department historically has opposed restrictions on food stamps, the Obama administration, which has launched an anti-obesity initiative under the leadership of first lady Michelle Obama, could prove amenable. Both sides are trying to sway U.S. officials, and industry groups have signed up lobbyists for the effort.
Some independent experts said that the New York plan should be given the green light. “Through the [food-stamp] program, the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year buying beverages that have been linked to risks for obesity and diabetes,” Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale, told the Times. “These conditions cost the government and taxpayers billions of dollars a year in costs paid by Medicare and Medicaid.”
The Bloomberg administration’s proposal would ban the use of food stamps to buy carbonated or noncarbonated drinks that are sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and have more than 10 calories per eight-ounce serving. New York officials estimate that $75 million to $135 million in food stamps is spent on such beverages in the city each year.
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Personally, I think using food stamps for junk foods is an abuse of the system since food stamps are funded by the government. On the other hand, soft drinks alone are not the only products that cause obesity. Obesity is caused by people making wrong choices on what they consume.