In the uphill battle to fight obesity, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has petitioned the United States Department of Agriculture to ban the 1.7 million food stamp users from using them to buy soda, or other sugared drinks.
This move is part of series of interventions to curb obesity, which have included advertisements, stricter rules on food sold in schools, and a yet-to-be successful attempt to tax sugared drinks.
Herein lies a good concept in a stirred pot of political, ethical and health soup.
I'm going to come right out and say it: I like the idea. I like it a lot. In fact, I think food stamps should be used to buy vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds and canned goods - healthy foods. I also realize the stepping-on-eggshells nature of this kind of idea.
Look, this thing should be signed, sealed and delivered starting today, but in the "humor us all" department, let's take a look at some of the sticky issues that may arise with this sort of stipulation.
Ethically, is it fair to discriminate against those with food stamps? Who are we to tell them what they can and cannot buy?
Conversely, we all have a collective responsibility to ensure that our already-off-the-rails health care spending doesn't go even further into the abyss.
I don't see this as too "big brother" at all. The run-of-the-mill straw man argument here will be "how dare they tell people what they can and cannot eat or drink", but let's remember that regulating what people can spend their government assistance on is not the same as telling people what they can and cannot eat/drink.
As with many other similarly conceived ideas, the problems are deeply rooted, and the solution is multifaceted. While this is a great idea, there are bigger fish to fry - specifically corn subsidies that keep prices artificially low.
In the end I don't see this passing due to the industry-cozy relationship between big food and government food regulators. I'm sure they have the soda lobbyists working overtime to ensure that this idea never sees the light of day. Moreover, in 2004, the Agriculture Department denied a request by Minnesota to prevent food-stamp recipients from buying junk food.
What are your thoughts on this?
Image credit: poolie
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