4 ms·

I'll know they're serious about health when they put a tax on added sugar and an additional tax on high fructose corn syrup. Until then, they're just actors on

I'll know they're serious about health when they put a tax on added sugar and an additional tax on high fructose corn syrup. Until then, they're just actors on a stage

Madmallard 4y ago
Do you mean taxes on the producers for using it because it is addictive? Because taxes on the consumer makes zero sense.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tjohns 4y ago
  A big part of the reason why we have an epidemic of obesity is because it's cheaper (and easier) to eat junk food than to eat healthy. Here in the Bay Area, I can buy a McDonalds value menu hamburger and a soda for $2, or I can buy a healthy salad at SweetGreen/Panera/Mendocino for $15-20. If healthy food was on a level playing field, many people would choose to eat healthier. (Now, this doesn't address the problem about rising food costs, and the macroeconomic implications hare are beyond my expertise... but surely forcing those with a low income to have to eat junk food isn't what we want as a society.)
- ilikehurdles 4y ago
  It makes no difference. Goods aren’t produced in a vacuum, and a tax on one is eventually a tax on the other because prices changes are transitive.
- tylersmith 4y ago
  Consumers pay the cost of production, taxes and all. Otherwise the business is losing money.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
gnicholas 4y ago
> an additional tax on high fructose corn syrup If memory serves, HFCS is effectively subsidized by the fact that corn is subsidized. On the other hand, there are huge price supports for the domestic sugar industry, via import tariffs on foreign sugar.
sonofhans 4y ago
Yes, I totally agree. Until we shut off the cheap sugar pump, everything else is whistling past the graveyard.
joshfraser 4y ago
we can start by ending the current corn subsidies
ARandomerDude 4y ago
That'll help with inflation...
bryans 4y ago
I'm rarely shocked by the ingredients of food anymore, but I was looking at a packet of "honey sauce" from KFC the other day, and couldn't help but laugh at the things we're doing to ourselves. There are 11 ingredients and 5 of them are added sugar. All to recreate something resembling honey, at approximately 2/3 the cost of real honey. "High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Honey (7%), Fructose, Contains 2% or Less of: Caramel Color, Molasses, Water, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Malic Acid." That is sugar, sugar, sugar, honey, sugar, color, sugar, water, acid, flavorant, acid. The lengths they've gone to save a literal penny are staggering.
- landemva 4y ago
  Similarly fake for mayonnaise both in restaurant packets and in most grocery stores.
- TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
  Imagine the price of honey if all these faux sauces were made with more than a passing sniff of the stuff.
  - landemva 4y ago
    OK, I imagine higher honey prices would bring more producers. Maybe some corn sugar producers would become honey producers. Then production would increase and price would decrease.
  - bryans 4y ago
    That's a good question. KFC gets 12 million customers per day. Let's generously assume an average of one 9g packet is included per customer. The packets already contain 7% honey, so to go full honey is an additional demand of 100 metric tons out of 4,850 produced daily, which represents ~2% of the total market. The average retail price of this grade of honey is $0.45/oz, so even presuming production continues to decline during this increased demand, we would see an increase of roughly $0.10 per 16oz bottle for store brand honeys. We would also be taking 5,475 metric tons of sugar out of global diets every year, or 22 billion calories.
- 4y ago

I'll know they're serious about health when they put a tax on added sugar and an additional tax on high fructose corn syrup. Until then, they're just actors on a stage

Madmallard 4y ago

Do you mean taxes on the producers for using it because it is addictive? Because taxes on the consumer makes zero sense.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tjohns 4y ago
A big part of the reason why we have an epidemic of obesity is because it's cheaper (and easier) to eat junk food than to eat healthy. Here in the Bay Area, I can buy a McDonalds value menu hamburger and a soda for $2, or I can buy a healthy salad at SweetGreen/Panera/Mendocino for $15-20. If healthy food was on a level playing field, many people would choose to eat healthier. (Now, this doesn't address the problem about rising food costs, and the macroeconomic implications hare are beyond my expertise... but surely forcing those with a low income to have to eat junk food isn't what we want as a society.)
ilikehurdles 4y ago
It makes no difference. Goods aren’t produced in a vacuum, and a tax on one is eventually a tax on the other because prices changes are transitive.
tylersmith 4y ago
Consumers pay the cost of production, taxes and all. Otherwise the business is losing money.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

gnicholas 4y ago

> an additional tax on high fructose corn syrup If memory serves, HFCS is effectively subsidized by the fact that corn is subsidized. On the other hand, there are huge price supports for the domestic sugar industry, via import tariffs on foreign sugar.

sonofhans 4y ago

Yes, I totally agree. Until we shut off the cheap sugar pump, everything else is whistling past the graveyard.

joshfraser 4y ago

we can start by ending the current corn subsidies

ARandomerDude 4y ago

That'll help with inflation...

bryans 4y ago

I'm rarely shocked by the ingredients of food anymore, but I was looking at a packet of "honey sauce" from KFC the other day, and couldn't help but laugh at the things we're doing to ourselves. There are 11 ingredients and 5 of them are added sugar. All to recreate something resembling honey, at approximately 2/3 the cost of real honey. "High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Honey (7%), Fructose, Contains 2% or Less of: Caramel Color, Molasses, Water, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Malic Acid." That is sugar, sugar, sugar, honey, sugar, color, sugar, water, acid, flavorant, acid. The lengths they've gone to save a literal penny are staggering.

landemva 4y ago
Similarly fake for mayonnaise both in restaurant packets and in most grocery stores.
TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
Imagine the price of honey if all these faux sauces were made with more than a passing sniff of the stuff.
- landemva 4y ago
  OK, I imagine higher honey prices would bring more producers. Maybe some corn sugar producers would become honey producers. Then production would increase and price would decrease.
- bryans 4y ago
  That's a good question. KFC gets 12 million customers per day. Let's generously assume an average of one 9g packet is included per customer. The packets already contain 7% honey, so to go full honey is an additional demand of 100 metric tons out of 4,850 produced daily, which represents ~2% of the total market. The average retail price of this grade of honey is $0.45/oz, so even presuming production continues to decline during this increased demand, we would see an increase of roughly $0.10 per 16oz bottle for store brand honeys. We would also be taking 5,475 metric tons of sugar out of global diets every year, or 22 billion calories.
4y ago