Jason Bade’s Recent Comments

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  This sounds very familiar: I joined my school district's wellness committee after hours of phones calls with the district's "Director of Nutrition" trying to understand why fresh and local foods could not be used (I ended up writing an expose in my school paper, found here: http://greeniusreport.blogspot.com/2008/06/fix-your-school-food-program-or-at.html). The problem is that nobody at the district level understands food; they just understand the quantified nutrients that are established as daily minimums and maximums by law (which is all anyone is concerned about; that, and not losing money). For example: in order to "balance" a person's meal, when he orders nachos, he receives an apple and milk to make the saturated fat and cholesterol of the nachos less of a proportion of his meal. Another numbers-(mis)guided health move: Pop Tarts have been replaced by whole wheat Pop Tarts! We'll have healthy kids in no time!On As GOP politicians take the school-lunch debate to new lows, perk up with berry ice cream posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 2 Responses

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  While a tax would certainly help correct the market failures inherent in low-priced junk food, the root of the problem is in the great federal subsidies that make the low prices possible. Taxes would merely cancel out the subsidies that make junk food so profitable for agribusiness. By taxing cheap food, we would merely charge consumers twice to maintain the high profit margin the food industry enjoys at our expense (both fiscal, environmental, and physiological). By eliminating commodity subsidies, prices would rise naturally, and healthy, fresh, wholesome foods would be competitive–no taxes necessary.On USDA food-desert report points to need for a soda tax posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago 6 Responses