Soda Tax

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May 6, 2013 | 11:14 AM | By

New Factors in Play for Legislators Considering Statewide Soda Tax

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

A soda tax failed at the ballot at two California cities last November. Before that, a statewide soda tax failed two years ago. But advocates and legislators are trying again. A bill that would require a penny-per-ounce tax on any sugary beverage is back in front of legislators and, so far, has passed out of two Senate committees.

The bill by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) has two explicit goals: to “discourage excessive consumption” by increasing the price of sugary drinks and to create a Children’s Health Promotion Fund.

“We’re in the midst of a public health crisis fueled by childhood obesity,” CaliforniaHealthline reports Monning said to the Senate Committee on Health last week. “This legislation sets an alternative path toward health and wellness.”

The health committee approved the bill. Next stop is the Senate appropriations committee.

While the soda industry is expected to be back in force for this bill, as it was for the other soda-tax efforts, this time there are new forces in play. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Science, Soda Tax, Sugar-Sweetend Beverages
February 26, 2013 | 11:09 AM | By

Bill for Statewide Soda Tax Introduced

By Mina Kim

(poolie/Flickr)

(poolie/Flickr)

Richmond voters may have crushed an effort to pass a soda tax last fall, but that’s not stopping one lawmaker from trying to tax sodas statewide.

State Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel) tried to pass a statewide soda tax two years ago that failed, but with Democrats expected to hang on to supermajorities in both houses, Monning thinks this time is different.

“The political train has changed in 2012, but it’s still not going to be automatic by any means,” Monning says. “Any tax is going to be an uphill fight.”

Monning’s bill would slap distributors of sugary drinks with an excise tax of a penny-per-ounce, the same amount that was proposed in Richmond and El Monte, in southern California. The bill would further create a Children’s Health Promotion Fund which would then split all revenue between the State Department of Public Health and Superintendent of Public Instruction.

A recent Field Poll showed support for a tax if the money went to children’s nutrition and physical education. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Soda Tax, Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
February 14, 2013 | 11:53 PM | By

Most Californians Support Soda Tax If It Benefits Children’s Health

(La Piazza Pizzeria/Flickr)

(La Piazza Pizzeria/Flickr)

Just over three months since voters in two California cities — Richmond and El Monte — flatly turned down soda taxes, a new Field Poll released Thursday found a majority of California voters say they would support a soda tax if the funds raised were devoted to children’s health.

While only 40 percent of voters said they favor a sugar-sweetened beverage tax, that number jumped to 68 percent if the proceeds will benefit school nutrition and physical activity programs.

“Voters in general don’t trust taxes that aren’t earmarked. They prefer to see taxes linked to something beneficial,” said Dr. Tony Iton, senior vice president of The California Endowment, which sponsored the poll. ”People that are engaged in constructing policy … should take heart in this poll and be able to look to it to construct subsequent measures for trying to engage the public support behind obesity prevention.”

Fully 75 percent of voters said they see a link between regular soda consumption and a person’s risk of being overweight or obese.
The Field Poll reported that support for such an earmarked tax was especially strong among Latinos (79 percent), Asian Americans (73 percent) and African Americans (70 percent).

“I think this poll shows that a campaign either statewide or locally in cities has an excellent chance,” Wendel Brunner, Contra Costa County’s director of public health, told the San Jose Mercury News.

But in the poll voters had the highest support — more than 80 percent — for increasing opportunities for being physically active, such as improved school sports fields and playgrounds — and keeping those facilities open after school and on weekends. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Obesity, Soda Tax, Sugar-Sweetend Beverages
October 15, 2012 | 10:52 AM | By

Can Soda Taxes Lead to Weight Loss?

(Tessek: Flickr)

(Tessek: Flickr)

My KQED colleague Mina Kim produced a great piece examining whether higher soda prices leads to weight loss — and the health benefits that come with it. She profiled a 17-year-old football player from Tracy — Jorge Cota, who at 5’11″ weighed 321 pounds. He had high blood pressure and may have had heart and kidney problems. That was a year ago.

While Cota since has made many diet changes, the first thing he did was cut out his drink of choice, Dr. Pepper. He had been drinking two or three cans or bottles a day.

He’s since lost 70 pounds, Kim reports.

Still, Cota told Kim that he doubts a penny-per-ounce soda tax would make a difference in soda consumption. After all, a 20-ounce soda would go up only 20 cents.

Kim turned to Kelly Brownell, head of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. As she reports:

His group has studied how pricing changes affect consumer behavior.

“The penny-per-ounce, which is the level of tax being discussed the most around the country, is enough to affect consumption, somewhere between 10 or 20 percent or so,” Brownell says. “[That] would be enough to not make it a terrible burden on consumers, but would affect consumption of the product enough to reduce health care costs.”

More importantly, Brownell says, passage of the tax would give a big boost to the national trend away from sugary drinks that’s already begun in school districts and communities where demand for fresh local food is growing. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Obesity, Soda Tax
June 21, 2012 | 4:42 PM | By

Beverage Companies Blur Line Between Philanthropy & Marketing

Some soda companies have begun using cause marketing to curry public favor in the face of criticism. (La Piazza Pizzeria/Flickr)

If you were watching the Superbowl in 2010 when the Packers beat the Steelers, you may have noticed that Pepsi commercials were absent from the ads that were vying for the attention of millions of viewers. Instead, Pepsi announced Pepsi Refresh, a project to take the $20 million dollars it would have spent on Superbowl advertising and give it to a good cause. They used a vast social media campaign to involve the public in voting for which cause would get the money.

Pepsi’s good deed did put $20 million dollars into the hands of organizations working to solve global problems, but Pepsi got something back too — loyal consumers. The campaign was a splashy example of a new strategy called “cause marketing” that plays off a growing trend of corporate social responsibility. But this money comes directly out of Pepsi’s brand marketing budget, not their philanthropy arm.

“There are some really revealing statements in the industry literature from executives at Pepsi saying very explicitly what they were trying to do,” explained Lori Dorfman, Director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group. “And one of the things they were trying to do is get the attention of and favorability of millennials,” she added.

Dorfman and her colleagues have been digging into the nitty-gritty of the beverage industry to draw comparisons between the marketing strategies of big tobacco and those of soda companies, who have recently come under attack for the role their sugary product is playing in rising obesity rates.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Reform, You're the Boss, Obesity, Soda Tax
May 16, 2012 | 3:02 PM | By

Richmond Voters Will Decide on “Soda Tax”

(Rex Sorgatz: Flickr)

(Rex Sorgatz: Flickr)

The people of Richmond will decide in November whether businesses should have to pay a fee for every ounce of sugar-sweetened drinks they sell. In other words, a soda tax is on the ballot November 6th. If voters approve the measure, Richmond would be the first city in California to impose such a fee.

“The city of Richmond has the opportunity to make history,” Harold Goldstein of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy told me today, adding that the campaign will be closely watched nationally. “Cities and states will be watching this across the country. … They too want to put a small tax on sugary drinks and use those funds to mitigate the harmful effects that all these sugary drinks are causing.”

Debate stretched more than four hours at last night’s City Council meeting to determine whether to put two related measures on the ballot. In addition to the penny-per-ounce business license fee, a second measure asks voters if they wish the money to be directed to obesity prevention programs. The measure is an advisory one. If voters approve the new fee, the money it generates goes into the general fund. Richmond’s finance director estimates the fee will generate from $4 million to $8 million for city coffers. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, Policy, Soda Tax, Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
April 4, 2012 | 3:26 PM | By

The Greatest Health Risk to Children? No, It’s Not Drugs

(Ian Britton: Flickr)

People polled cited unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyle as greatest threat to children's health. (Ian Britton: Flickr)

Nearly half of people surveyed in a poll released today say an unhealthy diet combined with lack of physical activity are the greatest health risks facing California children today.

In addition, almost three in four respondents to the Field Poll — 73 percent — said prevention efforts, while starting with the family, must extend to the broader community, including health care providers, schools, community organizations and beyond — to food and beverage companies and fast food restaurants.

“Voters acknowledge they have a role to play,” Mark DeCamillo, Director of The Field Poll told me. “They should be involving the larger community and lots of different entities, companies included should be taking some responsibility in reducing obesity in kids.

The poll surveyed 1,000 registered California voters and was funded by The California Endowment. (The California Endowment is a supporter of KQED). Respondents across political parties, ethnic backgrounds and household incomes all agreed a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are the major health risks to children. Illegal drug use was a distant second at 22 percent.

More than half of respondents (60 percent) said that the neighborhood where a child is raised makes a difference in their health. A strong majority (68 percent) said a comprehensive program to prevent childhood obesity — including building parks and promoting neighborhood safety — would be worth it, even if it cost billions of dollars.

“Californians understand that health happens in schools, in neighborhoods, and with prevention,” said Dr. Robert Ross, CEO of The California Endowment, said in a statement. “Regardless of age, ethnicity, income or political ideology, they recognize that investments in prevention save money over the long run.”

Support for “soda tax” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, childhood obesity, Children's Health, Soda Tax
January 9, 2012 | 5:16 PM | By

Soda Tax: What Can a Penny Do?

(Rex Sorgatz: Flickr)

(Rex Sorgatz: Flickr)

We’ve seen it with tobacco. As taxes went up, use went down. Public health advocates have been salivating over the prospect of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to gain a similar foothold in the obesity epidemic and the myriad health problems excess weight causes. But hard evidence on the health effects of such a tax has been limited.

A new study in today’s Health Affairs, quantifies the impact quite nicely. A nationwide penny-per-ounce tax, the authors estimate, would reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by 15 percent. They say that modest reduction will lead to modest weight loss, which in turn leads to modest reductions in diabetes. After the researchers crunched all the numbers, all those modest reductions would, over ten years, result in 26,000 lives saves (or avoiding “premature deaths” as researchers prefer to say).

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Diabetes, Obesity, Soda Tax
December 7, 2011 | 2:15 PM | By

Could Richmond Be First California City to Tax Soda?

Price going up? (Karen Blumberg: Flickr)

Price going up? (Karen Blumberg: Flickr)

Last night the Richmond City Council voted to let the people decide. The Council instructed staff to prepare a ballot measure for next November to tax sugar-sweetened beverages, what most people call a “soda tax.”

Richmond voters may have the chance to make their city the first in California, and one of the first in the country, to slap a special tax not just on sodas, but also sports drinks, energy drinks, fruit-flavored drinks and the like. 100 percent fruit juice and diet drinks would not be affected.

The goals are twofold. If the drinks cost more, people will drink fewer of them. Plus, taxes generate revenue, which the City Council says it would devote to new sports fields and other health programs. The motivation for the tax is childhood obesity. Wendel Brunner, Public Health Director of the Contra Costa Health Department walked people through the makings of what has become an epidemic.

  • 32 percent of school children in Richmond are obese
  • 24 percent of adults in Richmond are obese
  • 11 percent of all deaths in Richmond are linked to obesity–obesity is shortening people’s lives by years
And, if childhood obesity goes unchecked in Richmond, Contra Costa Health researchers found, the percentage of obese adults will almost double from the current 24 percent to 42 percent. 
“The thing about sugar-sweetened beverages is that the calories are insidious.”
So, what’s the connection to sugar-sweetened beverages? It comes from Brunner’s most jaw-dropping number: the average Richmond teenager who drinks sugary beverages every day consumes a whopping 150,000 calories a year–just from these sweetened drinks. That adds up to 20-30 pounds of additional weight over the year. As Brunner reported, it’s those sweet drinks that are driving the obesity epidemic. “The thing about sugar-sweetened beverages is that the calories are insidious,” he says, “so you consume a Big Gulp, you don’t realize that you’ve drunk about 350 calories.” Continue reading →
FILED UNDER: Place Matters, Policy, childhood obesity, Soda Tax