The Tories shouldn't treat junk food manufacturers as polluters

The Conservative Party is consulting on a new plan to tackle obesity:

Food and drink manufacturers could be given strict quotas for producing fatty and sugary foods and alcohol under plans to tackle obesity and excessive drinking being considered by the Conservative Party.

The idea is that fat, salt and sugar have externalities and the people that manufacture them should be treated as polluters. Does this idea work?

Let's leave aside the bureaucratic difficulties of such a scheme, which are legion. Instead let's concentrate on the parallel being drawn between environmental polluters and these so-called social polluters. I am afraid it is not a good one.

Manufacturing food does not cause obesity. Consuming too much of it causes obesity. Actually even this may not be true, since lack of exercise plays an important role. So the companies who manufacture a chocolate bar do not create "pollution" of any kind. The proposal to tax Cadbury's for the sugar in their bar is similar to a proposal to tax Paul McCartney for the noise pollution caused when someone plays his records too loudly.

This idea should start and finish with this consultation paper. 

Comments

[Guido Fawkes]

Using the same logic we should levy an extra tax on newspapers to pay for them to be cleared up after being discarded.

Never mind that it would restrict freedom of choice. First they came for the smokers...

[John Charlesworth]

"Manufacturing food does not cause obesity. Consuming too much of it causes obesity."

Well yes but how do you stop people from eating too much of the wrong type of food? And causing themselves to be a health risk with consequences for the NHS in the process.

If we do not watch it, we will come to the conclusion that the only way to get people to control their weight is to charge them (penalise them in fact) for Health Care. The other alternative is back to a privatised health care with all the cosequences that will incur.

[Marco]

Maybe applying some sort of extra-VAT on junk food would be slightly better than applying extra taxes on the manifacturers' income. This way, at least, you would recognize that the real "polluters" are those who consume too much unhealthy food, not those who produce it. But still it wouldn't be a very liberal measure.

[Gabriel]

"The other alternative is back to a privatised health care with all the cosequences that will incur"

Clean hospitals, efficient service, lower taxes. Scary stuff indeed.

[Mel Kennon]

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[Antuanne]

It is very important know how many calories you are eating each day. You need a certain number of calories to keep your body functioning and provide energy for physical activities.The number of calories that you should eat depends of your weight, age, height, your activity levels and whether you are trying to lose weight, maintain or gain.

[Lorelei F]

Yes it's true that over-consuming the foods causes obesity. However many of the foods we eat are actually chemically addicting. This makes it hard to not over-consume, depending on your physiology. I do believe the answer lies in awareness and less consumption of addictive foods,combined with a societal shift to healthy eating. How to accomplish this is the age old question.
And yes, I have to say that many companies know all of this, and use it to advertise to their advantage. This lack of concern for public health and well-being is a problem.