Mark Bittman : Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables

Bittman reviews what impact could be had on US health and diet by flipping the subsidy-tax relationship for our food in the US.  

The projections - $13B in national tax revenue and $30B in health care savings - and comparable - ‘98 tobacco settle resulting in decreased marketing efforts and an increasing in financing anti-smoking efforts leading to 50% decrease in smoking rates - are compelling.  

His mention of reduced meat consumption as a part of a healthier diet is applaudable, though I’d like to see what the results would be on decreasing consumption by extending his proposed tax to commodity meats - those treated with hormones and antibiotics and fed commodity feed.

Read Bittman’s whole piece here.