{"id":3001,"date":"2010-10-18T15:52:55","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T19:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=3001"},"modified":"2010-10-19T09:25:35","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T13:25:35","slug":"ny-soda-wars-food-stamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/10\/18\/ny-soda-wars-food-stamps\/","title":{"rendered":"NY soda wars & food stamps"},"content":{"rendered":"

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to bar people from using food stamps to buy soda has engendered a wide-ranging and fascinating debate that defies the usual talking points.<\/p>\n

On one hand, public health advocates<\/a> – as we’ve discussed here on the blog many times<\/a> – laud the Mayor for taking steps to reduce soda consumption. Sugary soft drinks are widely considered to be a contributor to America’s obesity problem.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, anti-hunger and low income advocates are uncomfortable with the proposal.\u00a0 They see any effort to force people to buy or not buy something as paternalistic.<\/p>\n

These two camps often work together, but find themselves at odds over the proposal that’s been drawn into the national spotlight.\u00a0 It’s become a fascinating<\/a> debate (check out the graphic in this one!)<\/a>.\u00a0 Even The Onion’s in on it.<\/a><\/p>\n

The widely read food blog, Civil Eats, asks a thousand questions<\/a> raised by the proposal.\u00a0 They cover everything from the rights of the individual versus the collective, the impact of U.S. farm subsidies, and the impact of the food stamp program in general.\u00a0 I’m especially interested in their argument that the food stamp program should be used more actively to re-engineer the U.S. food system:<\/p>\n

Our tax dollars, especially the $80-90 billion spent annually on federal food programs, are a powerful force in shaping the food system. Food stamps, like school meals and WIC, should be the cornerstone of a food system that is grounded in principles of environmental sustainability, social justice, and health. Directed toward the small farm economy, community-oriented retailers, brokers, and processors, even a modest percentage of these funds could ignite a transformation of our food system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s actually a similar argument to one about the federal school lunch program – if schools buy more locally sourced produce, it will help local farms and economies.<\/p>\n

But in that case, it’s less controversial because we’re talking about school kids – who doesn’t want kids to eat healthy, right?<\/p>\n

In this case, low income, free-thinking adults are the subjects of the policy.\u00a0 I find it hard to believe free-market, limited government thinkers would want a welfare program being used to reshape the U.S. agricultural economy.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg’s proposal sure has has hit a nerve.\u00a0 And if it gets America thinking about all these issues, maybe that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to bar people from using food stamps to buy soda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,36,4803],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions\/3002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}