Denmark unveils the world’s first fat tax

[n2doc]

First Noma, now a fat tax.

Denmark is really trying to win the award for the Most Progressive Food Nation, no?

On Saturday, the land of Hans Christian Andersen introduced a “fat tax” on foods like butter and oil, with the goal of a healthier nation with higher life expectancy.

From the AP:

The Nordic country introduced the tax Saturday, of 16 kroner ($3.00) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of saturated fat in a product.

Ole Linnet Juul, food director at Denmark’s Confederation of Industries, says the tax will increase the price of a burger by around $0.15 and raise the price of a small package of butter by around $0.40.

It is believed to be the world’s first fat tax.

more

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2011/10/03/denmark-unveils-the-worlds-first-fat-tax/?tsp=1

[SoCalDem]

1. Hopefully the tax money will be put into an escrow account

to reimburse the medical payment people for the costs of diabetes & obesity that those foods can cause in later years.

no amount can restore the health of people who lived dangerously, but at least it could defray some costs,

[Warpy]

2. If you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less of something, tax it

It's always worked that way.

[CTyankee]

3. Of course. But the problem for lots of DUers seems to be a fat tax in this

country on fast food because it penalizes the poor since it is regressive. Trying to advance that here will not win you any popularity contests (take it from me!)!

In this country, the only way to do this is to heavily subsidize healthy food (and making it accessible)and cooking classes in the schools and attached somehow to community food pantries, showing how cooking healthy food need not be too time consuming for already overworked poor people. Mark Bittman advanced that scenario in the NYT a couple of weeks ago and got some flack for his "elitist" attitude...

[Warpy]

4. Yes, I think the carrot will work better than the stick in this case

and we've needed fruits and veg subsidized for a very long time. I'd like to see subsidies removed from things like meat but no taxes applied.

[Broderick]

5. oughta just ban bad foods altogether