News reaches my ears that Denmark has just launched a "fat tax" on lardy products. Apparently Danes are big fans of butter and bacon and will now have to fork out an extra 25p on a pack of butter and 8p on a packet of crisps, as the new tax on foods which contain more than 2.3% saturated fat comes into effect. Everything from milk to oils, meats and pre-cooked foods such as pizzas will be targeted. The additional revenue raised will fund obesity-fighting measures.
Elsewhere in Europe Hungary slapped a tax on all foods with unhealthy levels of sugar, salt and carbohydrates, as well as goods with high levels of caffeine. Denmark, Switzerland and Austria have already banned trans fats, while Finland and Romania are considering fat taxes. Britain has the biggest obesity problem in Europe, and campaigners have urged the government to follow Denmark's lead.
But hold on to your spare tires - enough of this madness!!
This is all well and good and I applaud the effort to attempt to make people - myself including - eat less fat. But am I the only one who thinks this tax won't have any effect on how much fat is quaffed? In fact, to be honest, I can't help feeling that once fat is more more expensive it will be more not less in demand.
In fact, how soon will it be before a black market in fat explodes across Europe where bacon butties are sold tax-free under the table at local pubs and dealers stand on street corners opening coats that are strung with fatty sausages, sausage rolls and slabs of lard?
Will putting higher taxes on unhealthy food really make people buy less of it or will it simply make people feel like naughty boys and girls if they purchase mega-priced lard burgers while giving a two fingered salute to the governments attempt at nannying their exploding girth?
What do you say? Would you pay extra for lardy food or would you turn the other cheek and start quaffing low fat food stuffs?
Or do you see this as the start of the thin edge of the cheese-wedge, when ultimately fatty foods will be banned and a black market in fatty salami splatters across the market place, with people illegally staging fat food parties and stashing cheese in their luggage when having to travel to particularly 'low-fat' countries?
This is all well and good and I applaud the effort to attempt to make people - myself including - eat less fat. But am I the only one who thinks this tax won't have any effect on how much fat is quaffed? In fact, to be honest, I can't help feeling that once fat is more more expensive it will be more not less in demand.
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| Is this the end to free access to sausages? |
In fact, how soon will it be before a black market in fat explodes across Europe where bacon butties are sold tax-free under the table at local pubs and dealers stand on street corners opening coats that are strung with fatty sausages, sausage rolls and slabs of lard?
Will putting higher taxes on unhealthy food really make people buy less of it or will it simply make people feel like naughty boys and girls if they purchase mega-priced lard burgers while giving a two fingered salute to the governments attempt at nannying their exploding girth?
What do you say? Would you pay extra for lardy food or would you turn the other cheek and start quaffing low fat food stuffs?
Or do you see this as the start of the thin edge of the cheese-wedge, when ultimately fatty foods will be banned and a black market in fatty salami splatters across the market place, with people illegally staging fat food parties and stashing cheese in their luggage when having to travel to particularly 'low-fat' countries?
I could buy the healthy eating ethos if they made fruit and vegetable dirt cheap as well as increasing the prices on fatty foods... but it seems to me that prices are going up across the board. This is just a way to fleece people at a time when they need comfort food to get them through the aching morass that is an average day in this recession hit epoch.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea !! But deep down i know making that food more expensive doesn't mean the healthier stuff will be any cheaper which will not help low income families even if they shouldn't be eating that junk... sometimes it is all they can afford. Knowing that their already empty pocket books will be viced even harder makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteI wonder just how effective putting up the prices of cigarettes is in stopping people from smoking. As in, I'm wondering, because I don't know. But I have the feeling that people seem able to find the money for the things that they really want.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, living in Berlin, I often have a real craving for salt & vinegar crisps, and the 10 Euro price for a Walkers Multipack (12 pack) at the British shop is really enough to quell that craving.
17th May 2010
ReplyDeletehttp://claremacnaughton.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/tax-lard-and-salt/
I wrote this blog. Does that make me a prophet!!
I am with Steve - tax fat make veg free.
FREE VEG!! I am from People's Vegetable Liberation Front of Great Britain!!
Modern Military Mother....I'm with you all the way on the free veg. As well as making people healthier the other plus is that if beans are given away free every home could also be self powering with a specially designed methane generator to harness all the noxious clouds generated!!
ReplyDeleteI'm not for taxing food at all. Instead it should be cheaper to buy the basics. I also think that Home Economics should be compulsory in schools with less emphasis on making cakes and more on household budgeting and making nutritional easy to cook tasty food.
ReplyDeleteIn saying that i think we should put heavier taxes on takeaway foods- make McDonalds and the like pay more for the health problems they engender.
There's all sorts wrong with the way in which food is priced at the moment. But also in the way that we are educating the next generation. Bring back proper cookery lessons at school and have them longer than an hour so that they can appreciate the cooking from scratch side of things.
ReplyDeleteNickie..yeah the best thing is to keep kids informed that food advertising is there to make them buy crap...and to teach them to cook even if it leads to a few burnt fingers or bad wigs http://mommyhasaheadache.blogspot.com/2009/12/take-that-yall.html
ReplyDeleteHere in Illinois ( and other states I think) they tried to put a minuscule extra tax on sugary soda. Result? The right wing nut jobs aired commercials of fat chavvy people loading soda into their shopping cart/trolley and complaining that Obama was trying to tell them how to eat, and making it even more expensive to feed a growing family. Not that Obama had anything to do with it, but it was immediately seized upon as a political weapon - big government trying to dictate what people can and can't do.
ReplyDeleteExpat mum...yeah there was a heated debate about that topic here too which ended in a 2 cent bottle tax, fair enough!
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems in getting people to eat healthy food in Baltimore is lack of easy access ... unless you have a car you don't even have access to stores that sell vegetables and are reliant on 7-Eleven and takeouts. Maybe the situation is not quite so dire in Illinois and you have better public transport etc?
I do think that fatty, salty processed food should cost more and that veggies & fruit (whilst not free - think of the poor farmers) should be cheaper.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that home economics should be taught as mandatory in schools - people have forgotten how to cook, all they can do is phone for a takeaway or chuck a processed meal in the oven or deep fat fryer.
Whilst on holiday in the US last year I was genuinely shocked at how expensive fresh produce was and how cheap it was to eat out at unhealthy fast food joints.
Hi Emma. I'm here as the co-host from the Pay It Forward blogfest. Thanks so much for signing up.
ReplyDeleteAnd I wasn't following your blog until just now, so the fest is working!
The thought police gone mad? It would certainly alert us to foods that are high in fat but, like all flat taxes, will effect the lower SES with greater gusto than those with the education, who should know better. I read recently that bacon should be for birthdays only. A good message. Thanks for joining the Blog Carnival x
ReplyDeleteThey wanna implement Wealth Tax here is SA. Fekkin' crazy if you ask me!
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm Nicole from Romanian Princess. I love your blog, and I'm your newest follower, please stop by my blog and if you like it, PLEASE follow me back!
ReplyDeletewww.romanianprincess.com
XoXo Nicole Mariana
I don't think a tax would make much of a difference to be honest! Certainly not to me. As long as it is still affordable within my reach, and I don't develop a problem from eating too much of this kind of food, I'll continue to eat foods I enjoy (in moderation of course). Life is too short!
ReplyDeleteYeah, right. This will work just as much as tobacco taxes help people quit smoking.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I eat butter, double cream and er mayo every single day so I would have to pay up, but I think fat has had a hard time, healthy fats are what makes our hair shiny and our skin plump.
ReplyDeleteOh your comment today was hilarious!
ReplyDeletego away nanny state - let those who wish to gorge themselves be set free. This food is ok in moderation - in any case a tax won't stop us.
ReplyDeleteI love my good old truck drivers' brekkie with sausies, especially to cure a hangover and I won't be diverted from this practise, whatever dang facts and figures those people come up with...
ReplyDelete