4
No soda with those foods stamps
Older, traditional food stamps.
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
TEXT OF STORY
BILL RADKE: People who use food stamps can't use them to buy cigarettes or alcohol. Now New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to add soda to that list. Marketplace's Eve Troeh is here live to talk about it. Good morning, Eve.
EVE TROEH: Good morning.
RADKE: The mayor says this would save people money. How's that?
TROEH: Well he says if families can't use their food stamps to buy soda and other sugar drinks like Kool-Aid, they'll have more money to spend on more nutritious food. He wants to test this plan for two years to see if people get healthier when they can't buy sugar drinks on government money. Diet soda would actually be OK.
Mayor Bloomberg's on something of a crusade against soft drinks. Earlier this year he proposed a tax of one penny per ounce for soda. Grocery stores and the beverage industry fought hard against that. The tax didn't go through. But this is another way to attack the issue.
RADKE: Why is this such an important issue for Mayor Bloomberg?
TROEH: Bloomberg is big on health in general. He banned smoking in bars. He banned trans fats in restaurants. And he believes if New Yorkers drink less sugar, diabetes and obesity will go way down. That would save the city lots of money on health care.
RADKE: But Eve, other attempts at banning soft drinks haven't gone so great, have they?
TROEH: Right. Bloomberg needs permission from the Department of Agriculture to do this. He asked for that today. But the agency has never restricted anything from food stamps because it's not nutritious enough. Minnesota tried a few years ago, got shot down. Last year Maine tried it with soda, also got shot down. But since Bloomberg's just asking to try it for two years, things might be different this time.
RADKE: OK. Marketplace's Eve Troeh, thank you.
TROEH: Thank you.
I've had times in my life where we don't get soda, chips or candy because we can't afford them. I'm all for banning the use of food stamps for anything which isn't nessecary food.
One of the reason why my Mom doesn't belive in food stamps is because when she worked in a grocery store she noticed that the lower class working families would purchase necessaties, and the only people purchasing "nice to haves" like soda and chips would be welfare famlies on food stamps.
I was so grateful for this news report and for this possible shift of thinking. I am a economics major who also is a family physician (who volunteers in a free clinic) and obesity, especially among the poor who can least afford the medical care, is an epidemic. Nearly weekly, when I am shopping for groceries in the relatively mixed income development where I live, I see people using food stamps to pay for their entire conveyor belt full of fatty, sugary, greasy foods, instead of the cost effective, in-season fresh fruits/vegetables and whole foods that I usually buy (for even cheaper). It is insanity that we subsidize the foods and drinks that are directly affecting the decline of our health as a nation and adding to our skyrocketing healthcare costs. I hope this experiment works- and that they INCLUDE ice cream, cakes, desserts and potato chips on the list. These things are not a necessity, and if people who are on food stamps want them, then they can buy them with their own money if they want them badly enough. Maybe then my patients would have less money to buy cigarettes.
Sugary? Drinks? Are you sure you're talking about soda? I use soda in some breads and in pancake mix.
Oh, wait... I see... you mean POP.
People down South sometimes call that stuff "soda pop," but perverting the term to something that isn't even an ingredient anymore is pure silliness.
