Controlling obesity by tax on junk food
August 16, 2006
In the recent conference of International Association of Agriculture Economists on the gold coast in Australia, Professor Popkin said that in all countries both rich and poor, people are facing the problem of obesity.
Professor has watched 16000 people in china since 1989 and analyzed how social and economic changes affected the diet and health of people.
According to the Professor, diet habits and less physical exercise is the major cause of obesity. He also said that hunger has also declined among the world’s 6.5 billion population. According to him the rate of obesity is higher in some parts of Asia with certain populations more susceptible than others.
Professor Tony Barnett who is the head of the diabetes and obesity group at Birmingham University pointed out the obesity norm globally. According to him burden of obesity is shifting from rich to the poor people around the world.
Professor Barnett want governments to develop better strategies to fight against the obesity and he suggest that by increasing the cost of calorie rich soft drink and fruit drink will make people to consume the less of it and if the price of fruit and vegetable will be less then people would consume them more and get a healthier diet.
According to Professor Benjamin Senauer from the University of Minnesota the U.S lifestyle has high obesity rate as compared to Japanese lifestyle. The average Japanese invest only quarter of its income on food as compared to below 14% in U.S.
According to him if direct tax on food in U.S solve the problem of obesity but it would not be politically acceptable. He also pointed out the other factors of reducing obesity like exercise which play very important role and he also pointed that Japanese cities are based on efficient public transport and walking but in American commutes drive to the supermarkets and avoid walking as possible.
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