The Government of Manitoba recently explored the idea of a “fat tax” for Manitoba, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
It seems that there is dubious evidence about whether a fat tax works or not. My guess is that it probably doesn’t, as even with the tax, many of the junk food items are most likely still cheaper than the items that people should be eating.
While thinking about this topic, it occurred to me that other factors besides a tax would affect what people would buy. The most likely culprits when it comes to making unhealthy food choices is that healthy foods are often more expensive to source and store for the retailer. Many processed foods also have the backing of large corporations and their marketing department. Retailers make more money on junk food, so the retailer promotes it.
So it occurs to me that it is the retailer that we as a society need to find a way to change. If you change the behaviour of the retailer toward featuring, promoting, and selling more healthy choices. If the retailer promotes more healthy foods, or makes more of them available, or even has them at lower prices, then chances are that the consumer ends up buying more healthy food choices.
So how do you do that?
My thought is that you do introduce a “junk food tax” but it applies to the retailer and the total amount of junk food that they sell. However, that alone would not do it, because prices would just raise across the board to cover the tax. What you do is also introduce a “healthy food tax credit” to the retailer. Essentially, you tax the bad stuff, and reward the good. The customer never sees the tax.
I don’t know how it would work, but if it gives stores like 7-Eleven a reason to promote healthier choices to its customers, I’d like to look at it.
