Is a Soda Tax a Good Idea?

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Nutritionist Marion Nestle and Mother Jones food and ag blogger Tom Philpott answer reader questions.
—By Kiera Butler and Maddie Oatman |
Mon Jun. 18, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

In today's Econundrum, Maddie Oatman argues in favor of taxing soda. She points out the scary amounts of calories that people consume in the form of sweetened beverages—and the mounting evidence that sugar, like alcohol and tobacco, is addictive.

Oatman speaks to an economist who has crunched the numbers and believes that a penny-per-ounce soda tax (like the one proposed in Richmond, California) could actually be enough to persuade consumers to quit their Big Gulp habits.

The revenue from such a tax could also be used to pay for health care and education. But as Oatman also points out, the idea of a soda tax is nothing if not divisive. Which means it should make for a fun debate.

We're lucky to have two experts to facilitate a conversation on the subject and answer reader questions: nutritionist and author Marion Nestle, whose new book is called Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, and MoJo food and ag blogger Tom Philpott.

Got a question for Nestle and Philpott? Leave it in the comments section, tweet it at @Econundrums, or email it to econundrums@motherjones.com. We'll be updating this post with more questions and answers as they come in.

To get things rolling, we asked Nestle and Philpott: Is soda really what's making us fat, anyway?
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