Make veg cheaper by taxing unhealthy foods.

Hank_Jones

Thinking about this for a while now.
The price of fruit and vegetables are far too high, certainly considering the positives they have in terms of health.

Surely a tax could be placed upon unhealthy food, which could then be subsidise and lower the price of fruit and veg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqYCePrzJWA

jimthemental

Mmmmm chips....

El Weirdo

Never mind veg... what about vag?

TeddyTedson

This would actually make sense though....it's not going to happen.

FatherLen

Hank_Jones wrote: »

The price of fruit and vegetables are far too high

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvk426Yv1T1qg2tfro2_500.jpg

phasers

Fruit and veg is already cheap, unless you're buying gold plated carrots

blow69

I would love to see healthy foods being subsidized myself.

I don't see it happening though.

It's crazy when you walk into a supermarket and the majority of special offers are junk food or processed food. That's what people are going to reach for in the end.

I find vegetables very competitively priced in Lidl. Good quality too.

gurramok

No chance. Exceptional Needs Payments would torpedo your idea!

Shryke

Why can't everyone **** off trying to tax things for 5 minutes.

RachaelVO

OR MAYBE...

Do some science into making lettuce tasting like chocolate... betcha that's a winner!

TeddyTedson

RachaelVO wrote: »

OR MAYBE...

Do some science into making lettuce tasting like chocolate... betcha that's a winner!

Or Carrots

RachaelVO

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Or Carrots

Maybe, but Carrots are kinda alright all by themselves...

Sprouts tasting like chocolate, now that's a solution to a problem!

mickgotsick

RachaelVO wrote: »

OR MAYBE...

Do some science into making lettuce tasting like chocolate... betcha that's a winner!

There's no nutritional value in lettuce. Maybe cabbage? Although I like cabbage and if it tasted like chocolate, I wouldn't eat it. Can't please everyone.

gurramok

Domo230 wrote: »

Can't we give tax incentives instead so that the healthy produce is cheaper?

No, because Chantelle and Jacintaaaaa need their daily fix at McD's. They'll just go to the CWO and claim Exceptional Needs Payments as making them eat healthy ahem denies them their rights!!

Logical Fallacy

OP, very few foods would, or could, be considered unhealthy in and off themselves.

The issue is how much of said foods are eaten by a person. I would have a moral qualm with the person who might by themselves a nice desert on a Sunday having to pay more just because someone who buys them everyday can't control their eating habits.

blow69

Also, that family the parents in the video are idiots.

They spent almost $12 on a drive-thru meal and then go to the supermarket and complain about how 2-3 items of a particular vegetable will cost 99c.

Claiming how sweets and soda are cheaper and therefore easier to fill their children up on them. Complete delusion.

mikom

phasers wrote: »

Fruit and veg is already cheap, unless you're buying gold plated carrots

24 carrots.............. only the best in my house.

TeddyTedson

RachaelVO wrote: »

Maybe, but Carrots are kinda alright all by themselves...

Sprouts tasting like chocolate, now that's a solution to a problem!

I think they actually did have carrots a few years ago that were supposed to taste like chocolate. I'm going back about 10-15 years I have a vague memory of hearing this. Perhaps someone remembers.

CreepingDeath

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Surely a tax could be placed upon unhealthy food, which could then be subsidise and lower the price of fruit and veg.

No.

We don't want the lower classes living longer.

Logical Fallacy

blow69 wrote: »

Claiming how sweets and soda are cheaper and therefore easier to fill their children up on them. Complete delusion.

Well, there is some kind of misplaced logic to that. Generally speaking fatty foods will provide a larger amount of calories but also provide a greater feeling of satiety because fats take longer to break down in the stomach than any other macronutrient. As such they feel fuller for longer.

ted1

Fruit and veg is already tax free. No need for a subsidy.

RachaelVO

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I think they actually did have carrots a few years ago that were supposed to taste like chocolate. I'm going back about 10-15 years I have a vague memory of hearing this. Perhaps someone remembers.

I never heard of that before, but in fairness, but I gotta say I'm in...

mickgotsick wrote: »

There's no nutritional value in lettuce. Maybe cabbage? Although I like cabbage and if it tasted like chocolate, I wouldn't eat it. Can't please everyone.

Chocolate flavoured cabbage works too... if it's good for ya, let it taste good, then we'll all be mega healthy!

gurramok

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Well, there is some kind of misplaced logic to that. Generally speaking fatty foods will provide a larger amount of calories but also provide a greater feeling of satiety because fats take longer to break down in the stomach than any other macronutrient. As such they feel fuller for longer.

How dare you label the 'most vulnerable' in society FAT. FFS, talk about social exclusion. Pfft.

Logical Fallacy

mickgotsick wrote: »

There's no nutritional value in lettuce.

Lettuce does have a decent enough vitamin and mineral profile and has a decent fibre level in the form of cellulose. It's all dependant on the type of lettuce though i guess.

mickgotsick

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Lettuce does have a decent enough vitamin and mineral profile and has a decent fibre level in the form of cellulose. It's all dependant on the type of lettuce though i guess.

I stand corrected.

Logical Fallacy

mickgotsick wrote: »

I stand corrected.

You can hate on iceberg lettuce all you like....it's ****ing garbage.

mickgotsick

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

You can hate on iceberg lettuce all you like....it's ****ing garbage.

Yeah, you would need to eat a hell of a lot of it to get anything from it.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2476/2

blow69

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Well, there is some kind of misplaced logic to that. Generally speaking fatty foods will provide a larger amount of calories but also provide a greater feeling of satiety because fats take longer to break down in the stomach than any other macronutrient. As such they feel fuller for longer.

Soda ain't filling though. And neither is candy. You'll feel bloated, but you won't feel full. And you'll get hungrier quicker. Not to mention to complete lack of nutrients and vitamins.

Logical Fallacy

blow69 wrote: »

Soda ain't filling though. And neither is candy. You'll feel bloated, but you won't feel full. And you'll get hungrier quicker. Not to mention to complete lack of nutrients and vitamins.

Well it really depends on the fat/sugar split as sugar will burn up fast but fat will hang around for a while.

I'm not saying the concept i quoted was correct, merely pointing out the mechanic behind people thinking it.

Underdraft

FatherLen wrote: »

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvk426Yv1T1qg2tfro2_500.jpg

That may be the coolest looking guy I've ever seen.

southsiderosie

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Thinking about this for a while now.
The price of fruit and vegetables are far too high, certainly considering the positives they have in terms of health.

Surely a tax could be placed upon unhealthy food, which could then be subsidise and lower the price of fruit and veg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqYCePrzJWA

OK a few things...

First, that video is from the US where there are billion in ag subsidies. So cutting subsidies would go a long way towards equalizing the cost of processed and fresh food, and that would not require new taxes.

That said, the problem - and this was clear in the video - wasn't that fresh food was too expensive. The problem was that the family didn't cook. They spent $11.50 at the drive-through to feed four people - $11.50 is more than sufficient to make a fresh, healthy meal for four people. It just requires planning. And $11.50/day - which is close to $60/week - is enough to make a week's worth of brown bag lunches - sandwiches, a piece of fruit, a yogurt, and a bag of carrots. So their 'healthy food' problems aren't due to cost, they are due to laziness and lack of nutritional awareness (They didn't know Burger King was unhealthy?!?!?!? And, yes, soda is cheap, but tap water is free!!!).

Capt'n Midnight

In theory thanks to subsidies to farmers , the common agricultural policy etc stuff should be fairly cheap here. Grain for example costs about 10c per Kg


There is also the problem of intervention buying so milk lakes and butter mountains to keep prices artificially high. It's using your taxes to provide price support so you can pay more for the product when you go shopping. This of course supports large commercial growers because we couldn't use the money for the farmers dole to keep people on the land could we ?



And still most of the markup, most of the cost happens between the farm and the shelf. Providing subsidies won't solve the problem of the middlemen.

TeddyTedson

RachaelVO wrote: »

I never heard of that before, but in fairness, but I gotta say I'm in...




Chocolate flavoured cabbage works too... if it's good for ya, let it taste good, then we'll all be mega healthy!

I found it online. It was all the way back in 1997. I would have been 10:D
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/chocolate-flavoured-veg-acts-as-carrot-for-healthy-eating-1268573.html
I remember hearing they were disgusting though.
They obviously never took off.

I don't understand how some people don't like any Veg though, a lot of it doesn't have much of a taste to it. Then again maybe that's a gene thing.

Sky King

Veg is SO cheap... like really cheap. People go on about how the povs can only afford to eat in chippers and that's why they are fat.... but buying healthy food is actually cheaper than buying the **** food with no nutritional value.

You could easily buy a full weeks worth of veg in Aldi for about a tenner.

Duggy747

Veg is really cheap. Can get a shìtload of dinners out of the same budget as I would buying luxury food like pizzas & processed chicken.

pickarooney

Cheap veg is not particularly healthy in that it's usually loaded with pesticides.

TheZohanS

10 KG Roosters
1 KG Carrots
1 KG Onions
1 Turnip
1 Cabbage!! All for ONLY €5!!!

Source.

Nothingbetter2d

cant we just tax people more when they come up with silly ideas to add more tax on foods.

Also adding an extra fast food tax would just put more people on the dole than it would in generating tax revenue.

Gummy Panda

Jaysus!

That family is spending more on drugs then nutritional food.

Mercurius

Shryke wrote: »

Why can't everyone **** off trying to tax things for 5 minutes.

All that he's saying is give peas a chance.

mickoneill30

pickarooney wrote: »

Cheap veg is not particularly healthy in that it's usually loaded with pesticides.

That's kind of a sweeping statement. If veg is more expensive does that automatically mean it's not loaded with pesticides?
Are there not regulations on the types and amounts of pesticides that farms are allowed use?

Kintarō Hattori

southsiderosie has hit the nail on the head. I think this is more to do with laziness than it is with fruit and veg being expensive. To head to your local chipper and buy a meal is going to cost around €6-7 for a meal that will last you one night.
That kind of money will buy you plenty of ingredients to cook a dinner that will last 5 days (you could freeze as required). I get the impression however that a lot of younger people either won't cook for themselves or can't cook so as a result they just buy unhealthy food.

Fruit and veg are cheap if you shop around but you need to put some effort into cooking them in order to have a tasty meal.

Gummy Panda

I think with food, people look very short term. Oh this salad with chicken breast will cost me x amount but the burger and chips will be cheaper so I'll eat that.

Long term if you are making the poor food choices you're probably going to end up in the doctors more and getting minor illnesses. Worse case scenario you go on long term medication. Now that's expensive

EDIT: junk food tastes **** if you have it all the time.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Tax something because I don't like it and make things I do like cheaper...

:rolleyes:

Nothingbetter2d

Gummy Panda wrote: »

I think with food, people look very short term. Oh this salad with chicken breast will cost me x amount but the burger and chips will be cheaper so I'll eat that.

Long term if you are making the poor food choices you're probably going to end up in the doctors more and getting minor illnesses. Worse case scenario you go on long term medication. Now that's expensive

EDIT: junk food tastes **** if you have it all the time.

nah sure we are all sponging on the dole and get medical cards now.

pickarooney

mickoneill30 wrote: »

That's kind of a sweeping statement. If veg is more expensive does that automatically mean it's not loaded with pesticides?

No, because it's not a biconditional transposition :pac:

Are there not regulations on the types and amounts of pesticides that farms are allowed use?

There are, but many would argue that the admitted levels are far too high (anything above 0 for organic fans).

I'm kind of on the fence about it myself but we'll only really know in about 30 years just how much poison is in mass-produced fruit and veg (and meat).

cocoshovel

Comepletely agree. I went to buy a small snack the other day. Apple was 65c, animal bar was 25c. Pissed me off.

southsiderosie

cocoshovel wrote: »

Comepletely agree. I went to buy a small snack the other day. Apple was 65c, animal bar was 25c. Pissed me off.

Bug again, this is where planning comes in. A big bag of apples is pretty cheap, and they keep for a good long while.

If you eat on the run, then often unhealthy food will be cheaper. But if you shop at the grocery store and bring food with you, it is much cheaper in the long run - and healthier.

dxhound2005

Today in my local greengrocer

10 Kg potatoes €5
3 cabbages €2
3 turnips €2
I Kg onions €0.79
1 Kg carrots €0.89
5 large oranges €2
5 pink lady apples €2
10 bananas €2

Less than €17 and in my local fishmonger 10 good sized mackeral fillets for €10. I think it is good value.

Cantona's Collars

Hardly expensive here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056533071

booboo88

gurramok wrote: »

No, because Chantelle and Jacintaaaaa need their daily fix at McD's. They'll just go to the CWO and claim Exceptional Needs Payments as making them eat healthy ahem denies them their rights!!

Or..just for a minute, let people whatever the fUdge they want to, and if they choose to spend hard earn money on junk, let people.

Seriously. Not everyone can eat the same stuff.