New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is legendary among the nation’s food police (and notorious among consumer-choice advocates), having already banned trans fats in restaurants, grossed out his constituents with anti-soda ads, and gunned for salt control. So where will the nation’s top food cop go next?
As our executive director outlines in a column placed in the Daily Caller, Mayor Bloomberg’s agenda involves a little bit of everyone, everywhere:
Last month, Big Apple Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke at a United Nations meeting on non-communicable diseases. And a large focus of his speech was — you guessed it — encouraging governments around the world to enact strict, NYC-style regulations on food. “Government’s highest duty,” Bloomberg said, is to make healthy foods the “default” option.
Already, other nations are taking Bloomberg-esque steps.
On October 1, Denmark instituted a tax on foods containing saturated fat — the first of its kind. This is on top of a tax the Nordic country slapped last year on “junk” food, like ice cream and chocolate. The leftwing coalition that runs Denmark has even talked about doubling the tax.
Hungary also recently levied taxes on packaged foods high in sugar, salt, or carbs. (I’m sure you can make some puns for that example.) And France will impose a tax on soft drinks.
