Should We Tax Bad Food Rhetorical Analysis

Words: 1006
Pages: 5

Should We Tax Bad Food?
The article ‘Bad Food? Tax it, and Subsidize Vegetables’ by Mark Bittman provides an evaluation of the negative side of processed food and the reason why they should be highly taxed for the sake of vegetables. With processed foods posing many health risks, the arguments raised by the author relates to increasing taxes on them and subsidizing vegetables that he believes are vital to human health. In essence, the author approaches the discussion from an economic point of view through developing different perspectives that touch on processed foods.
Bittman argues that “taxes would reduce consumption of unhealthful foods and generate billions of dollars annually” (Bittman).Taxing bad food is not the best way to resolve the
…show more content…
As much as people get taxed highly for various food types, chances are that their patterns of consumption will take a different turn in some cases failing to meet the right standards (Caraher, Martin & Gill 1245). For this reason, there is a risk of causing market shortage of foods because producers will not be obliged to meet standard expected in the market. From a business perspective, when one commodity is overtaxed while the other one gets a fair subsidy treatment, chances are that their movement in the market will be affected to a great extent. In addition, the approach of subsidizing will depend on how well products can be matched with their market targets and this shows the risks associated with this approach. For the most part, food subsidization is based on how well those making decisions can understand how the market works but in this case, chances are that this could disrupt operations. There are many perspectives associated with market operations and as seen in the case of processed foods being taxed, this interferes with vital elements of the market