Supermarket shelf, illustration - Richard B. Levine / Newscom / SIPA

  • Obesity, diabetes, poor health ... Junk food is ravaging emerging and developing countries, which now concentrate the overwhelming majority of overweight people around the world.
  • To fight against its ravages, the World Bank recommends overtaxing products that are too fatty, too sweet or too salty, particularly in emerging nations.
  • But is it really moral to overtax food products, a fortiori for poor populations?

Is taxing food moral? The question may arise when a World Bank report, released on Thursday, recommends overtaxing poor quality food in developing countries to fight obesity, a real scourge of emerging nations.

Only the excessively fatty, too sweet or too salty products would be affected by this surcharge. The World Bank recalls that obesity has tripled on the planet since 1975, and that three quarters of the adults concerned, as well as 80% of the children affected, now live in low- and middle-income countries.

Do not tax basic food

But it is well known, hell is paved with good intentions. And if we take the idea in its most brutal form, overtaxing an essential resource to live on poor populations a fortiori does not look like the most ideal action to go to paradise without going through square one.

To this grim assessment, Louis Maurin, director of the observatory of inequalities and sociologist of poverty, adds a few layers of nuances. What is taxed is not the basic food of the poor or developing countries, but certain supplements, not necessary for living and harmful to health. Typical example, the sweet sodas, which ravage the bellies of Latin America since Coca-Cola and others put their luggage there.

Particularly harmful products

“We are not going to let the poor eat rubbish on the pretext that they are poor. We can deal with the subject of poverty while being concerned about their health, ”argues the sociologist. These food products would therefore be "legitimate to be taxed, since they do not constitute the essential of their basic foods", in addition to being bad for them therefore.

Fabrice Etilé, professor of food economics, reminds us that experiments with surcharges on junk food have been successfully carried out in Chile and Mexico. If the subject poses two or three insoluble equations of morality, its effectiveness seems real. Above all, he warns of the harmfulness of certain food products, particularly in developing countries: "Multinational food companies develop and sell products of poorer quality than those which they market in rich countries, where health and nutrition standards and policies are more demanding. In addition, some firms are developing very aggressive marketing strategies, particularly targeting children. "

Incite rather than punish

Enough to take the problem head on, considering the explosion of obesity - but also diabetes - in these countries. Especially as Fabrice Etilé reminds us, food taxes are absolutely nothing new, quite the contrary. In France alone, your food is eaten with VAT but also with multiple consumption rights.

Long live taxes then? Not so fast. Marie-Eve Laporte, Lecturer at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and expert in consumer eating behavior, also recognizes the need for public authorities to tackle the problem of massive obesity in developing countries . But morally, she believes that there are better ways of doing things than taxation, which necessarily appears to be "a punishment".

Identification with junk food

For her, it would prevail to focus on "nudges", which in profane language corresponds to incentive methods more than an outright attack on the wallet. "For example, the plates divided into three portions allow people to better orient themselves towards a recommended diet of a quarter of starchy food, a quarter of protein and 50% of vegetables".

Another idea, to highlight healthy products, more than taxing junk food. Or encourage group meals, because eating together naturally invites you to eat a more balanced diet. “The nutriscore is also a good example of what works very well in France. In all cases, it is a question of better guiding the consumer's choice, more than reducing by overtaxing products. "

Especially since she affirms, overtaxing unhealthy products will not necessarily be effective: “Feeding is not only a primary need, it is also now an identification. We see more and more young people in this country moving away from traditional, healthier diets in favor of American products which are often more expensive in order to appear to have better social status. Updating traditional, healthier menus can be much more effective. "

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  • Junk food
  • World
  • Food
  • Tax
  • Food