Does the grocery tax apply at farmer's markets or when buying from on-farm stores? It would seem that could be a place to narrowly remove it and support truly local food economies.
Great question, Brian. "Healthy" defined by the government will be "healthy" defined by lobbyists. But what about "healthy" defined by me? Where's my tax break on plants and seeds for my garden? Will I get the tax break at the Farmers Market or the roadside stand? But, alas, I'm guessing that unhealthy eaters make more consistent voters.
I trust government approximately zero percent to determine what is and isn't healthy or even what is and isn't food.
For example, is diet soda food? It has no calories and no nutritional value but is better for you than full sugar soda.
Orange juice? Coffee? American cheese? Red Bull? Doritos?
Do ribeye steaks have too much fat? According to who?
If I'm a small producer do I have to apply for my products to be tax exempt?
I have no idea how a system can be structured without massive industry interference followed by new administration and reporting requirements for businesses.
I love your comment that government preferences are influenced by food business lobbyists, not by objective health studies. So true! My wife and I are “nutritarian” which is a much more restrictive form of plant-based eating than veganism. The term was coined by Dr. Fuhrman (drfuhrman.com) and while I urge everyone to look into it, I will defend everyone’s right to eat however they want. But I will add that conclusive studies show that the only safe way to cook meat is to boil it. Grilling meat by any means introduces massive carcinogens and greatly raises cancer risk. Don’t take my word for it. Please look into it yourself!
I’m not usually into government banning food but I think crickets in food should be banned. There are people severely allergic to crickets and the fact that food processors are calling crickets subtle or misleading names should be outlawed.
Tax on food is wrong…..government telling us what to eat is wrong…..get government out of our lives and stop the taxes. How much is spent administering that tax. Enough already.
Please do not kid yourself into believing that we have a free market system. Buying politicians to enact regulations putting your competitors out of business and favoring your company has been a cost of doing business for over a century (a la federal reserve and allopathic health, etc), as have the financial consequences of putting seriously unhealthy products on the market (Pfizer, Monsanto, Phillip Morris, etc). But hey don’t take it personal it’s just business.
The government of Idaho should not tax groceries or ban lab-grown “meat.” The less government the better. But what the government of Idaho should do is protect ranchers from anything that can hinder them from producing beef for us. Like preventing regulations related to CO2 and Methane, or some other tax or burden. As long as our supply of beef and our right to eat it are not restricted, then the masses can eat all the lab-grown trash they want.
As far as I can tell, no one is forcing food choices on anyone, regardless of taxes or governement food pyramids .. No one is pouring soda down anyones throat or force feeding processed garbage faux foods to anyone. People are responsible for informing themselves and making appropriate choices for their own well being and enjoyment of life. What is needed is historical re-education about real food, which should start at home. Western/American processed foods are designed to cause Western/ American diseases to create customers of the Western/American medical industry.
The amount of contradictory information about the healthiness of various foods is staggering. We know that all food industries want to influence us to eat in ways that benefit them and not necessarily us. Let’s not give the government any more levers of power over our food choices that these industries can exploit. Government power gets exercised for the benefit of the powerful even when claiming to be for the benefit of the common man. It’s never a good idea to give the government more powers.
In my humble opinion, we, as consumers bear most of the responsibility for the food choices we are given at the grocery store, farmers markets, roadside stands and farms. We all vote with our dollars, taxed or not and subsidized or not. Don’t buy the product and when demand ceases, supply will go with it.
Should food be taxed, no is the simple answer . Should the government be determining our food supply, absolutely not. We all have choices here and we all live with the choices that we make.
Does the grocery tax apply at farmer's markets or when buying from on-farm stores? It would seem that could be a place to narrowly remove it and support truly local food economies.
Great question, Brian. "Healthy" defined by the government will be "healthy" defined by lobbyists. But what about "healthy" defined by me? Where's my tax break on plants and seeds for my garden? Will I get the tax break at the Farmers Market or the roadside stand? But, alas, I'm guessing that unhealthy eaters make more consistent voters.
I trust government approximately zero percent to determine what is and isn't healthy or even what is and isn't food.
For example, is diet soda food? It has no calories and no nutritional value but is better for you than full sugar soda.
Orange juice? Coffee? American cheese? Red Bull? Doritos?
Do ribeye steaks have too much fat? According to who?
If I'm a small producer do I have to apply for my products to be tax exempt?
I have no idea how a system can be structured without massive industry interference followed by new administration and reporting requirements for businesses.
I'd rather reduce income or property tax.
I love your comment that government preferences are influenced by food business lobbyists, not by objective health studies. So true! My wife and I are “nutritarian” which is a much more restrictive form of plant-based eating than veganism. The term was coined by Dr. Fuhrman (drfuhrman.com) and while I urge everyone to look into it, I will defend everyone’s right to eat however they want. But I will add that conclusive studies show that the only safe way to cook meat is to boil it. Grilling meat by any means introduces massive carcinogens and greatly raises cancer risk. Don’t take my word for it. Please look into it yourself!
I’m not usually into government banning food but I think crickets in food should be banned. There are people severely allergic to crickets and the fact that food processors are calling crickets subtle or misleading names should be outlawed.
Tax on food is wrong…..government telling us what to eat is wrong…..get government out of our lives and stop the taxes. How much is spent administering that tax. Enough already.
Please do not kid yourself into believing that we have a free market system. Buying politicians to enact regulations putting your competitors out of business and favoring your company has been a cost of doing business for over a century (a la federal reserve and allopathic health, etc), as have the financial consequences of putting seriously unhealthy products on the market (Pfizer, Monsanto, Phillip Morris, etc). But hey don’t take it personal it’s just business.
The government of Idaho should not tax groceries or ban lab-grown “meat.” The less government the better. But what the government of Idaho should do is protect ranchers from anything that can hinder them from producing beef for us. Like preventing regulations related to CO2 and Methane, or some other tax or burden. As long as our supply of beef and our right to eat it are not restricted, then the masses can eat all the lab-grown trash they want.
As far as I can tell, no one is forcing food choices on anyone, regardless of taxes or governement food pyramids .. No one is pouring soda down anyones throat or force feeding processed garbage faux foods to anyone. People are responsible for informing themselves and making appropriate choices for their own well being and enjoyment of life. What is needed is historical re-education about real food, which should start at home. Western/American processed foods are designed to cause Western/ American diseases to create customers of the Western/American medical industry.
Here here.
The amount of contradictory information about the healthiness of various foods is staggering. We know that all food industries want to influence us to eat in ways that benefit them and not necessarily us. Let’s not give the government any more levers of power over our food choices that these industries can exploit. Government power gets exercised for the benefit of the powerful even when claiming to be for the benefit of the common man. It’s never a good idea to give the government more powers.
In my humble opinion, we, as consumers bear most of the responsibility for the food choices we are given at the grocery store, farmers markets, roadside stands and farms. We all vote with our dollars, taxed or not and subsidized or not. Don’t buy the product and when demand ceases, supply will go with it.
Should food be taxed, no is the simple answer . Should the government be determining our food supply, absolutely not. We all have choices here and we all live with the choices that we make.