Next Wednesday, Professor Sean Cash of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts will deliver a seminar presentation titled, “Fat Taxes and Thin Subsidies: Can food price interventions improve health?” Professor Cash will discuss the efficacy and health impacts of food price interventions that increase the cost of undesirable foods and/or decrease the cost of desirable ones. (For a little advance reading, take a look at his 2005 article by a similar title, which argues that estimates of the cost per statistical life saved through such subsidies compare favorably with existing U.S. government programs). Here’s a brief description of the lecture:
Activists often argue that food prices drive the obesity epidemic, and call for a change in taxes to raise the cost of undesirable foods and subsidies to lower prices of more desirable ones. Do these fat taxes and subsidies actually work? This seminar will review the evidence on efficacy, producer and consumer responses, distribution of health impacts and financial gains or losses, as well as the role of non-price interventions in relation to price changes.
As an added bonus, the seminar will be broadcast via live stream here—so no need to brave the icy cold!