If HHS Secretary and healthy food advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has his way, SNAP will stand for Soda Not Allowed Period.
On Friday, Kennedy brought his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign to West Virginia, where Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that he will be seeking permission from the Department of Agriculture to put soda on the list of items that cannot be bought through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often referred to by its former name of food stamps, according to The Washington Post.
“Taxpayer dollars should be targeted toward nutritious foods,” Morrisey said.
Kennedy issued a full-throated request for states to copy Morrisey’s lead.
“I urge every Governor to follow West Virginia’s lead and submit a waiver to the USDA to remove soda from SNAP,” Kennedy said in a statement, according to Newsweek.
“If there’s one thing we can agree on, it should be eliminating taxpayer-funded soda subsidies for lower income kids. I look forward to inviting every Governor who submits a waiver to come celebrate with me at the White House this fall,” he said.
Waging a SNAP war on soda is opposed by Valerie Imbruce, director of the Center for Environment and Society at Washington College.
“Controlling how the poor eat is a paternalistic response to a problem that is not based in SNAP recipients’ inability to make good decisions about healthy foods, it is a problem of the price differential in choosing healthy or junk foods,” she said.
“Soda and candy are much cheaper and more calorie dense than 100 percent fruit juices or prebiotic non-artificially sweetened carbonated beverages, thanks to price supports and subsidies by the federal government to support a U.S. sugar industry,” she added.
The soda industry was also miffed, the Post noted.
Hellbound and Down 