Summary and Synthesis

Julian Alston and Abigail M. Okrent
Additional contact information
Abigail M. Okrent: United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Chapter 11 in The Effects of Farm and Food Policy on Obesity in the United States, 2017, pp 319-331 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Many farm and food policies that have been proposed to reduce obesity will not be effective, economic, or politically acceptable. Farm subsidies and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have not contributed to obesity, and although public agricultural R&D has contributed to obesity, it would be inefficient to use agricultural R&D policy to curb obesity. Taxing calories, sugar, or fat might be an economically efficient way of reducing obesity; however, food taxes are regressive and might not be politically acceptable. Policies that induce the food industry to redesign foods may be more effective at reducing obesity than policies that rely entirely on inducing response by consumers. Policies that combine the push of market incentives with the pull of public education and nudging interventions may be the best of all.

Keywords: Obesity epidemic; Social costs; Farm and food policies; Taxes; Nudges (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:psachp:978-1-137-47831-3_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137478313

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-47831-3_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().