New Government Report: Energy Use in the U.S. Food System

Energy Use in the U.S. Food System
by Pattrick Canning
Paperback, 39 pages, 2010, $25.00
ISBN: 1437930336

“Energy is an important input in growing, processing, packaging, distributing, storing, preparing, serving, and disposing of food. In the U.S., use of energy along the food chain for food purchases by or for U.S. households increased between 1997 and 2002 at more than six times the rate of increase in total domestic energy use. This increase in food-related energy flows is over 80% of energy flow increases nationwide over the period. The use of more energy-intensive technologies throughout the U.S. food system accounted for half of this increase, with the remainder attributed to population growth and higher real per capita food expenditures. Food-related energy use as a share of the national energy budget grew from 14.4% in 2002 to 15.7% in 2007.”

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New Government Report: Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages: Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity (ISBN: 9781437935931)

Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages: Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity (ISBN: 9781437935931)
By Travis A. Smith, Biing-Hwan Lin, Jonq-Ying Lee
(Paperback, 33 pages, 2010, $25.00)

Despite budget deficits and calls by health advocates, soda taxes have failed to pass recently in New York, Philadelphia, Vermont, Mississippi, Kansas and Alaska, the New York Times reports.

The link between high U.S. obesity rates and the over-consumption of added sugars, largely from sodas and fruit drinks, has prompted calls for a tax on caloric sweetened beverages (CSB). Faced with a tax, consumers may reduce consumption of these CSB and substitute non-taxed beverages, such as bottled water, juice, and milk.

A tax-induced 20% price increase on CSB could cause an average reduction of 3.8 pounds of body weight over a year, for adults and an average of 4.5 pounds over a year, for children.

Given these reductions in calorie consumption, results show an estimated decline in adult overweight prevalence and obesity prevalence, as well as the child at-risk-for-overweight prevalence and the overweight prevalence. Charts and tables.

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