If you’ve read Sip & Savor before, you know a topic we are passionate about is soda taxes.  We’ve shared our position on them – they’re discriminatory; regressive; won’t solve the complex issue of obesity that some in the public health community allege they will; and quite simply, are nothing more than a money grab.  ...more

Earlier this week some researchers published a paper calling for a national penny-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to “cut health and cost burdens of diabetes.”  Why?  We’re not really sure since a beverage tax will have no impact on public health. In fact, the authors admittedly used assumptions based on ‘lacking or inconclusive’ evidence.  Even ...more

It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone, but if you read our blog looking back at 2011, you’ll likely agree that it was a busy one for our industry.  We now look forward to this year, and the challenges and opportunities it may bring for our member companies, our industry, our ...more

Wow – 2011 went so fast!  As we put this year in the rearview mirror, let’s take a minute to look at what issues we covered this year. We’ve provided a lot of information about our member companies’ products and programs, including our Clear on Calories and School Beverage Guidelines initiatives.  And that includes clearing ...more

Over the weekend, a Californian resident wrote to his local paper about a topic we discuss a lot here at Sip & Savor: taxes. The no-nonsense editorial discusses the complications and injustices of taxing specific beverages under the guise of improving the health of children. The author states, “One needs to look much deeper than ...more

Earlier today, a group of medical professionals in Boston, Mass., launched a statewide campaign to encourage pediatricians to discourage consumption of soft drinks and support a bill to remove the state sales tax exemption for both soft drinks and candy. We’ve seen these types of overly simplistic approaches to combating childhood obesity before, so we ...more

If you are a frequent visitor of Sip & Savor, you have read a lot about taxes over the years: bottle taxes, soda taxes, beverage taxes, etc.  We have long been saying that discriminatory taxes will not work to solve complex problems – whether they are fiscal such as a state deficit or social, like ...more

Every now and then, we like to share an article that we find interesting.  Earlier this week, Jonathan Berr, a writer for InvestorPlace, wrote about a topic we discuss a lot here at Sip & Savor: taxes. Berr’s article, “Obesity Taxes Won’t Work,” discusses the complications with taxing specific foods and beverages. He also states, ...more

We’ve regularly let our readers know our strong opposition to discriminatory taxes on our products.  It’s a position we know is backed in common sense and science.  Today we’d like to share with our readers a new study from The Tax Foundation.  The study counters our critics and tax supporters by unveiling the ineffective – ...more

Every once in a while, we like to share an article that we find interesting.  Today, it’s the “Five Myths” column from Sunday’s Washington Post. Reason magazine Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward takes on “Five Myths About Healthy Eating” and provides “a helping of skepticism about the causes of Americans’ poor eating habits — and the ...more