JUNK FOOD TAX: EXPERTS AT THE BARILLA CENTER FOR FOOD & NUTRITION SEMINAR PROPOSED A TAX ON JUNK FOOD TO RESOLVE THE PARADOX WHERE ONE BILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE OVERWEIGHT AND ONE BILLION DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH FOOD

Increasing taxes on junk food could resolve the paradox in our world in which a billion people are overweight or obese and another billion do not have enough food. Experts suggested this solution at the workshop on access to food, organized by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition.
“In the northern part of the world people eat too much unhealthy food,” said Andrea Boltho, Professor of International Economics and Emeritus Fellow at the University of Oxford, “and to discourage eating food dangerous to their health a tax on junk food, like the tax on cigarettes, should be introduced,”

The figures revealed during the workshop reveal a world divided in two: 13.4% of the global population that does not have enough food is concentrated in Asia (555 million), followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (201), Latin America (47), the Near East and North Africa (32): “In some countries the cost of food is 60-70% of the household budget,” said David Dawe, Senior Economist at the Agricultural Development Economics Division of the FAO, “we must intervene with the introduction of new agricultural technologies in developing countries, agreements that protect the farmers from price volatility and educating on healthy eating around the globe”.