HUGE NEWS: Big Soda goes flat as 4 major U.S. cities vote in a sugar tax

• Four major U.S. cities – Albany, Oakland and San Francisco in California, and Boulder, Colorado – have voted YES to a sugar tax.

• The American Beverage Association spent nearly $30 million ($39 million AUD) campaigning against the tax.

• What’s next for the beverage industry?

It was major news all round in the U.S. yesterday. In Big Soda land, four major U.S. cities dealt a devastating blow to soft drink giants everywhere and voted yes to a sugar tax.

Yep, every U.S. city with a soda (soft drink) tax on their ballot approved the levy, including Albany, Oakland and San Francisco in California, and Boulder, Colorado. What a landslide!

It will come as a shock to the beverage industry, who smeared the tax mercilessly ahead of the election, claiming that the proposal was a “tax on groceries” (because, you know, soda is an essential item). The American Beverage Association spent nearly $30 million ($39 million AUD) against the ballot.

The four cities join Berkeley, California and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (as well as France, Mexico, South Africa and the United Kingdom). The levies are expected to raise millions towards community projects and lower sugar consumption. Already Berkeley has shown a 26 per cent drop in soda consumption across low-income neighbourhoods.

Now all eyes will be on Big Soda or their next move. With the science increasingly showing the destructive effects of sugary drinks, and major companies reformulating their products to avoid being taxed, we like to think of this vote as another death knell for the industry.

What do you think: is Big Soda in big trouble? Where will the sugar tax fall next?

SHARE

About Unknown