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The sugary drinks tax approved by Cook County—home to one of the nation’s largest cities, Chicago—can move forward, despite Big Soda attempts to block implementation in the courts.

As our colleagues at Healthy Food America said in the wake of the ruling, “We are pleased that Cook County is a step closer to making a real difference in the health of its residents.”

Starting with Mexico’s 2013 approval of a sugary drinks tax and the city of Berkeley’s win in 2014, these taxes are catching on: Cook County joins Philadelphia, Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, and Albany, California. And the research on tax implementation is showing they work, reducing consumption of sugary drinks and upping consumption of water, while generating much needed revenue.

In 2016, the World Health Organization came out in favor of these taxes, stating: “If governments tax products like sugary drinks, they can reduce suffering and save lives. They can also cut healthcare costs and increase revenues to invest in health services.” Why? Because drinking soda and other sugary beverages is a “major factor in the global increase of people suffering from obesity and diabetes,” explained Dr. Douglas Bettcher of the WHO.

I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of saving lives. You know who doesn’t seem to? Big Soda. Want to know how worried the industry is about these taxes? Check out this leaked document with Coca-Cola Europe’s internal strategy mapping of the policies most threatening to the bottom line.

The industry is fighting back against these taxes, the attempt to block the tax in Cook County is just one example. I saw Big Soda’s bullying tactics up-close-and-personal when my small city of Berkeley, California, launched a campaign for a tax on sugary drinks. The industry was relentless in its misinformation, but despite outspending the community efforts, the industry lost in a landslide.

Today, more than $1 million is being generated from tax revenue each year to support public health and nutrition education efforts across the city, benefiting our most vulnerable neighbors.

Hopefully today’s victory in Cook County will inspire even more communities to explore this powerful tool to help address the epidemic of diet-related illnesses sweeping the country and the world.

Cheers to the over 5 million residents in Chicago and Cook County who will benefit from this win. *clinks glass of non-sugary sweetened beverage*

Anna and the Real Food Media team

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Based in Seattle, FEEST creates on-the-spot youth-driven cooking – of ideas and ingredients! – in the kitchen. Decisions are made communally about what will be prepared to create the day’s menu and serve up a delicious, healthy meal followed by a family-style feast – all while learning more about food and its impact on our selves and our communities.

“Through improvisational cooking and dinners, FEEST creates safe and supportive space for young people to be themselves and take leadership of the space. With this environment, our youth leaders build community while simultaneously think critically about the food system and food issues that affect their communities. Our youth interns develop passion based projects and do advocacy that directly affects these issues that they’ve identified.”
-Meng Yu, youth engagement coordinator

Check out the FEEST blog! Entries are written by youth who attend the program and feature photography and articles by the wonderful FEEST interns and staff.

“Everyday we work with folks – every time we cook a meal – we make community.  That breaking of bread – and with it the making of community – is one the thing that can, paradoxically, unmake the oppressive forces in American society. The act of eating together is transformative.  Let us break bread; remake the world.” -Roberto Ascalon, kitchen director

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by Anna Lappé

At Tuesday night’s Berkeley vs. Big Soda victory party in the heart of downtown, the results rolled in slowly, but spirits were high. Early returns around 8:00 p.m., with only 8 percent of precincts reporting, showed the people beating Big Soda by a huge margin. The margin held.

The massive industry campaign to defeat the tax works out to $409 for each vote industry got in its favor. This was a big fail for Big Soda — and an expensive one.

The final tally had the Yes on D campaign winning with 75 percent of the vote, but not for Big Soda’s lack of trying. According to the most recent data available, Big Soda had poured $2.3 million into its fight against this simple and modest tax of one cent per fluid ounce of sugar-sweetened beverages, a proposal that was supported by every single elected official in the city. The massive industry campaign to defeat the tax works out to $409 for each vote industry got in its favor. This was a big fail for Big Soda — and an expensive one.

By last week, the soda industry was starting to unveil its new spin on the impending loss: Berkeley is weird. A win here, Big Soda would like us to believe, is an aberration. With the win locked in, the industry is pushing hard on the “wacky Berkeley” meme. It’s doing so because the other lesson from this resounding vote is that it’s a game changer — a signal of the beginning of a seismic shift in how we treat soda and sugary drinks in this country. That lesson is a huge threat to Big Soda. So the drumbeat of Berkeley weird will continue. After the results were announced, Roger Salazar, a representative from the industry’s campaign told the Associated Press, “Berkeley is very eclectic;” he told the San Jose Mercury News that Berkeley “doesn’t look like mainstream America.”

But Salazar wasn’t at Berkeley vs. Big Soda HQ on Tuesday night. Had he been, he would have seen just how wrong he was.

He would have seen the face of soda tax supporters: young and old, African-American, Latino, immigrant — people from all social and economic classes. He would have heard from people like Kad Smith, a recent Berkeley High School graduate, a staffer at the non-profit Ecology Center and a key force in the campaign. And from Lolis Ramirez, a trained organizer with a background in nutrition, who was the powerful campaign field director. And Josh Daniels, a key player in the coalition for the tax and a member of the city’s School Board. And Joy Moore, a long-time public health advocate, and one of the original members of the soda tax coalition. He would have seen the gathered crowd of supporters. He would have seen that the face of Berkeley vs. Big Soda is the face of mainstream America.

Whether the soda industry wants to admit it or not, the public health crisis associated with the overconsumption of sugary drinks, including skyrocketing diabetes is mainstream: One in three children born today is now predicted to develop diabetes at some point in their lifetime; the figure jumps to one in two for African-American and Latino children. Sugary drinks are key culprits in this crisis, the single largest source of added sugars in our diet with no nutritional benefit.

What Salazar would have heard last night is what it means for these statistics to touch down in our communities and in our lives. He would have heard Reverend Marvis Peoples share why he’s passionate about this work. “My son,” Peoples said, “died from diabetes.” He would have heard Dante Kaleo, who at 21 is one the many young people who campaigned for the tax, tell the crowd: “In 2011, my grandmother died of diabetes. Tonight, my aunt is in the hospital because of complications for diabetes.” He would have heard Eric Gorovitz, a lawyer, father of two, and volunteer with the campaign, say: “Three years ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes. This is personal.”

What Salazar would have learned is what everyone sensed Tuesday night: What happens in Berkeley won’t stay in Berkeley. Berkeley may be weird, at times, but it’s also a bellwether. It was the first city in the nation to voluntarily desegregate its schools, to provide curbside recycling, and to create curb-cuts for wheelchair accessibility. Now, it’s the first US city to pass a tax on sugary drinks. This win, like those that came before it, will spread across the country. As Joy Moore told me on Tuesday: “The conversation has changed. There’s no going back.”

Originally published in  Earth Island Journal

Photo by Robert Galbraith/Reuters via NPR

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