American obesity crisis

Controlling the Environmental Costs of Obesity

Obesity is increasingly viewed as a major health problem across the world. Globally, 13% of adults suffered from obesity in 2014. Obesity leads to adverse health outcomes such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes— shortening life and reducing the quality of life. Obesity presents both external and internal costs. Some estimate that obesity alone may be responsible for almost three million deaths per year and some $2 trillion in medical costs and lost productivity, representing significant external costs. Internal costs occur because people make eating and drinking choices without being aware of the eventual damage to their health. Although less frequently studied, obesity also carries environmental costs. Consumption of certain energy-dense foods made from corn and soy (including meat) increases soil erosion and water pollution from fertilizer use. Governmental policy encourages the production of such crops. Being overweight decreases physical activity and personal mobility, leading to increased use of motor vehicles. Airlines have even recognized the increase in the average weight of passengers and the need to use more fuel to carry that heavier load.

Environmental factors such as sprawl and transportation policy affect obesity rates. When people cannot walk or take public transportation to work, they spend more time in their cars. They have less time to exercise and prepare healthy meals. They are more likely to visit fast food restaurants and eat in their cars. Hence, both obesity’s effect on the environment and the environment’s effect on obesity lead to increased carbon emissions and exacerbate climate change. Taxes can potentially control both the external and internal costs of obesity. By increasing the cost of certain foods, taxes can discourage their consumption. A number of national and subnational jurisdictions have enacted such taxes, including Denmark; Finland; France; Hungary; Mexico; the Navajo Nation; and U.S. cities such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Boulder, Colorado; and Albany, Berkeley, and San Francisco, California. This Article will examine a variety of economic instruments for controlling obesity, including regulation, taxes, and nudges. The relative success of governmental measures to reduce tobacco use are also examined to see what lessons might be learned. The Article will begin with a definition of obesity, followed by a discussion of the external and internal costs of obesity, focusing on environmental issues. Next, the Article will consider the pros and cons of different approaches to controlling obesity, examining current trends in food taxation. Finally, the Article will explore existing U.S. tax provisions to consider how modification of such provisions might help with the problem of obesity. For example, advertising deductions could be denied to producers of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods that are designed to be hyper-palatable and addictive.

Language review - noun phrases

In our previous writing class we discussed academic writing often uses quite dense noun phrases to carry information. Recall the a text is dense, and therefore more difficult to read, when a lot of information is packed into a short space, and when a lot of this information is abstract. Remember also that we defined a phrase as anything that's longer than a single word but isn't a complete clause or sentence.

Task 4

Identify three places from the text where the author has put information into noun phrases. One is done below as an example:

1. a major health problem across the world
2. ...
3. ...