Empire State Today

Michael Bloomberg’s international fight against sodas and unhealthy food reflects the former New York City mayor’s “colonialist" attitude toward other countries, said a policy analyst with the Independent Women's Forum.

In 2013, a New York judge struck down a law in New York state pushed by Bloomberg that banned restaurants from selling sodas and other sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces, Reuters reported. An appeals court later upheld the judge’s ruling.

Bloomberg currently is exporting his version of government overreach to other countries, Julie Gunlock of the Independent Women’s Forum told Empire State Today.

“That seems to me terribly insulting to these other countries,” she said. “It’s very in line with how Bloomberg views people. He has a very paternalistic approach to things. He thinks he knows best.”

The Bloomberg Philanthropies Food Policy Program is spending $435 million on a campaign to push policies promoting healthier diets, according to its website. The program encourages higher taxes on sodas and junk food, limiting food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents and new labeling requirements, the website said.

The program is focusing on Brazil, Jamaica, Barbados, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa and the United States, the program said.

In Mexico, two state governments have recently banned the sale of junk food and sugary drinks to minors, NPR reported. Other states are considering similar laws, the story said. The reason behind the ban is because two-thirds of Mexicans who have died from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions such as obesity and diabetes, NPR reported. Some officials are trying to change the diets of younger residents to prevent them from developing these conditions. Undersecretary of Health Hugo López-Gatell has attempted to blame the consumption of soft drinks on the county's COVID-19 deaths, USA Today reports.

“If this were an initiative coming from the Mexican government, I would still disagree with it,” Gunlock said. “But this is Michael Bloomberg using millions of dollars to push around people outside his own country.”

 Bloomberg doesn't respect the ability of those citizens to make decisions that are best for them, the analyst said.

“I kind of chuckle at this liberal American politician telling people in other countries how to behave,” she said.

Food taxes and soda taxes are regressive, Gunlock said, adding, “They hurt the poorest people in the community.” 

She tells the story of a great aunt who was a child in New Hampshire during the Great Depression. Years later she always had candy in the house.

“That was the only thing they could get as children,” she said. “They didn’t have toys. When they were older, they always remembered candy as something special.”

For the children of people living in abject poverty, far below the worst poverty in the U.S., sometimes sodas provide a similar respite, Gunlock said.

“It’s one of the rare things they can really enjoy,” she said. “In many of the countries Bloomberg has targeted, this may be a case of people having very few choices for an occasional treat.”

People should be allowed to make their own decisions on what to eat, Gunlock said, adding, "Government can't solve all problems."