Would you eat less junk food if it costs a little bit more? Starting on July 1, the Navajo Nation will charge a 2% tax (税) on junk food sold on its reservation (保留地)- the first tax of its kind in America. The change is part of the Healthy Dine Nation Act, which the tribe's president Ben Shelly approved last November. The law will also the current 5% sales tax on healthy food from fresh fruits and vegetables.
Denisa Livingston from the Dine Community Advocacy Alliance, a group that helped pass this law, hopes to make people in the community more aware of their food choices. "This is a friendly awareness tax, "she said.
In a press release, Livingston said that by the law, they want to improve the health of its population, which inhabits a 27, 000-square-mile reservation from Arizona and New Mexico to Utah.
Approximately 24, 600 Navajo tribe members face obesity, according to the Navajo Area Indian Health Service. Type 2 diabetes has emerged as a growing public health concern affecting up to 60% of reservation residents in some areas.
Livingston says that the Navajo Nation's status (身份)as a food desert contributes to the health problems the people face. A food desert is an area where fresh, healthy food is expensive and hard to find. Food deserts are especially common in low-income communities, such as the Navajo Nation, where 38% of the population lives at the poverty level.
The money that the government collects from junk food taxes will be put towards projects that encourage people to eat healthy food from community vegetable gardens, greenhouses, and farmers' markets. "This is going to open the door to more opportunities and conversations and ideas about how we move to a food oasis (绿洲) where everyone has access to healthy food, " Livingston said, "Whether you're deep in the reservation or the neighboring towns, you will have the availability of healthy food. "
