How Mexico took on the soda industry and won, passing a soda tax: An interview with Tina Rosenberg, New York Times and Solutions Journalism Network – Episode #106

Mexico consumes a lot of soda and its soda industry (particularly Coca-Cola) is very powerful. Even so, in 2013, Mexico’s congress was able to successfully pass a nationwide one-peso-per-litre (about 10%) tax on sugary drinks, over the opposition of the soda industry. How did it happen?

To gain insights, we’re joined by Tina Rosenberg (@tirosenberg (twitter.com/tirosenberg)), a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Her recent article in The Guardian is titled, “How one of the most obese countries on earth took (theguardian.com/news/2015/nov/03/obese-soda-su…)on the soda giants (theguardian.com/news/2015/nov/03/obese-soda-su…).” She is the author of the “Fixes (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/tina-rose…)” column in the New York Times and also a co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network.

As Tina Rosenberg explains, there were several factors that helped pass the soda tax. One was a smart media campaign by the Nutritional Health Alliance in Mexico to raise awareness about the impact of soda. As example ad, at right, is titled “12 spoonfuls.” It asks: “Would you give them 12 teaspoons of sugar? Then why give them soda?”

This is the first interview in our two-part series about Mexico’s soda tax. In part two (govinnovator.com/barry_popkin), I speak with Professor Barry Popkin of UNC on the estimated first year impacts of the tax.

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