Soda stocks drop as food stamp band push gains momentum

00:00 Speaker A

Soda stocks are slipping today. This is coming after Robert Kennedy Jr. reportedly announced his intent to seek the federal government’s help in banning the use of food stamps to buy soda. This is according to the Washington Post, and just reading through the post report here, Julie, so RFK Jr. pushes this ban on soda being purchased with food stamps. Uh they say he appeared in West Virginia with a governor announced he would seek the federal government’s help to bar soda purchases using food stamps. Not surprisingly, it does not sound like the beverage industry is all for this. I do see uh somebody from the American Beverage Association telling the post saying here what’s unhelpful about this whole conversation is that soda is not driving obesity, we’ve become this easy punching bag, they say.

01:29 Julie Hyman

I mean, it’s not great for you. I think we can all agree that soda is not fantastic for one’s health. Nonetheless, it seems like the process here is is what um merits some attention. So the govern the the states get SNAP authorization from the federal government. It sounds like according to the Washington Post that that actually goes through the Department of Agriculture, which is not under RFK Jr.’s purview.

02:31 Speaker A

Under Secretary Vilsack Rollins.

02:35 Julie Hyman

Right, exactly. So the states would have to apply for a waiver to say you can use your um SNAP dollars, your food your food stamp dollars, but you you can’t apply it to, you know, to um these types of beverages. So we’ll see if they actually make this, we’ll see if her department approves it. You know, Not Secretary In other words, in other words, they’re talking about it. Will actually something happen? We’ll see.

03:27 Speaker A

We’ll see. Se Se Secretary Vilsack Rollins, Department of Agriculture did say here uh in in a statement sounds like, “I look forward to receiving Governor Morsi Morrissey’s SNAP pilot request and we’ll work swiftly to make certain West Virginia is equipped with the technical assistance and expertise to move forward.”

04:10 Julie Hyman

Yeah. We’ll see what happens.