Tom Bartlett, “Step Away From the Coke Machine,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2010

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently profiled Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and his decades-long advocacy of soft drink taxes, an idea that once attracted derision but today “doesn’t seem so radical.” The Chronicle notes “growing evidence of a link between price and consumption,” citing recent reports that appear to lend credence to Brownell’s crusade. Despite opposition from free market economists, the beverage industry and groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom, the proposal has purportedly gained traction in legislative circles, rippling outwards from cities and states to the upper echelons of federal government. Counted among these supporters is Thomas Frieden, who once co-authored a paper with Brownell and now directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, according to The Chronicle, “[t]he professor is aware that the renewed interest in his idea is, at least in part, prompted by the budget shortfalls in states and cities across the government. For cash-strapped governments, a new source of revenue that also appears to promote an altruistic goal may be nearly irresistible.”