Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Latest court ruling: Pringles are potato chips (sort of)
Ah the British. So ahead of us in so many ways. A British court has ruled that Pringles have enough potato in them to qualify as crisps (translation: potato chips) and, therefore, are subject to a Value Added Tax of 15%. Procter & Gamble, the maker of Pringles, argued against the tax. Pringles, it says, are not crisps. Why? Because their shape and packaging are “not found in nature.” Tough, said the court. Pringles are 42% potato. That’s enough to qualify them as crisps. Under the law, crisps get taxed.
Pringles are 42% potato? OK, but what else do they contain? Here’s the ingredient list: DRIED POTATOES, VEGETABLE OIL, RICE FLOUR, WHEAT STARCH, MALTODEXTRIN, SALT AND DEXTROSE. CONTAINS WHEAT INGREDIENTS. (You will be relieved to note: No artificial ingredients. No preservatives.)
Hey: potatoes are the first ingredient! I say tax ’em.
Update May 25: Here’s what Advertising Age has to say about the Pringles-as-a-vegetable idea. Pringles, it says, was able to supply the entire world with its product out of one factory in Tennessee, precisely because of its infinite shelf life and packaging. Ordinary potato chips, alas, get rancid after a while.
