Learning lessons from Berkeley, CA: Analyzing roll out of nation’s first sugary beverage tax

Anna Grummon headshot

Harvard Pop Center’s Bell Fellow Anna Grummon, PhD, is an author on this study published in the American Journal of Public Health that analyzes what factors helped to facilitate (and impede) this public policy that generated more than $9 million for public health, nutrition, and health equity through 2021.

The power of policy; what happens when sweetened beverages are taxed & school meals are legislated to be more nutritious?

Image of soda bottles and veggies

A review of two implemented policies—an excise tax of 1.81 cents/ounce on sweetened beverages in Philadelphia, and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010—shows that both policies had a positive impact on health and health behaviors. Authors of the studies include Harvard Pop Center faculty affiliates Sara Bleich and Steven Gortmaker, and former post-doctoral fellow Christina Roberto. Learn more in this EurekaAlert release.

Sweetening the deal: Taxing a sweetened beverage by amount of sugar it contains could lead to health & economic gains

Jar of sugary syrup

Anna Grummon, PhD, a Harvard Bell Fellow in the 2019-2021 cohort, is among the authors of an analysis published in the journal Science. The researchers conclude that health and economic gains could be better realized by taxing the sugar content of those beverages, rather than taxing the amount of liquid in the drinks. Learn more in this news post by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Did the sweetened beverage tax actually put people out of work?

sodas on display in store

According to a new study that includes our faculty member Sara Bleich and former Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar Christina Roberto as authors, there was not an uptick in unemployment claims in the year following the implementation of the sweetened beverage tax in Philadelphia.