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“The Tribal Council approved legislation this week to impose an additional 2 percent sales tax on sweetened drinks, and snacks high in salt and fat. That includes chips, candy and pastries. ”
– SFGate, Navajo lawmakers increase sales tax on junk food
“The Navajo Nation Council on Thursday approved a 2-percent increase in sales tax for junk food sold on the 27,000-square-mile reservation, becoming the first tribe in the country to install a so-called “junk food tax.”
– Indian Country Today, Navajo Nation Council Approves Junk Food Tax to Fight Obesity.
“The rest of the country should pay attention to what happens on the Navajo Nation following the institution of the junk food tax, which recently passed. They may lead the way for the rest of America in the fight against obesity and related chronic disease.
Across the country, the call for taxation of junk foods has mostly come from politicians and public health authorities, but on the Navajo reservation a grassroots group called the Diné Community Advocacy Alliance (DCAA), has been working for over two years to establish such a tax to improve the health of the Diné, or Navajo people.
The DCAA is made up of mostly women, including many grandmothers and great-grandmothers. They drive and hitch rides across the dirt roads of the 27,000-square-mile Navajo reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah to gather support. The largest reservation in the country, Navajo is divided up into 110 local governances, called chapters, and the DCAA members have been methodically showing up at chapter meetings to present their message.
The DCAA has accomplished something that others with more money, power, and influence have repeatedly failed to do: establish a tax on junk food.“
– Huffington Post, Navajos Leading the Way in the Fight Against Obesity.
“President Ben Shelly supports the idea of a junk food tax as a way to combat high rates of diabetes and obesity among tribal members and encourage healthy lifestyles, his adviser Deswood Tome said Wednesday. But Shelly said the legislation isn’t clear on how the tax on snacks high in fat, sugar and salt would be enforced and regulated, according to Tome.”
– Huffington Post, Navajo Nation president blocks tax on junk food.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #5 – Junk Food Tax.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
