--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza.
--:-- Laura Cooper: And I'm Laura Cooper, who covers the beverage industry. Do you have a preference when it comes to soda?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I have an answer, but I don't know if I should say. It's a secret. We'll find out someday.
--:-- Laura Cooper: Yes. When it comes to soda, I've recently been looking into a fight that's been brewing in one particular state, Arkansas. There's an effort there now to restrict what people can buy with food stamps, also known as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: No more junk food for Arkansans on the taxpayer's dime. That's what Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is proposing.
--:-- Laura Cooper: Sanders says people who receive supplemental food benefits, also known as SNAP benefits, should not be able to use those funds to purchase snacks, candy, or desserts.
--:-- Sarah Huckabee Sanders: [audio clip] I think that there was a lot of diabetes and obesity in my state. And I thought that people using SNAP to buy things like sugary beverages or desserts or something like that, that would be a contributing factor to that.
--:-- Laura Cooper: A recent study found that if we just cut out sugary drinks and soda from SNAP, we could prevent obesity in 141,000 kids and type 2 diabetes in nearly a quarter million adults.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Over the past 20 years, states have tried to get sugary drinks out of the SNAP program. But those efforts have always fizzled. This time, though, Arkansas has a chance.
--:-- Laura Cooper: Industry insiders told me that if this idea spreads across the country, it could be a real hit to company sales. And soda makers are gearing up for a fight.
--:-- [Break music plays]
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Welcome back to The Journal. Coming up on the show, the fight bubbling to get soda out of Snap.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And now, back to our show.
--:-- Laura Cooper: This has been something that has been looming on the horizon for a long time, the idea of soda being removed from Snap and what that might look like. So I think everyone is watching with great interest what happens in Arkansas to see if that could be a blueprint for other things that would happen across the country.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Imagine fast hydration. Combined with balanced energy. Perfectly flavored with zero artificial sweeteners. Introducing Liquid IV's new energy multiplier sugar-free.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And now, back to our show.
--:-- Laura Cooper: In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is poised to send a request to the USDA to restrict sugary items from SNAP, potentially including candy, desserts, and soda. Companies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are now on high alert.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And it's in part because the battle over soda and the SNAP program comes as these companies have been trying to keep up with changing consumer habits. Even though I still drink soda, there are a lot of people who don't.
--:-- Laura Cooper: You know, people are thinking about their health and they're looking for healthier options. And full sugar sodas, CSDs as we call them, carbonated soft drinks, are kind of flat on sales.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: They continue to happen, but they're going a bit flat.
--:-- Laura Cooper: It's so funny when you say like soda companies are flat.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Yeah.
--:-- Laura Cooper: I recently wrote about Gut Pop prebiotic soda like Olipop and Poppy that's really getting a following.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The future of soda is now, and it's called Poppy. Olipop, a new kind of soda. Naturally sweet, nothing fake, supports digestive health.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And now, back to our show.
--:-- Laura Cooper: To do that, they're trying to appeal to one of America's most famous soda drinkers, President Donald Trump. The man is a huge Diet Coke fan. And he even has a button for people to bring it to him throughout the day.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So that's also part of the interesting thing here.
--:-- Laura Cooper: So the American Beverage Association, which is a trade group that represents Dr. Pepper, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, they have commissioned polling that showed that nearly 60 percent of the people who voted for Trump last year support allowing soda purchases with food aid.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So that is something that I think that they're trying to make clear. And I also think they are trying to appeal to Trump himself.
--:-- Laura Cooper: He's a big soda drinker, you know.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I think that they're trying to appeal to Trump with polling.
--:-- Laura Cooper: Laura says that the president has been skeptical of banning things his supporters like, telling his advisors that bans are unpopular.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Beyond that polling, the American Beverage Association also launched an ad campaign.
--:-- Laura Cooper: It highlighted that more than half the products Americans buy from soda companies are low or zero sugar drinks.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The soda companies are working really hard to remind people of the zero and low sugar options that they offer to continue to keep their consumers coming back.
--:-- Laura Cooper: And they would say that they are creating options for other people to meet them where they are. If you want a full sugar Pepsi go for it. If you want, you know, Diet Coke, that's available to you too.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And if there's one thing I've learned on this beat, it is that Americans love their Diet Coke. They love their Coke Zero, their Pepsi Zero sugar.
--:-- Laura Cooper: And they say it tastes just like the original.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: If Arkansas does manage to remove soda from SNAP, what will it mean for the people who use that program?
--:-- Laura Cooper: It would mean that SNAP recipients could not buy soda with their benefits. It would mean if you usually buy Coke, you could not. If you usually buy Dr. Pepper, you could not.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I think that there are a lot of places in the country where fresh food and different kinds of drinks are not available.
--:-- Laura Cooper: And, you know, this is something that people generally buy to feed their families, you know.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: For instance, we have some lawmakers talking about Arkansas and how it would be great to be able to buy more nutritious foods, but sometimes that's not what's available to people across the country.
--:-- Laura Cooper: Laura says it could also cause some of the complications that the USDA has referenced in the past because it's unclear what does and doesn't count as an unhealthy soda.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And I'm very curious to see, does that mean Diet Dr. Pepper? Does that mean zero Coke? What does that mean?
--:-- Laura Cooper: We've spoken to a lot of grocery stores as well, small mom and pop, and it just seems like it's also going to be hard at the checkout counter for people.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Because right now, if you have SNAP, they know you can't buy alcohol, cigarettes, certain things.
--:-- Laura Cooper: But for so long, people have been able to buy soda.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So it's also going to be a little bit of a bottleneck at the actual checkout.
--:-- Laura Cooper: If Arkansas succeeds, I say that it could open the door for other states to do something similar.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Honestly, I think we'll see more of them from other states. Also states that maybe previously had tried to do something with soda. New York was one.
--:-- Laura Cooper: So I think we will see also some not Republican states. I mean, Arkansas is pretty deep red.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: But I think we'll see other states kind of want to do this as well.
--:-- Laura Cooper: How worried would you say soda companies are about what's going on?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I would say they're concerned and they're watching with great interest.
--:-- Laura Cooper: That being said, again, they've been here before on many different other paths that haven't gone anywhere.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: But I do think this is probably the closest we've ever gotten, especially with the buy-in from the executive branch.
--:-- Laura Cooper: And I think that that's also been a big thing for everybody to think about.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So do you think you'll be grabbing a soda with your lunch after this?
--:-- Laura Cooper: You know, I have a reusable water bottle that I always fill. Stick to water.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Nice, neutral water.
--:-- [Closing music plays]
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Before we go, we wanted to tell you that we're exploring a live event. Tell us what you want to see by taking our survey.
--:-- Laura Cooper: There's a link in our show notes. And for updates on our plans, please leave us your email address.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: That's all for today, Friday, March 7th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal.
--:-- [Closing music continues to play]
