Data analytics firm Quid has ranked Healthy Food America (HFA) among the top health and social advocacy organizations shaping the soda tax debate. We were named along with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Public Health England, American Heart Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Quid also named our executive director, Jim Krieger, as a key individual along with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.  

Jim Krieger was considered the second most influential health advocate, and seventh most influential individual overall. His quote about Philadelphia passing a sweetened beverage tax in June was also featured in the report:

"If we go five years ahead and look back, I think this is going to be a watershed moment. This is going to really provide momentum."

“Krieger,” the analysts wrote, “appeared in top-tier and second-tier outlets like the New York Times and Politico, driving his high influence ranking in this conversation.”

HFA was among the top five “influencers” of the soda tax debate worldwide. HFA was the second most influential advocacy organization after CSPI.

Quid is a five-year-old Silicon Valley startup that uses proprietary software to search, visualize and analyze text. For their report, Soda and Sugar Tax Policies, Quid mapped nearly 2,000 news stories mentioning “soda tax”, “sugar tax” or “soft drink tax”. For the influence rankings, Quid created an index based on:

• Source quality: Outlets were ranked in tiers, from 1 (most-read) to 5 (least-read), and each tier was assigned points from 10 down to 2;
• Social shares: Quid assigned points for each share of an article via social media
• Published count: Analysts also gave points for each time an original article was republished in another outlet. 

HFA has no connection to Quid, but we were gratified at their estimate of the impact our organization has had since we launched early this year.  Tellingly, though, all of us on the pro-health, pro-consumer side lag well behind the American Beverage Association, funded predominantly by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Individuals and organizations on the side of health and social advocacy will need to continue to grow the movement and coordinate our efforts if we want to be heard over Big Soda. 

Want to help? Join the movement at www.healthyfoodamerica.org/join.