See all I can taste when I drink this is freedom.
US Representative Jared Polis loves kombucha.
That expensive, fermented mix of steeped tea
and sugar that's getting more popular in the US
by the day. Usually the alcohol content is so low
that it's not regulated like beer. So when the Alcohol,
Tobacco and Trade Bureau recently started cracking
down on the drink, sending warning letters to some
producers in his district, Polis decided to fight back.
It is possible one of these might be 0.6 right?
I don't know. So the question is - is all that given the
amount of business and everything else worth it?
Or is there some better way to secure our food supply
for health purposes that they should be focused on?
Yeah. Like listeria.
You ever card people for buying kombucha?
That's the right answer.
You see the cider? There's probably a greater chance
that would be over the 0.5 than this.
This is a bottled product, and that isn't.
It's safe to say that you've taken up a mantle of
work in keeping kombucha properly regulated.
Yeah because unfortunately there's been a flurry
of activity in the FDA over something that's pretty much
innocuous. These are bottled products. Yes,
there's a living culture in them, but except under unusual
circumstances in which it spoils, it's not going to have
above a 0.5% alcohol content. We saw on the menu
here - apple cider. That's much more likely to have
an alcohol content that dips above 0.5 if they leave
it out that something that's bottled like this.
So things that are above 0.5, you need to have an ID,
be 21. I get why that's arbitrary too right?
Why couldn't it be 0.8? There's no particular reason
it's 0.5. It could be 0.7, 0.8.
It's just where we've drawn the line, philosophically.
Because you could drink a huge volume of something
Even if it's 0.04, well even that wouldn't do anything.
You're going to have to have an enormous number
of how much liquids you could drink.
Yeah, it's a good question.
Let's put that to the test.
Number one. Here we go.
I don't drink a lot of kombucha, but I'm a competitive
guy. So here we go.
Alright. Let's head out.
In a time of unprecedented disarray for the modern
federal government, Polis is sticking to his mission.
At 0.5% alcohol, you have to drink about eight bottles
to be the equivalent of one beer. So it raises interesting
questions about the role of government in food
safety. Why we let corporations sell some foods to
young people that we know cause diabetes and heart
disease, but we get super strict over the tiniest amount
of alcohol. After doing this a while, Representative Polis
and I had to sit down.
This sort of I'm not a political philosopher, but
it feels a little bit like something that would appeal to
a conservative ideology. Get big government out
of my food!
I think so. I think it appeals to people across ideology.
I mean of course, there's a role for the federal
government in food safety right?
Preventing tainted product, dangerous product.
Nobody should be misinformed or be subject to
making a decision that could hurt or kill them or
their kids, and that's why for instance, we have a whole
host of products that say don't eat when pregnant.
But to say nobody can have it when by in large it's safer
than many food products that are already out there.
Yeah. Safer than soda.
We consider soda safe, but we know if you drink it
every day, there's an exponentially larger risk of diabetes
and obesity and cardiovascular disease, so is it
safe? If it makes you chronically ill, it's fine, but
as long as it doesn't make you acutely ill.
Even things that make you acutely ill, like if you don't
cook meat products properly, but you don't ban chicken.
You just try to inform people the best you can, and
through labeling requirements that say cook your
chicken and wash your hands.
Cook your chicken. I mean, I'm going to have
to give this whole lecture to the people at the
shop in Williamsburg where I buy the kombucha.
Yeah. I'm curious about that. Is it an independent
shop, and they actually card you for the kombucha?
It is Whole Foods.
Whole Foods cards you?
This is the kind that I buy where they card me
in Williamsburg.
Every single time. It must be a store policy.
Well, you look so young, I'd card you for anything.
Where's your parents young man?
I get that a lot. I'm actually 74.
How many kombuchas today is that?
I don't have a problem.
Maybe you're the one with the problem.