Food News: Let's Use the Farm Bill to Protect Bayer From Lawsuits
A newsletter more frequently visited by plant-based diners than the general population. Don't ask how I know.
hi hi,
This intro is going to get personal and discuss COVID and death, please skip to the What I’ve Read section or click out of this post if that’s not something you want to engage in right now. Please take care of yourself!
Despite my best preventive efforts over the past 4 years, I got COVID 2 weeks ago. Some of the initial responses to sharing that this was my first time getting COVID have made it seem like this was inevitable and I should be impressed that I was able to hold out this long.
Part of me feels like getting sick was my fault. Like I let myself get it—even though I’ve been vaccinated, boosted, and have continued to mask and be cautious in public—and therefore must have deserved to be sick.
And still, another part of me feels guilty at how “easily” I was able to avoid it to this point and that when I finally did get it, how “easily” I was able to recover.
Despite this guilt, I am grateful that I’m ok and my body was able to fight this off fairly easily. Health is not something I take for granted and this is especially true after watching my grandpa’s experience with COVID last October. As I mentioned when I shared my eulogy, I was one of his caretakers and saw how quickly COVID can become debilitating and lethal.
Every time I coughed over these past few weeks, I remembered sitting at my grandpa’s bedside listening to him struggle to breathe. I remembered how, even with breathing assistance, his coughs turned to gasps and shudders, while mine quickly went back to normal with a few sips of water and some decongestant.
I know sickness shouldn’t be moralized. I know I didn’t deserve it and was not being punished for my susceptibility to a highly contagious virus.
I also know that COVID doesn’t have to be viewed as an eventuality and I’m frustrated that we’ve let it come to be seen as such.
While I wrote these Threads posts over a month ago, I think they will feel true forever, especially the last one linked below. When I share these personal stories and practice being vulnerable and open about my grief, I’m not trying to bum you out or elicit any kind of sympathy for myself.
I am hoping that what I share will serve as a reminder for a few of you to remember to wear a mask the next time you step into an airport or a crowded store. I hope that if people try to undermine your desire to take COVID—or any other public health—precautions you remember that in doing so you could be the reason someone doesn’t get sick. It may feel silly to be one of the few people, or only person, doing it but your actions can make a world of difference.
Wishing you a Shabbat shalom, or a weekend of peace.
-k
What I’ve Read
Plant-based Consumers’ Favorite QSRs - According to the Brightfield Group Wellness Dashboard Panera, Chipotle, In-N-Out Burger, Subway, and Burger King are more frequently visited by plant-based diners than diners from the “gen pop”. This article does not break down methodology, define plant-based, or differentiate between plant-based, vegetarian, and vegan. Frustrating, especially considering there is mention of how some of these quick-service restaurants (QSR) highlight vegetarian and vegan menu options.
I could not find any public-facing report, data, or methodology to corroborate the conclusions presented or answer any of my many questions. Also, I’m pretty surprised that In-N-Out is ranked considering the only options (to my current knowledge) are the fries and their “veggie burger”, which is literally a bun with lettuce, tomato, and onion. You will not find me waiting in In-N-Out lines for either of these options.Panda Express is bringing back its beloved Beyond orange chicken—for a limited time - Speaking of vegan fast food favorites…You may remember that Panda Express and Beyond Meat partnered to launch animal-free orange chicken in 70 locations in the fall of 2021. Panda Express then added it as a limited time menu item at over 2,300 national locations in September 2022. Then the dish went away and people got angry about it. This is the typical pattern for restaurant chains dabbling in animal-free menu options over the past decade.
A couple of days ago, Panda Express announced Beyond orange chicken is coming back* and the vegan internet got very excited. Apparently, this move by Panda Express was in response to consumer demand—a Change.org petition has almost 7,300 signatures requesting this comeback and it was the most requested dish Panda Express saw on social media.
*The Beyond orange chicken is only available at a few hundred locations and it is still only being offered for a limited time.
Medically Important Antibiotics Are Still Being Used to Fatten Up Pigs - One of the harms caused by industrialized animal agriculture is the development of antibiotic-resistant infections, a huge public health concern. In 2017 the FDA revised what antibiotics can be used in the feed or drinking water of food-producing animals to ones only necessary for veterinary oversight hoping to limit their use in “growth promotion” AKA unnaturally fattening up animals to get more profit from their bodies and short lives.
New USDA data from hog farms of 1,000+ pigs showed producers feeding their pigs antibiotics, that are medically important for humans, to fatten up their pigs. As noted in this Civil Eats article, it’s “surprising farmers actually reported” using critically important antibiotics for fattening up animals when goes against FDA guidance.USDA Proposes New Rule to Clarify Unfair Practices in the Livestock, Meat, and Poultry Industries - The Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets Proposed Rule aims to make the Packers and Stockyards Act more easily enforceable by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). This enforcement would be used to promote competition in the livestock and poultry market industries and give greater protection to farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders who report unfair practices and anti-competitive behavior. This is the 4th proposal by the Biden-Harris Administration focused on promoting fair competition in the agricultural industry. This is one of the ways the Administration is working to combat inflation, lower food costs for consumers (mainly those who eat animals), and improve the resiliency of the animal meat and poultry supply chain.
A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels - Get ready to see more electronic shelf labels in grocery stores and chain restaurants. In March I reported on the confusion over Wendy’s potential implementation of surge pricing with new AI-enabled digital menus and with Walmart’s recent announcement for plans to replace standard price stickers with electronic labels, food surge pricing is back in the news. Walmart shared it will digitize labels in 2,300 stores by 2026. Electronic labels have already debuted in retailers—like Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, Shnucks, and stores in Europe—and are stated to offer features beyond the ability to efficiently change prices as needed.
A supposed benefit of digital labels for consumers is more easily accessible product information for in-store shoppers but experts quoted in this NPR piece mention that the main benefit is reduced labor costs associated with employees manually pricing products. This is one more task that can be automated by technology instead of by the pesky employees who require financial compensation and can only operate at a human pace.Bayer lobbies Congress to help fight lawsuits tying Roundup to cancer - Roundup is a weedkiller that, in some formulations, uses glyphosate as an active ingredient. Glyphosate was registered as a pesticide in the U.S. in 1974 and has been labeled by some health and environmental authorities as a carcinogen. The EPA’s review, “found that glyphosate is unlikely to be a human carcinogen.” Thousands of lawsuits have been filed over the past 10 years citing the alleged health risks, like non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, of regular exposure to Roundup (Bayer claims there have been 170,000 claims). Unsurprisingly, Bayer continues to say the pesticide is safe, though they did agree to an estimated $10 billion settlement in 2020. Now, Bayer is lobbying to include a section in the next farm bill to stop lawsuits against Roundup to reduce its future liability.
As Marion Nestle commented in “Lobbying in action: Bayer wants Farm Bill protection against Monsanto lawsuits” on her blog, Food Politics, “Food corporations should not be writing the Farm Bill.” Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion when the lawsuits and concerns tied to glyphosate were already well underway.If You’re Going to Read 1 Piece in Full
Read Inside Mexico’s anti-avocado militias by Alexandor Sammon -
(CW: mentions of murder, violence)This article details resistance—through the radical protection of land, ecosystems, and communities— in the municipality of Cherán in the Mexican state of Michoacán against the human and environmental damages of avocado farming. Michoacán is the heartland of avocado farming growing a third of the world’s avocados and 4 out of every 5 avocados consumed in the U.S.
Cherán established itself to combat corrupt politics, cartel influence, and the environmental resource drain and destruction that comes with avocado farming. Cherán, and other localities with similar models of governance, have strict policies against avocado growing, and political parties. They fought and continue to fight to preserve community safety, natural resources, and Indigenous practices.
As noted in the article, not all communities and farmers in Mexico agree with the strict anti-avocado policies of places like Cherán. But continuing as usual and ignoring the harms caused by growing avocados, and other specialty crops, is not a viable solution. When we have a food system that focuses on quantity and immediacy over quality, sustainability, and safety we will continue to see environmental and human issues in our supply chains.
Image via Mashed, Credit to California Avocado Commission/The Atlantic Reading this reminded me of “Ripe for Global Domination: The Story of the Avocado”, an episode of Gastropod released in May of 2018. I remember walking Ginny on the path next to the Charles River in Boston listening to the hosts talk about how the California Avocado Commission used marketing campaigns to try and give avocados some sex appeal with celebrity endorsements. They also used marketing to educate people on when avocados are ripe with mascots called Mr. and Ms. Ripe, naturally. Little fun fact, my auditory and place memories have always been powerful. I often remember conversations, podcasts, or songs in association with where I was when I first heard them and vice versa with physical places.
