Oy Vey It's A Food Newsletter - Vol 2, Issue 6
The newsletter that is equally as concerned with retail sales and investor earnings as it is with hunger and food insecurity.
Happy March 31st to all who celebrate!
These last few days I have definitely felt like Ron Swanson from this episode of Parks and Recreation. We got back from an awesome trip to Amsterdam and Prague earlier this week, which was the first extended period of time in a while (is 9 days an extended period of time??) that I did not travel with my laptop or make myself available to respond to emails or available for meetings. While I tried to schedule some slower days on each end of the trip, the pre and post trip anxiety, email catch up, work events and deadlines, and my chronic insomnia mixed with jet lag, have all got me feeling like Ron Swanson from S2E20 of Parks and Recreation.
Wishing all of us some more time for intentional rest, relaxation, and opportunities to be offline.
-Kay
What I’ve Read
Banking on the Seaweed Rush (found this piece through a recent Good Food Jobs newsletter) - Seaweed farming, that has been common in Asia, is gaining global attention over the past 30 years. According to the FAO seaweed production has increased sixfold in that time period to over 35 million tonnes. This “seaweed revolution” has been on my radar, I’ve been seeing seaweed and other algae innovation in the food space for the past few years, and earlier this week I was at an event in San Francisco that aimed to provide a, “multisensory culinary experience to explore and question our many relationships to our oceans”. According to the article, the Safe Seaweed Coalition estimates that seaweed could add 10% to the global food supply by using only 0.03% of oceanic surface. Definitely recommend reading (or listening) to the article to learn more about seaweed farming and the global innovation landscape.
Lunchables are going to be rolled out directly to students. Here’s what’s in them - Lunchables Turkey and Cheese and Extra Cheesy Pizza options with an updated recipe that meets National School Lunch Program (NSLP) parameters have been approved for the fall. The Turkey and Cheddar Stacker 3.5 ounce option will come with 2 ounces of meat or meat-alternative (could not find details on what the alternative is) and a 1 ounce equivalent of grain. The Extra Cheesy Pizza 5.05 ounce option will include 2 ounces equivalent of meat or meat-alternative, 2 ounces equivalent of rain, and ⅛ cup of a red/orange veggie. “Kraft Heinz said both options were made using ‘a specialized recipe that incorporates more protein and whole grains to keep kids powered throughout the day, reduced saturated fat and sodium, and an increased serving size.’” You can see more about the product info from Kraft Heinz, I find it interesting that they included stats about brand awareness on the second page. I don’t remember learning about the importance of brand recognition in any of my grad school classes talking about childhood nutrition or the NSLP.
The fight against factory farming is winning criminal trials - One of my semester long research projects in college was focused on studying the impact of animal activism exposés, like undercover investigations or documentaries like Food Inc., and it led me to learning about Agricultural Gag (Ag-Gag) laws. So this article is a particularly interesting juxtaposition from what I learned about the responses to animal rights activism from the 1990s-2010s; organizations and activists who focused mainly on the destruction of property were labeled ecoterrorists by the FBI and various states began to enact Ag-Gag legislation. The “open rescue” type of activism was new-to-me before this article, it involves animal rights activists walking into animal agriculture operations and removing animals for veterinary care or to live in sanctuary. Part of this activism involves intentionally provoking legal conflict to gain attention for the cause, and the recent cases detailed in this piece show that tactic has been relatively successful and have the potential to set greater legal precedent, if cases go beyond jury trials. I’m not getting too optimistic though; history, and my research, have shown that while the response to certain exposés can be in favor of the animal rights movement, people and systems are still slow to change, if they ever change at all.
Pescetarians are responsible for many more animal deaths than regular meat eaters - I can’t help but think of comedian Kyle Kinane’s bit where he calls fish “wet vegetables”. It really seems to encapsulate much of society’s views towards fish and other water-dwelling animals despite absolutely all of the contradictory evidence, and why people love to play mental gymnastics with this evidence by choosing to consume fish that is “wild-caught” or “dolphin safe”. I would consider these labels and certifications a form of harm-reduction if they weren’t mislabeled or completely false almost half of the time. Even if the sentience of fish and other marine animals detailed in the article doesn’t sway your consumption choices, maybe the environmental impact of conventional fishing operations and the amount of forced labor and human trafficking that prop up the industry will.
FDA Clears California Company’s Lab-Grown Chicken as Safe to Eat - GOOD Meat Inc. (if you are a JUST Egg fan this name may sound familiar) is the second company making cultivated-meat to receive early-stage regulatory approval in the U.S. indicating safety for human consumption. GOOD Meat is only being sold in Singapore, currently, but has to clear USDA and other regulatory hurdles before being sold to U.S. consumers.
Meanwhile… Italy wages war on lab-grown food in drive to protect tradition - A bill was approved by the Italian government to ban the use of lab-grown food and animal feed in order to protect their agri-food heritage from “synthetic food”. If the bill passes the Italian parliament, cellular agriculture will be punishable by fines up to €60,000. The nationalist Italian government also considers insect farming a threat to their agri-food heritage, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also issued decrees banning insect-derived flour in pizza and pasta.
OPEN THREAD: We Need to Talk About Ultra Processed Food - I connected deeply with this piece from the first sentence, “…I’m up to my tits in the literature on Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) and health outcomes…”. This is a bit of an action item along with me encouraging you to give this newsletter a read because in it Laura Thomas is asking for regular degular schmegular non-academic comments about Ultra Processed Foods. The comments are pretty interesting and I think a lot of you would have great thoughts to share.
It Turns Out Mushrooms Have a Language—And We’re Just Figuring Out How to Decipher It - Well this is quite a trip (pun absolutely intended)! Studies have shown similar findings to what shamans, curanderas, and other plant medicine enthusiasts have been saying for their lifetimes; mushrooms speak. Your oyster mushrooms aren’t chatting each other, or us, up in the same human linguistic style but they have demonstrated communication similar to a slowed down version of the electrical signaling that power our nervous system.
Surge in eating disorders spurs state legislative action - (TW for discussion of disordered eating behaviors, suicide, and body dysmorphia) Legislative proposals across the U.S. touch on restricting the promotion of potentially harmful content by social media algorithms, selling weight loss pills to minors, and adding ED prevention to middle and high school curriculums. A recent bill in Colorado seeks to create a new state office to close gaps in treatment, offer research grants, and educate the public. There are also efforts in the state to minimize the use of BMI in ED treatment because of its discriminatory nature that so often prevents people with high BMIs and fat people from diagnosis and treatment.
Thirteen trends driving change in food and agriculture production - These trends come from the Futures Council for the Association of equipment Manufacturing and were presented at a recent National Grain and Feed Association convention. I don’t think any of them will come as a surprise but I won’t keep you in suspense, the trends are: produce more with less environmental impact, optimization of water use, increased global demand for more protein (not so sure about the validity of the quote stating, “…there’s no bit of research that points to the fact that animal protein is not expected to continue on the upward swing for the foreseeable future” though I guess it would depend on the specifics), shorten the food supply chain, geographic shifts in production mainly due to genetic advances and climate change, advanced food traceability for consumer trust, adjustment of farming techniques in response to calls for agricultural emission reduction, adjacent economies created by decarbonization, narrowing of connectivity gap thanks to technology, AI insight-driven farming, strengthening cybersecurity, farm ownership models change, and new business models across the industry.
Q&Kay
Q: This may be outside of your interests at the moment, but the article you shared about CBD regulation made me think that this might be up your alley. I'm really confused by the regulation of THC products in states where it's supposedly illegal. Like, Delta 8 being legal + Delta 9 being 'legal' if it comes from hemp products + how this leads to the proliferation of what seem to me like they could be pretty untrustworthy products. I guess my question is just how the heck this is happening and what legislators are thinking -- why don't they just make it legal if people are getting high anyway, on stuff that's potentially less safe? Or, why don't they try harder to make all that illegal as well?
Kay: Cannabis is never outside my interests, friend! Although full disclosure, it hasn’t been within my professional scope of activities since I managed the email marketing and social media for a hemp-derived beverage a few years back. The most recent regulatory update that I am aware of come from the DEA, which in February, stated that structurally Delta-8 and Delta-9 THCO do not meet the definition of hemp and are "synthetic cannabinoids” that actually fall under Schedule I of the Controlled Substance Act. The disjointed nature of hemp products and their legality is explained further in this Forbes piece that points out the “grey market” spurred by the 2018 Farm Bill, which federally legalized the cultivation of the hemp plant as long as THC levels are blow 0.3%.
I won’t ever claim to know what legislators are thinking, but on this subject in general I have a few thoughts. The first is to your point that despite the legality, “people are getting high anyway, on stuff that’s potentially less safe”. Our country is not known for being aggressive on harm-reduction and destigmatization of “drugs”, especially not when the manufactured war on drugs props up other economies. This bring us to my next thought, that our regulatory systems and criminal justice systems are not disconnected; however, both are quite antiquated and slow to change but are definitely motivated by money and the activities of (legal) private industry. The third thing to consider is the tricky nature of supplements vs foods vs drugs and the limited resources and power the FDA actually has for enforcement and punishment. If you want to see how they handle various hemp products, check their log of warning letters to companies that will detail specifics. My final point for today is that state versus federal power has literally always been contentious within the U.S. and adds huge difficulty to the progress that can be made within regulatory pathways, especially when the pendulum keeps swinging between federal offices controlled by the party that either favors or eschews federal regulatory power.
Some additional resources on the subject:
CBD and THC edibles: legal or not? - Food Politics
Delta-8 THC vs. Delta-9 THC: What’s the Difference? - Forbes
FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD) - FDA News Releases and Statements
But also, apparently cannabis-infused ketchup collabs between Fatburger and Kiva Confections is a thing while people continue to be punished and incarcerated for cannabis related crimes, so…
Submit a Q&Kay here!
Kvetch Sesh
I had to do a virtual double take after coming across this article title: Shrinking food stamp benefits for families mean yet another challenge for retailers. I read it a few times to make sure my eyes weren’t mashing up two different articles and telling my brain to pretend like they were just seeing one. Even after all my critiques of how poorly industry media discusses human issues, like food security and hunger, I still feel my heart rate rise and a desperate need to throw my computer across the room when I come across titles like this.
During the pandemic the federal government provided emergency allotments to SNAP-qualifying households in additional to their regular benefit amount. By the end of this month (aka today) 32 states will see the end of those emergency allotments, that have previously ended in many other states. According to FRAC SNAP director Ellen Vollinger, people will have an average of $82 less on their SNAP EBT cards to spend at the grocery store as they did in March with the emergency allotment. FRAC, using USDA data, reports that the demographic to be hit the hardest by this change will be older adults, some of whom may see their benefits drop from $281 a month to $23. My great state of California will lose $520 million of federal funds per month and have over 2,936,189 households affected by these SNAP cuts.
Over half of the I-need-to-throw-my-computer-across-the-room article discusses the survival challenges for low-income families, people on SNAP, and consumers who are being hit hard with inflation, lower tax returns, and other financial stressors. It then sprinkles in quotes from retail CEOs, like Kroger’s Rodney McMullen, talking about their company's earnings calls with investors and how they hope to find additional money for said investors even though, “‘there’s a lot of people whose budget is under strain.’” People on SNAP are living on about $6 per day meanwhile Kroger reported $34.8 billion in total sales for Q4 with gross margins of 21.8% and an overall expectation for growth in 2023.
I guess Melissa Repko, the article’s author, didn’t feel the need to include the actual sales, profits, and investor earnings when discussing how hard the retailers, and their investors, are being hit by people not being able to afford food and other basic necessities. It’s not like inflation, supply-chain difficulties, high cost of living, and other issues have popped up out of nowhere and miraculously coincided with this recent change to emergency SNAP allotments. Somehow retailers endured these consumer hardships with continued profits and have managed to keep innovating with activities like the record-breaking Kroger-Albertsons merger. McMullen, who has had to campaign for the merger to be given the green light despite many politician’s concerns over antitrust issues, has a net worth estimated at $22.7 million and owns over $1.6 million in Kroger stock. Perhaps Repko wants to garner sympathy for these poor retail giants who have seen and may continue to see employee strikes for better wages, sufficient staffing, and enough working hours, even after some of them so generously issued wage increases in recent years.
In conclusion, I hope whoever the hell wrote this article’s title spills their next morning coffee and has no time throughout their day to get a fresh cup.
I feel like the article in your Kvetch Sesh is perfect for a political cartoon. Do they still do those? Let’s make one