Hello party people, hope you’re soaking up the last couple days of Gemini season and ready for the approaching summer solstice!
Before we get into the news, do me a favor, relax your shoulders and take a couple deep breaths. That’s something I’ve needed to remind myself to do quite often lately (see meme for context as to why) and lemme tell you…that deep breathing shit really helps! Who knew?!
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what i’ve read
Beyond Meat accused of unfair competition because of misleading claims in new lawsuit - Don Lee Farms is suing Beyond Meat and Ethan Brown in federal court, accusations include unfair competition due to false advertising and misleading claims. There is a lot of litigious energy in the food system, especially with the alt-meat companies, but I’m curious to know the evidence behind the allegations of misleading claims.
A New Bill Aims to Ban Mergers in Ag and Food Sectors - the bill has been introduced in the House and aims to, “impose a moratorium on large agribusiness, food and beverage manufacturing, and grocery retail mergers”. The 26 findings included in the report really say it all.
USDA Announces Framework for Shoring Up the Food Supply Chain and Transforming the Food System to Be Fairer, More Competitive, More Resilient - the framework areas of focus are on small/mid-size producers and addressing issues within the supply chain that have failed the stress test of the last few years
Lawmakers Press White House on FDA’s Draft Guidance for Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives - it seems we have bi-partisan support urging the FDA not to require plant-based milks to identify differences on their packaging (ie prevent them from saying MILK) because it would be discriminatory since cow dairy milk wouldn’t have to make its own label distinctions. Read the letter here.
A ‘Stinky’ Ingredient is the Soul of Northeast India’s Tribal Cooking - a lot of new-to-me information, foods, ingredients, etc. A longer but important read about discrimination and the imposition of purity by a dominant culture.
Related post from omsom - how we still talk about certain ingredients as exotic and foreign as a selling point while oppressing minoritized cultures and groups within our society
What counts as ‘better-for-you’ confectionery? - yes sure better-for-you and “functional” foods are a growing category and it’s cool to see more milk chocolate made with plant milks instead of cow dairy but also weird to laud Hershey for making oat milk chocolate while ignoring the slave labor in their sourcing and supply chain. “Better” for you products shouldn’t come at the expense and exploitation of others.
THIS VEGAN FAST-FOOD CHAIN’S BURGERS JUST GOT 38 PERCENT CHEAPER TO COMPETE WITH MCDONALD’S AND BURGER KING - Plant Power Fast Food is working with its co-packers and suppliers to reduce the cost of burger patties to manufacture allowing the company to lower the cost of menu items for consumers. Despite global inflation hitting everyone super hard, this food chain has found a way to lower costs. More of this energy!
Maintenance Phase Episode- Calorie Menu Labeling - even if you, like me, know in general about calorie menu labeling interventions from an academic or professional standpoint, this episode is crucial. When our hyper-focus on nutrition interventions and programming is on calories, specifically for weight loss, there are major consequences. We know calorie counting is a harmful behavior and weight loss is not the cure-all the 90’s thought it was so why are we still so invested in these programs? CW: ED, anti-fatness
When my husband left me, I headed for the kitchen- here’s how comfort food can save the soul - (contains recipes with animals used as ingredients)
Over the last few months as I’ve been processing and decompressing from the most difficult year of my life I have seen a major shift in my energy, especially in finding opportunities for joy. When I’m having a day that feels blah, I’m low on energy, my brain won’t allow me to write, or I’m not up for being social, I’m still finding myself in the kitchen. Cooking is my comfort, sharing what I’m cooking is even more comforting; both sharing IRL or virtually by cooking on a live stream or posting a picture of my meal. It was a longer read but it made me feel seen and I offer it as an opportunity to reevaluate what comfort food means for you.Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act of 2022 - bill introduced to Congress that wants to make updates to GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) rules
kvetch sesh
I feel like all I’ve done this week is kvetch on the internet, so instead of re-writing it long form I’m going to organize (aka dump) the content on you here in chronological-ish order! Just in case you haven’t kept up with my minute-by-minute Instagram updates.
The kvetch theme: Non-GMO Project’s celebration of National Dairy Month…which was less of a celebration of dairy and more of a coordinated attack on “synbio dairy” aka animal-free dairy, aka cellag, aka fermented proteins, whatever ya wanna call it.
How this event came on my radar - I saw the article in Dairy Processing Non-GMO Project warns of potential synthetic dairy risks
I posted my breakdown of the article here encouraging others to join the webinar and read through the related materials on the Non-GMO Project campaign website (beware lack of citations and a lot of unsubstantiated information presented as fact.)
My livestream of the “How to Milk a Microbe” Webinar - it is a bit chaotic but it’s an unfiltered look at me watching the webinar. I think I watch industry webinars they way other people watch sports? Lots of yelling at a screen even though I know I can’t change the outcome.
The playback of the webinar that includes the slides was emailed to me, here’s that link.
There was a lot missing from this conversation, including:
any mention of how traditional cow dairy milk is not fit for the global majority of people who are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk
proposed legislation that addressed some of the points mentioned about consolidation and investment in the agricultural and grocery space and the GRAS rules
They took audience questions on the webinar but none of mine made the cut, so I took to Twitter to re-ask. As of Thursday afternoon, still no response.
What other people are saying about this eye-roll of a campaign
Startups hit back at Non GMO Project attempt to discredit emerging ‘animal-free dairy’ category - leaders in the space give answers to some of the questions raised in the Non-GMO projects materials, even though they continued to ask the questions in the webinar as if they were unanswerable.
Some more chats on Twitter
I want to reiterate that I am PRO-radical transparency in our food system. I do not take food brands at their word or trust that our current capacity of government regulation is enough. But I will never support fear-mongering, manipulating facts, or pushing unsubstantiated information. Our food system is scary enough and there are plenty of opportunities that are in dire need of addressing, no need to create new problems just because we can. Though that is, unfortunately, quite a successful marketing strategy, create a problem in order to sell people your brand’s version of the solution.
The majority of the webinar and associated materials was the Non-GMO Project panel pulling some we’re-just-asking-questions type of shit without actually bringing people into the conversation who could give them the answers. They presented consumer research without citations for participants to validate or review the source material and they clearly cared way more about promoting one particular organic, non-GMO dairy farmer and their own certification than critically engaging with the information in this emerging category.
If there was any doubt about that goal, the webinar ended with a question about how a dairy buyer can make sure they don’t accidentally buy GMO or synbio dairy instead of “real” cow dairy milk and the TLDR response was - look out for the butterfly (aka the Non-GMO Project certification…the one that, by the organization’s own words does not actually mean that, “a product is ‘GMO Free’, and it does not state the the product is safer, better, or healthier”).
If I had more time, I would have liked to write out a more organized response, but I didn’t! Hope this chaotic kvetch sesh was still helpful and if you have any thoughts or questions please comment below or email me (oyveyitskay@gmail.com).
thanks for reading!
PS 🎂 happy birthday Jebba 🎂