Food Week August 29 – September 4, 2022

Welcome to Food Week August 29 and Happy Labor Day. It’s September so start hoarding your Halloween candy. (Next month you can hoard turkey.) But don’t hoard Euros as they fall to a 20 year low. And people in New Jersey have been hoarding plastic bags and don’t even know it. Enjoy.

MACRO

• Steady, not crazy, employment growth eases inflation fears.

• Another major US city without drinking water.

• With the euro falls to less than a dollar can we call it soccer again?

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• Is the organic category flattening out like alt-proteins?

• Food retailers a big part of job growth in August. Stores finding workers again.

• Campbells goes through its 3rd price increase of the year.

• Single use plastic bags get banned in New Jersey and consumers don’t know what to do with the ones they have.

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• The new FAST act in California could push wages to $22 per hour for fast food workers.

• Bots are replacing workers when it comes to answering phones, especially during crunch times.

• 25% of baristas quit after 3 months at Starbucks. The chain created a monster with customization of drinks. It’s exhausting, stressful work.

• The already robust cocktail scene in Mexico City gets more recognition: Hanky Panky named among best bars in the world.

• Corn, not corn? Molecular gastronomy? Trompe l’oeil? Chefs having fun with corn shaped things.

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• Maybe this is a good year for ham. Avian Influenza killed a lot of turkeys. That will mean high prices this Thanksgiving.

• Most agricultural workers speak Spanish so shouldn’t pesticide labels are only required to be in English

• Drought woes and produce.

• As a result, these environmental conditions are helping to keep beef prices high.

FOOD WEEK AUGUST 29 LAGNIAPPE

• An article about the tonir, a clay and stone, in-ground oven used traditionally in Armenian homes.

• Authenticity is perhaps the most over-rated word in food. Here is a discussion as regards the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Likewise, we talked about it our article on Diverxo.

• Controversy over kratom, the botanical that opens up opioid receptors in the brain.

• Chipotle markets cargo pants made with napkins. k. What happens when you spill on them?

• The relationship between immune response, gut biome and food allergies is being defined. It will lead to addressing and even curing diseases.

• By the way, your diet sucks.

• About a 52 year old burger, encased in resin, sitting in the Alberta legislature