Food Week October 31 – November 5, 2022

Welcome to Food Week October 31 – November 5, 2022. Change your clocks and catch up on the week. Things not going away: Avocados, plastic, avian influenza, greenhouses, and salmonella. And hopefully not the Nile. Enjoy!

MACRO

• Change your clocks this Sunday. Whether the Daylight savings is good or bad is debatable but it’s the change itself that is the real problem

• Despite the best efforts of the Fed, the US economy just keeps adding jobs.

• Global food prices at a nine month low.

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• Lawsuits to stop the Kroger Albertson’s merger.

• A huge surprise I know, but recycling is failing.

• Similarly, consumer brands struggling to meet their commitments to plastic reduction.

• Big CPG companies are taking a wait and see approach to the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk.

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• Cloud Kitchens – like delivery – struggling to make money in a post-pandemic world.

• Combining Tetris and Sushi.

• Yes, restaurants have higher prices. But not as much as food costs at home.

• Restoration Hardware is in the restaurant business.

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• Avocado demand – and supply – has become a global phenomenon. Everybody loves avocados.

• USDA helping small to mid-size meat producers, hoping to increase capacity and competition.

• Um, salmonella is in all chickens, even in the backyard ones.

• Avian Influenza has typically been a spring problem, spread by migratory fowl. This time it’s different. I million birds affected in Iowa in mid-autumn.

• Egypt is the tip of the spear on climate change and food production. 5000 year of Nile food production in danger,

• Canada has been very successful with greenhouses but crops like peppers and tomatoes need more light that the country has in winter. So supply shifts to Mexico.

FOOD WEEK OCTOBER 31 LAGNIAPPE

• Is the first truly sustainable water bottle here?

• The top crop in Massachusetts is now cannabis.

• The blogger behind ‘Julie and Julia’ has died.

• The highest rated beer in every state.

• Become a ‘good enough’ home chef.

• Weird stuff – the history of jam with the ingredient of human blood.