Welcome to Food Week August 28 – September 3, 2023. The dog days give way to strange days. Mountain Dew gelato. A rice crisis in France. Meat candy. Edible theater masks. Dollar menus without dollar items. People stapling bread to trees. You read that correctly. And more. Enjoy.
MACRO
The economy keeps chugging along, modestly adding jobs, increased consumer spending.
However higher interest rates and COLA mechanisms cause the federal deficit to double from 2022 to 2023
The Death of the Buffett.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
Smucker’s came up with a back to work plan that employees like.
Millennials have no use for your rules regarding what is a snack and what isn’t.
Store label products eating the lunch of brands.
WIC program is caught between food inflation and budget cuts, imperiling poor families.
Just don’t tell me: Consumers less likely to buy products with vegan or vegetarian labeling.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
How will you feel ordering food through a phone bot? Door Dash about to find out.
Taco Bell testing Mountain Dew gelato.
Franchising has always been a vehicle of reducing (avoiding) risk – legal, regulatory, economic – for restaurants chains. A California law may change all that.
For some reason, having a dollar menu with no dollar items has proven problematic for McDonald’s.
Burger King in trouble over advertising but no on would buy their signature sandwich if it was marketed as ‘Acceptably Sized.’
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
Minnesota drought leads to big farms taking all the ground water. Aquifers all around the country drying up.
Climate change is making the future of Georgia peaches murky.
At least 30 Senators oppose the EATS act, which looks to take regulation of agricultural products out of the hands of the states.
Are traders trying to corner the market on rice in France? Global prices have gone up 20% since India put on an export ban.
Hurricane Hilary cost California grape growers 25% of their harvest
FOOD WEEK AUGUST 28 LAGNIAPPE
Is the alcohol industry threatened by Ozempic? Users report lessened cravings, but also reduced interest generally.
People stapling bread to trees. In England. Today
An apologia for iceberg lettuce, which remains boring.
Meat candy, cause, why not?
If Diabetes isn’t coming on fast enough, here’s a recipe for homemade Kahlua.