Welcome to Food Week for December 1, 2023. The economy in a steady state and food prices coming down. But it isn’t great everywhere. Diet Coke is expensive and cantaloupe is dangerous. COVID can survive freezing temperatures and the water is low in the Panama Canal. And there are many, many problems with avocados. Lots of good and bad to read, Enjoy!
MACRO
- Strong stock market growth in November. And GDP for 3rd quarter revised up to 5.2% which is en fuego.
- And job market finally cooling off. Soft landingville.
- Food inflation continues to slow. Makes it harder for Kroger to make money
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Diet coke is really expensive right now. Here’s why. But Coke is the best place to work for career advancement.
- Regardless, in the coconut water wars – David (Vita Coco) beats Goliath (Coca Cola).
- Someone – intentionally or not – changed the formula for Costco butter. Thanksgiving bakers vey upset
- Out of control may be an accurate way to describe the salmonella outbreak in cantaloupe that has spread to 34 states.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Oh the shrimp! Red Lobster maxes out with the shrimp promotion. And loses $11M.
- McDonald’s very quietly rolling our new concept CosMc. It seems focused on teens and young adults to take on Starbucks. Also, there are no poached eggs at McDonalds but there may be poached employees soon.
- The legacy of Milk & Honey, the NYC birthplace of great cocktails.
- Nashville rivalling New York and Chicago homegrown foods with its hot chicken.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Some definitive studies on COVID and food. Transmission is low but it can survive at -20F!
- 1/3rd of greenhouse gasses come from meat and dairy. Climate talks don’t even address. Growth of animal proteins has slowed some.
- Low water levels in Panama Canal drives the cost of everything up, particularly produce.
- We eat 3x as many Avocados as 20 years ago. Is it just another crop? Hoo boy. They come with climate change, gangs, deforestation. corruption, water depletion. And the and small fruit to boot this year any way.
- Should we eat Octopuses?
- In a move that sounds like something out of Good Fellas, a truck driver caught selling 31,000 lbs. of chicken
FOOD WEEK DECEMBER 1 LAGNIAPPE
- Learn Amaro types.
- Food, physics, chemistry and altruism. High end dining as a lab experiment.
- The world’s oldest ham.
- I like the Great British Bake Off and I generally like Prue Leith. Apprently no one else does.
- How many time have you found yourself out of hen’s eggs and only have ostrich eggs in the house? Well, when that happens, reach for this handy guide on how to prepare ostrich eggs.