Welcome to Food Week January 24, 2025. A lot to read and see here. It’s dry January but the trend away from alcohol is broader than one month. Good, partial solutions to climate change are out there and related to food, but need support. Micro-plastics and HPAI are worsening but surely there are regulatory agencies to help us… never mind. Well, go enjoy a sumo mandarin while you scroll the doom.
MACRO
- Food prices rising again, driven buy the HPAI egg crisis. And, for you optimists, no it won’t be fixed any time soon, no matter how good eggs are for you.
- Trump orders withdrawal from World Health Organization, Paris Climate Accord and functionally shuts down the National Institutes for Health. In fact, all public health agencies.
- Forever chemicals in tap water linked to cancer, and a third of us are drinking water with other contaminants.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Using AI to empower price fixing. Pepsi doesn’t need the help.
- Natural market poised for another big year
- Costco will persist with its DEI goals, regardless of the Trump Administration,
- The damage of sugary drinks.
- What is a ‘dirty kitchen‘ and why would you want one.
- The best fruits to buy. And Sumo citrus is in the stores and believe me, it’s the bomb. Have you tried paw-paws?
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Ogawa Miami has 10 seats, a Michelin star and a prefect google rating. More little places with great food.
- 79 Wahlburgers bounced from Hy-Vee stores, which may mean the end of the concept
- A chef in France, however, has adopted a ‘No Michelin reviewer‘ policy
- Tavern-style pizza from Kenji
- Is a fern bar in your future?
- 14 legged giant Sea Bugs are supposedly more delicious than lobster and all the rage in Asian restaurants.
- A resurrected Charlie Trotter’s restaurant.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Moving from synthetic fertilizers to microbes will revolutionize farming. Should there be an alternative to organic labels for ‘natural’ growers?
- Zero FoodPrint makes compelling arguments for transforming agriculture into a climate change solution.
- On the other hand, changing diets can impact global warming as well.
- Wheat is Russia’s primary crop but it’s farmers are pivoting towards other crops because of climate and market volatility
- Do avocados have a future in California agriculture? Maybe, if the global prices for the fruit keep rising.
DRINKS
- Wine sales follow craft beer and bourbon ever downwards as America dries out. It is the young’uns that are increasingly sober. There is a small percentage of drinkers – 20% – are drinking 90% of the alcohol; there is the danger that that group is self-selecting themselves out of life at a faster rate,
- Athletic Brewing seem to be winning the alt-beer category. Here are some of the top NA beers. Alternatively, some good NA cocktails or tips to craft your own.
- For those who remain, wine drinkers are moving to the big reds.
- The difference between Cognac and Brandy
- Mistakes to avoid when making whiskey – or really any – cocktails. Here’s a hot toddy recipe to ward off colds
- Egomaniacs: Czech beers with enormous heads.
- Are flaming drinks about to have a renaissance?
- This review made me laugh: “If despair was a flavor it might taste like Captain Morgan Caribbean White Rum.”
FOOD WEEK January 24 LAGNIAPPE
- Creating bread the ancient Greek way.
- Alpha-gal is a syndrome caused by a tick bite that can cause allergies to red meat and cosmetics.
- Have Americans ever eaten healthy? When did we start eating desserts?
- Is coffee a food or a miracle drug? As long as it isn’t sweetened or decaffeinated, drinking coffee can prevent dementia.
- Sailors died regularly – and painfully – from scurvy and the answer was so simple.