• Food

Will The Pandemic “Cure” America’s Addiction to Cheap Meat?

• Beyond Burgers
• COVID-19
• food
• meat
• meatpacking plants
• plant-based meat

Eating meat is as American as apple pie, so baked into our culture and identity that President Trump declared meatpacking plants so essential that he ordered them to stay open. Some grocery chains such as Costco and Kroger are limiting the amount of meat consumers can buy, and prices are spiking too.  Meanwhile, plant-based meats are flying off the shelves.

Why This Matters:  Thanks to the virus, Americans may now be forced to learn how to eat less meat and why that might be good for them.

• Food

Will COVID-19 Lead to A Global “Hunger Games”?

• conservation
• crabmeat
• food
• food insecurity
• Indonesia
• science
• supply chain
• Walton Family Foundation

Global leaders are warning that breaks in the global supply chain for food imports to the U.S. could have devastating impacts in developing countries.

Why This Matters:  Thanks to the President ordering meat plants to re-open, we are focused on food supply chains here at home, but there many people around the world supplying us necessary food items (like fresh fruits and vegetables and seafood that can’t be grown here now) as well.

• Animals

Animal Farm: COVID Crisis Slaughtering the Meat Industry

• #conservationist
• CAFOs
• cattle
• chickens
• environment
• food
• livestock
• pigs

Tens of thousands of pigs, chickens, and cattle are stuck on large livestock farms due to processing plant closures because of COVID outbreaks among plant workers.  Consequently, the President yesterday ordered the plants to remain open despite the fact that thousands of workers have tested positive or have been exposed to the virus and the plants have not taken the necessary precautions to protect them from contracting the virus.

Why This Matters:  The President’s order cannot change the course of the virus nor will it solve the problems caused by giant industrial hog and chicken farms, and unsafe slaughterhouses that the virus is exposing.

• Food

The Food Industry Begins to Struggle with the Effects of COVID-19

• agribusiness
• conservation
• COVID-19
• environment
• farms
• food
• food waste

Farmers are being forced to destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food because of COVID-19’s impact on their usual markets, according to the New York Times.  Producers are depending on $9.5 billion from the CARES Act stimulus package for their farms to survive this pandemic.

Why This Matters: As the unemployment rates sky-rocket due to national shutdowns, it’s hard to imagine food going to waste.

• Food

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Food of Environmental Activism

• farming
• food
• food waste
• produce

by Zoey Shipley and Miro Korenha In America, 30-40% (by weight) of food goes to waste each day–which also wastes water and creates needless GHG emissions. One solution that’s been floated to combat food waste is selling more “ugly” produce to consumers. As Vox explained, venture capital-backed companies like Imperfect Produce, Full Harvest, Hungry Harvest, […]

• Health

Coronavirus: How Will The Virus Affect Grocery Shelves?

• #COVID19
• coronavirus
• food

As the coronavirus continues to disrupt supply chains and forces workers to stay home we’re just now coming to realize what this means for our economy and how it might disrupt our daily lives. One of those supply chains will be the food and produce on the shelves at our grocery stores. As TIME reported, American […]

• Food

Why We Need Crop Diversity

• 30 by 30
• agricultre
• biodiversity
• crops
• farming
• food

Over the past 50 years, fewer crops are feeding the world’s people and diets around the world are becoming more alike. This puts us at risk of a “globalized diet” based on major crops such as soybeans, wheat, rice, and corn–which are grown on almost half the world’s agricultural lands.

• Health

Don’t Let Food Contamination Spoil Your Thanksgiving

• contamination
• E. coli
• food
• Hepatitis A

CNN reported that dozens of people have fallen ill across more than 15 states from food contamination in recent days.  Keep reading for the products to avoid — especially lettuce in pre-packaged bags and romaine lettuce from Salinas, California.

Why This Matters:  No one wants to have Thanksgiving ruined by foodborne illnesses that are preventable if you get the warning.    So watch closely for any warnings and food recall notices that the government puts out.

• Food

Yikes, We’re Eating 2,000 Pieces of Plastic Each Week

• beer
• BPA
• Chemicals
• food
• National Geographic
• plastic

A new study put out by the University of Newcastle in Australia has revealed that humans are eating, swallowing or breathing in about 2,000 tiny pieces of plastic each week, an amount equal to the weight of one credit card. That’s some literal food for thought as we consider how to curb our addiction to […]

• Food

Changing our mentality around food waste

• agriculture
• food
• food waste
• NatGeo
• produce

Food waste is not only a terrible thing when 15 million U.S. households are food insecure but the one-third of our food supply that we waste is a major contributor to climate change. Yesterday was Stop Foodwaste Day and while most people likely they don’t think they waste THAT much food, more than 80 percent of food waste has been traced to homes and consumer-facing businesses.

• Food

96 People Fall Ill Due To E Coli Outbreak

• E. coli
• food
• food safety
• outbreak

Nearly 100 people in 5 states have been sickened due to the latest E. coli outbreak, with eleven of those people being hospitalized since the first case was reported in early March.  Symptoms of E. coli 0103 are serious, including watery or bloody diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, nausea, and vomiting, and usually begin 3-4 days after exposure.   

• Food

Climate change increases risk of food-borne illness

• climate change
• disease
• food
• food safety
• foodborne illness
• public health
• WHO

As climate change continues to warm our planet, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that governments around the world must take increased precaution to ensure food safety–something that has not received enough political attention. U.N. agencies and the African Union recently met in Ethiopia at an international food safety conference and made the following statement: […]