Image Source: New York Times
Between 2016 and 2022, investors poured nearly $3 billion into lab-grown meat and seafood companies, including major meatpackers like Tyson, Cargill and JBS. CEOs of cultured meat startups like Josh Tetrick (Eat Just/Good Meat) and Uma Valeti (Upside Foods) breathlessly prophesied a 50% market share within 20 years. While a handful of cultured meat products have been approved for sale in the U.S., Israel, and Singapore, it's become abundantly clear that the cost to produce them at scale is, according to Tetrick himself, insurmountable. Despite government approval and nearly a decade of work, the cultured meat industry has hit a wall.
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Food Companies Claim Food Prices Are Stabilizing
Cocoa Prices Skyrocket, Prompting Hershey And Mars To Reduce Chocolate In Products
Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Falls Out Of Favor
Shrinkflation Continues Despite Consumer And Retailer Outrage
France's Biggest Food Retailer Pulls PepsiCo Products Over High Prices
Image Source: Stephanie Lecocq
A spokesperson for global food retailer Carrefour said the maker of Pepsi, Lay’s, 7-Up, and other products was keeping its food “unacceptably” expensive, despite falling inflation. Compared to last year, inflation in France is down a third, yet food price inflation persists, with basic food costs remaining 7% higher than a year ago. Carrefour installed posters throughout its 3,440 French supermarkets saying, “We are no longer selling this brand due to an unacceptable price increase." The move—encouraged by the French government—is intended to strong-arm manufacturers to lower food costs and to call out shrinkflation, in which manufacturers downsize food packages while maintaining or raising prices. Let's hope Carrefour inspires US grocery chains to follow suit.
EPA Reports Rampant Food Waste, As 50+ Local Governments Seek Aid To Curb It
Image Source: Sarah Reingewirtz
Two new reports from the Environmental Protection Agency found that more than one-third of the food produced in the US is never eaten. Much of it ends up in landfills, where it generates tons of methane, hastening climate change. That’s why more than 50 local officials signed a letter recently, pressing the EPA to expand grant funding and logistics aid for landfill alternatives. We've been down this road before. In 2015, the USDA and EPA set a goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030. Little progress has been made, admits the EPA's own food-waste czar, Claudia Fabiano. Hopefully this latest cry for help speeds things along. What can you do? Buy less, use everything you buy, and make soup from food scraps.
Scientists Determine Why Billions Of Alaskan Snow Crabs Vanished, Crippling Local Fishery
Image Source: National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration
Billions of snow crabs have disappeared from Alaska's Bering Sea in recent years. Population declines are so severe that the state's Department of Fish and Game canceled the snow crab harvest season for the second year in a row. Catchers have attributed declines to overfishing, but a new study from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) found a different cause: it's more likely that warmer ocean temperatures caused the snow crabs to starve to death. Climate change is restructuring earth's food chain in ways we are just beginning to understand.
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Olive Oil Prices Surge Over 100%, Leading To Cooking Oil Thefts
Image Source: Bloomberg/Getty Images
Global olive oil prices reached $8,900 per ton last month, a 130% increase over last year, according to the USDA. Prices have been driven up by extremely dry weather and low olive yields in the Mediterranean, particularly in Spain, the world’s largest olive oil producer and exporter. In related news, 50,000 liters of extra virgin olive oil ($450,000 worth) was stolen recently from one of Spain’s oil mills. Prices are expected to continue rising. If you prefer olive oil for cooking and see it on sale, now may a good time to stock up.
