Restaurants
Restaurateurs Change Business Models For Successful Reopening
As restaurants across the U.S. begin to reopen, restaurateurs are switching business models to stay alive as restrictions such as capacity limitations impact profitability. In Washington, D.C., Christianne Ricchi of Ristorante i Ricchi launched the I Ricchi Food Club with a four-course Tuscan dinner to be ordered ahead and picked up at the restaurant. Customers who sign up for a four week subscription get a 20% discount, and Ricchi includes a candle, optional wine pairing, and tasting notes to help recreate the restaurant experience at home.
Greg Baxtrom decided to close his Brooklyn restaurant Olmsted until there is a coronavirus vaccine, turning the main dining room into a food bank and the private dining room into the Olmsted Trading Post. “We sell about 200 items,” says Baxtrom, “many of which people can’t get at their regular grocery store, plus prepared foods from our menu.” The chef is adding delivery and expanding the grocery operation to keep it going after Olmsted reopens. Baltimore’s Alma Cocina Latina also went through a permanent transformation. After partnering with Mera Kitchen Collective and Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, chef-owner Irena Stein converted the Venezuelan restaurant into a relief kitchen. Stein serves 3,000 meals a week, and “I am going to continue the relief kitchen going forward,” she says, “operating it during the day to feed communities in need, and opening as Alma Cocina Latina only in the evening.”
In San Francisco, Peter Hemsley decided to completely remodel his art gallery restaurant Palette, separating the bar from the dining room and eliminating a retail space in favor of online sales. “Going forward, I see the gallery gaining a reputation as a place to hang out with a drink and bar food,” says Hemsley.
Restaurateurs And Delivery Apps Clash In Fight To Survive
As delivery becomes critical to the struggling restaurant industry, restaurateurs and regulators are scrutinizing high delivery fees. Major cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle put a cap on delivery app fees until lockdowns were lifted. Now that states are reopening but restaurants are still operating at reduced capacity, delivery fees are taking a big chunk of their bottom line. In Columbus Ohio, Pierogi Mountain’s owner Matt Majesky primarily used Grubhub until he calculated that Grubhub was collecting more than 40 percent of his average order. Grubhub spokesman Peter Land said Mr. Majesky’s fees were higher than usual because Majesky agreed to take part in marketing programs that increased the restaurant’s visibility on the app. In Denver, owner of Freshcraft restaurant Erik Riggs sued Grubhub for creating a website for his restaurant without consent and labeling the restaurant as closed on the site or “not taking online orders” when this was not true.
Grubhub has since removed the language about similar restaurants “not taking online orders,” but these deceptive practices sting at a time when analysts predict that 85% of independent restaurants will ultimately close as a result of pandemic lockdowns. At the end of May, restaurant spending fell by about 35% from a year earlier, while delivery service revenue rose by nearly 140%, according to data from M Science. For most restaurants, the fixed costs of labor, food, and rent swallow about 90% of total revenues. With that business model, many restaurateurs say that delivery service fees of 20 to 30% on each order are simply unsustainable. Even with fee caps, a recent survey of San Francisco restaurateurs found that 62% percent were losing money on delivery and takeout.
Eat Food Takeaway Acquires Grubhub for $7.3 Billion
Just Eat Takeaway.com and Grubhub are combining to create the largest restaurant delivery company outside of China. The $7.3 billion deal meant that Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway.com snatched Grubhub away from Uber after talks of teaming Uber Eats with Grubhub. The companies expect to close the deal in the first quarter of 2021 with the new company headquartered in Amsterdam in addition to U.S. headquarters in Chicago. In 2019, Just Eat Takeaway.com and Grubhub processed 593 million restaurant orders, gathering about 70 million users worldwide.
Just Eat Takeaway.com stated they will get 100% of Grubhub’s shares at an implied value of $75.15 per share. Last Wednesday, Grubhub shares closed at $59.05. If Uber had bought Grubhub, the companies would have had control over most of the U.S. food delivery business, causing regulatory issues, whereas Just Eat Takeaway.com does not operate in the U.S., easing restrictions.
Russian Chefs Get Naked To Protest Restaurant Closures
Hundreds of Russian restaurant owners and chefs have stripped down for social media photos protesting restaurant closures as other businesses open back up. “We are naked because we are left with nothing,” said Arthur Galaychyuk, owner of the Relab Family bar chain in Kazan, whose 20 employees took part in the campaign. Russia is still in the process of reopening and so far hair salons, shopping malls, book stores, food stores and pharmacies have been permitted to operate. But restaurants have been left waiting for approval.
Starbucks Closes 400 Stores, Amps Up Contactless Transactions
Over the next 18 months, Starbucks plans to close 400 locations and ramp up its contactless services, including curbside pickup, drive-thru, and mobile ordering. The move comes as COVID-19 influences consumer behavior and buying decisions. “As we navigate through the COVID-19 crisis, we are accelerating our store transformation plans to address the realities of the current situation, while still providing a safe, familiar and convenient experience for our customers,” said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson. .
Black Chefs Prepare For Poignant Juneteenth
Juneteenth commemorates the date of June 19, 1865 when enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas, learned from Union General Gordon Granger that they were finally free, two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Often considered African-Americans’ independence day, this year’s Juneteenth comes amid the coronavirus pandemic and a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement fueled by police brutality. While social distancing may alter the holiday, black chefs around the country look forward to reaffirming the importance of this historic day.
Eduardo Jordan, the James Beard award-winning chef-owner of JuneBaby, Lucinda and Salare restaurants in Seattle, says that JuneBaby’s mission has always been to educate diners about the foodways of the African diaspora. Since the pandemic began, Jordan has been feeding essential workers from his restaurants, and he’ll continue that mission well past the June 19 holiday.
Danielle Bell operates the L.A. catering company and dinner series called de Porres, and she is making her annual Juneteenth celebration different this year by sending out a newsletter menu from which customers can place orders for barbecue and other traditional foods. Barbecues are central to Juneteenth celebrations, and those traditions live on regardless of social distancing. “It’s different from any other cookout,” said Jonny Rhodes, the owner of Houston’s Indigo restaurant in Trinity Gardens, a mostly black and Latino neighborhood. “It’s a time of collective freedom.” Indigo transformed into a grocery store to stay afloat during the pandemic, and this Juneteenth, Rhodes remains focused on the importance of his primary business goal: ownership of the 800-square-foot building that houses his business, as well as six acres outside of the city.
New York City Establishes $3 Million Fund For Small Restaurants
To help restaurants recovering from the pandemic, New York City announced a new program that will give $3 million to 100 small restaurants in 27 neighborhoods, including Bed-Stuy, East Harlem, Mott Haven, Jamaica, and Stapleton on Staten Island. Eligible restaurants can get up to $30,000 specifically for helping with payroll costs. Restaurants that take advantage of the funds are required to pay workers a minimum of $20 per hour before tips until the end the program. Restaurants must also provide workers with longterm financial support and offer free meals to members of the community suffering disproportionately from COVID-19 such as high-risk seniors and low-wage essential workers.
Eligible restaurants will not have immediate access to the funds, as restaurants must pay employee wages up front then file documentation of wage payments for reimbursement. NYC’s Human Resources Administration is overseeing the program and will provide up to 25% of the total funds awarded up front to eligible restaurants. The program will favor restaurants that can “commit to ‘high-road’ employer practices” after the program ends, including race and gender equity initiatives at every level of employment and paying every employee the minimum wage of $15 an hour before tips within five years of the restaurant’s reopening.
Alain Ducasse Refines The Air To Reopen His Paris Restaurant Allard
French celebrity chef Alain Ducasse revealed a new air ventilation system at his restaurant Allard in the chic Left Bank of Paris. Without it, the small restaurant would not be able to reopen while meeting social distancing requirements. The $50,000 ventilation system uses the same high-tech air filtration devices employed in hospitals, which both slow down and eliminate air particles from each diner’s table before they reach nearby tables. “If you’re a virus carrier, the people just beside you will be safe,” said Arnaud Delloye, one of the air filtration designers. France’s state health agency INRS validated the system, saying it “allows a significant reduction in the risk of virus transmission in a restaurant.” The new system will allow Ducasse to reopen Allard at 80% capacity, making it economically viable. If the ventilation system works well, Ducasse plans to roll it out at his other 40 restaurants worldwide.
85% Of Independent Restaurants May Close Permanently, Report Says
A new report from consulting company Compass Lexecon and commissioned by the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) found that 85% of independent restaurants may go out of business by the end of 2020. Independent restaurants are defined as those not part of a national chain and having less than 20 locations. Independents comprise 70% of all U.S. restaurants, employ 11 million Americans, and account for 4% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product with at least $600 billion in annual sales.
As small businesses, independent restaurants operate on very slim margins and most spend 90% of total revenues on labor, food, and rent, according to the report. The pandemic lockdown and closure of restaurants nationwide has cratered sales for months. Delivery has helped some restaurants survive, but even in cities that have capped delivery fees at 15% until lockdown restrictions are lifted, most restaurant owners say that high delivery fees may force them into bankruptcy. A recent Eater survey of San Francisco restaurant owners found that 87% would not be able to continue operating on delivery and takeout alone with 60% reporting that by staying open they are losing money.
As restaurants slowly reopen around the country, reduced capacity limits are likely to remain in place until a vaccine is developed, which analysts predict will be in the first few months of 2021 at the earliest. These dine-in restrictions and high costs of doing business will force 85% of independent restaurants to close, according to the IRC’s 51,000 members. Restaurant closures will also devastate local food supply chains and communities. To help prevent widespread closures, the IRC report has been sent to members of Congress, urging them to support restaurant-specific pandemic funding in addition to the Paycheck Protection Program. Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer has proposed the RESTAURANTS Act (Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed To Survive Act) to provide $120 billion in grants to help save independent restaurants.
Thai Seafood Restaurateurs Given 723 Years In Prison For Fraud
Apichart Bowornbancharak and Prapassorn Bowornbancha, two executives at Laemgate Seafood restaurant in Thailand, were accused last year of selling low-price tickets for seafood buffets. About 20,000 customers ordered and paid online, but the orders were canceled without refunds when the owners claimed they didn’t have enough food to fulfill the orders. About 350 people filed complaints with the police, asking for refunds totaling $64,300.
Apichart and Prapassorn were found guilty on 723 counts. Each executive was sentenced to 1,446 years in prison, but since they confessed, the sentences were reduced to 723 years. They were also required to pay a fine equivalent to about $116,300. While the restaurateurs were sentenced to 723 years, Thai law limits jail terms to 20 years. Each defendant has one month to appeal the judgment.
Beverages
How Diurnal Swing Creates Lively Wine
To make exceptional wines, winemakers become highly attuned to regional and local shifts in climactic factors like temperature, wind, and humidity. Wine grapes are particularly sensitive to diurnal swing, the contrast between the highest daytime and lowest nighttime temperature. Generally, a big diurnal swing translates into fresher, livelier, better-tasting wine. Higher daytime temperatures increase sugar production in the grapes, while lower nighttime temperature tap the brakes on development, keep the grapes from becoming too mature. Together, the contrast in temperatures creates rich aromas in wines while preserving their acidity and freshness.
Big diurnal swings are more common at high elevations in regions that have a spike in midday temperatures. While factors like soil composition are key to a wine’s terroir, diurnal swing may be even more critical in some regions. It helps to create a balanced flavor profile. “By balancing out the heat spikes that jack up sugar levels and drive down acid,” says Evan Goldstein, MS, and president of the wine education platform Full Circle Wine Solutions, “the physiological development of the grape is more moderate and balanced, and leads to livelier flavors.” .
American Cancer Society Recommends Eliminating Alcohol Entirely
For the first time in eight years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has updated its guidelines on reducing cancer risk. The new guidelines say it’s best to eliminate alcohol from one’s diet to cut risk. “Alcohol use is one of the most important preventable risk factors for cancer, along with tobacco use and excess body weight,” according to the organization. In the United States alone, alcohol use accounts for about 6% of all cancers and 4% of all cancer deaths, according to ACS data. The organization had previously recommended limiting alcohol consumption to one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men (a drink defined as 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits). These amounts were recommended for people who didn’t want to entirely cut alcohol from their diets.
The new guidelines also recommend eliminating processed and red meat from one’s diet entirely, as well as cutting out sugar-sweetened beverages and “highly processed foods and refined grain products.” Previously recommendations for physical activity included 150 minutes of “moderate-intensity” or 75 minutes of “vigorous-intensity” activity every week for adults. Now, the ACS says “Adults should engage in 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week; achieving or exceeding the upper limit of 300 minutes is optimal.”
Ankle Tags Now Keep Dutch Alcohol Offenders On The Wagon
The Dutch justice ministry has instituted the use of electronic bracelets or tags on people convicted of alcohol-related offenses. The tags monitor any and all alcohol consumption by analyzing the sweat of the person wearing it. The previous monitoring system used blood or urine tests only twice a week. With the new tags, data is sent to a central server once a day for probation officers to inspect. Pilot studies by the justice ministry showed that 71% of those wearing tags abstained from any alcohol consumption during the study, even though some were permitted access to alcohol. Roughly half of the participants said they even abstained from drinking for at least three months after the ankle tag was removed. The new tags aim to stem the increase in alcohol-related offenses in the Netherlands. Studies cited by the justice ministry show that 26% to 43% of all violent incidents in the Netherlands are alcohol-related, and alcohol abuse costs Dutch society an estimated $6.75 billion a year.
Cooking
Local Food Boxes Deliver The Flavor Of Place To Your Door
As summer travel remains constricted due to the pandemic, local food companies across the U.S. have begun shipping food boxes that capture a city or state’s unique identity. Interested in tasting the local specialties from Alaska, New Jersey, Kentucky, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Philadelphia, or Maine? Each box offers different tastes from the area such as hot sauce made from Alaskan kelp, New Jersey’s blueberry butter, and New Mexico’s official state cookie, the cinnamon-sprinkled biscochito.
Five Uncommon Steaks For Summer Grilling
Most backyard cooks are familiar with T-bones and ribeyes. But there are more interesting and flavorful beef steaks to be grilled, especially when common cuts may be less available at your local supermarket.
Zabuton means “pillow” in Japanese, which describes this cut’s rectangular shape and its tenderness. Also known as the Denver steak, the zabuton is a supporting muscle residing under the blade of the chuck (shoulder) area. It has the deep, beefy flavor of the chuck without the toughness. From $34 for 8 ounces at Mishima Reserve.
Picanha (a.k.a. culotte or rump cap) is often skewered into a C-shape on a sword and served tableside at Brazilian steakhouses. It comes from just above the top sirloin and rump area on the steer and is cut with its thick cap of fat cap intact. From $55.59 for a 2 1/2-pound steak at Gaucho Ranch.
Bavette (a.k.a. flap or flank) is a small, relatively thin steak that comes from beneath the bottom sirloin. It is extremely flavorful, and according to Texas pitmaster Aaron Franklin, “the apex of the flavor and price ratio.”$19.75 for 1 1/4-pound sirloin flap at Crowd Cow.
Rib-Eye Cap (a.k.a. deckle) has the intense flavor of ribeye steaks but with a little more tenderness. The muscle is often referred to by its Latin name, spinalis dorsi, and since it’s relatively thin, it only needs a hard sear over the hottest part of the fire. $89 for 18 ounces at Snake River Farms.
Bife de Chorizo de Argentina (a.k.a. striploin) is not related to chorizo sausage. It is essentially equivalent to a NY strip steak. But to enjoy the authentic Argentinian steak, buy grass-fed beef from cattle raised on the Pampas. $24 per pound at La Carniceria Buenos Aires.
Bon Appétit Editor In Chief And Condé Nast Video Programming VP Resign Over “Racist Culture”
Things are shaking up at the popular cooking magazine Bon Appétit. Adam Rapoport, its editor in chief since 2010, resigned after a 2004 photo of him wearing a racially insensitive costume resurfaced on social media. The photo prompted several BA staffers to speak out about personal experiences of racism at Condé Nast, the media company that has been nurturing an audience of elite readers since 1909 in magazines such as Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, Architectural Digest, and Vanity Fair. BA Staffers cited several examples in which people of color at the company have been treated unequally and paid less than white staffers in similar positions. After resigning from Bon Appétit, Rapoport acknowledged his shortcomings in an Instagram post, saying “From an extremely ill-conceived Halloween costume 16 years ago to my blind spots as an editor, I’ve not championed an inclusive vision.” Amanda Shapiro, the former editor of BA’s companion publication Healthyish, was named acting deputy director. Shapiro took the job on a temporary basis only, urging Condé Nast management to name a person of color as the new Bon Appétit editor in chief.
Two days after Rapoport’s departure, Condé Nast vice president Matt Duckor tendered his resignation as well. Duckor was in charge of Bon Appetit‘s wildly successful video programming, including its popular “Test Kitchen” YouTube videos, which have more than 6 million subscribers and had 76.7 million views in the month of March alone, according to company data. Several current and former BA staffers said that Duckor failed to feature people of color in BA video content or fairly compensate them for their work. Reporters for Business Insider spoke with fourteen former or current BA staffers or contributors who identify as people of color and said there is a pervasive “toxic” culture of exclusion at the company. Some of those interviewed said that people of color are included in videos only as tokens and that few of them have the same lucrative video contracts as their white peers.
After the high-level departures, Bon Appétit and its sister website, epicurious, issued an apology acknowledging that “At times we have treated non-white stories as ‘not newsworthy’ or ‘trendy.’ Other times we have appropriated, co-opted, and Columbused them.” The apology also said that “While we’ve hired more people of color, we have continued to tokenize many BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] staffers and contributors in our videos and on our pages.” After citing specific changes that will be made, the statement went on to say that the company vows “to be transparent, accountable, and active as we begin to dismantle racism at our brands.” .
Supply Chain
Massive Pig Farms Return To Chinese Suburbs To Increase Production
China, the world’s biggest pork consumer, suffered huge production losses in the wake of the 2018 swine fever outbreak. To meet continued demand this year, the country is planning on adding 200 million pigs to its annual production by building farms near cities around the country, particularly near Beijing. The government had relocated many similar suburban farms between 2015 and 2017 to stem the tide of runoff contaminating nearby water and soil. But demand is so high that the government deems the return of suburban pig farms as the best option.
Zu Sheng, owner of Sifanghong Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, is constructing one of 11 farms in Beijing’s suburbs. The site will eventually raise 60,000 pigs a year and is located in Pinggu about 43 miles from the city center. Another Pinggu pork company, New Hope Liuhe, also anticipates a multi-story farm that will raise 150,000 pigs annually. An additional six farms are being revamped and expanded, according to the Beijing municipal government.
To feed just one tenth of Beijing’s 20 million people, analysts estimate that 890,000 pigs need to be grown each year. According to a plan drafted this year, China must raise three times what it did last year, the primary motivation for the return of suburban farms. The southeastern city of Nanjing is also building 12 farms to quadruple its hog output, while Zhejiang, the coastal province south of Shanghai, aims to produce 50% more pigs than it did in 2018.
Agriculture
Fishery Management Remains A Challenge In Developing Countries, says UN
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that more than a third of the fish stocks around the globe are currently overfished, particularly in developing countries. The biennial report mentions that solving the ongoing problem will require several measures, including stronger political will and better monitoring technologies among less-developed fisheries. In 2017, 34.2% of the fish stocks of the world’s marine fisheries were considered overfished, a trend that has persisted since 1974 when it began at just 10%.
In 2018, worldwide per capita fish consumption was 20.5 kilograms per year, a new record. That number has increased by an average rate of 3.1% since 1961, eclipsing consumption rates of all other animal proteins. Currently, fish account for one sixth of animal protein intake among the global population, but that number climbs to one half in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Gambia, Ghana, Indonesia, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. By 2030, the FAO expects per capita fish consumption to hit 21.5 kilograms.
Regulations
Authorities Crack Down On €2.5 Billion Black Market for European Eels
Critically endangered European eels, Anguilla anguilla, are bred in the Atlantic Ocean near Spain and Portugal then released into the expansive Sargasso Sea to reproduce. However, approximately 25% of the eel population is intercepted by eel traffickers for the black market, which nets up to €2.5 billion worth of eels each year. From 2015 to 2017, one smuggler alone carried 6.5 tons of baby (glass) eels into the UK for sale. Traffickers masked as tourists often pack water-filled bags of eels in suitcases on flights to Hong Kong, a trafficking hub with an estimated 900 aquaculture farms that shepherd the eels to dinner tables throughout Southeast Asia.
In the mid-twentieth century, as wetlands were drained, hydroelectric plants were built, and pollution increased, the European eel population plummeted. Eels were soon declared endangered, and in 2010 the sale of eels outside Europe was banned. But wildlife trafficking has become increasingly widespread, forcing authorities such as Europol to use more sophisticated surveillance methods. The huge market for illicit eels not only threatens the endangered eel population, it has also become a revenue stream for terrorist groups, according to Paul Stanfield, Interpol’s director of organized and emerging crime. .
Food Processing
Meatpackers Resume Operations, COVID-19 Cases Increase
U.S. meatpacking plants have spent millions on mitigating coronavirus risks, yet they remain outbreak hotspots. Since April, cases in meat-processing facilities have increased by more than 100% to 20,400 total infections across 216 plants in 33 states, according to an analysis by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. At least 74 meatpacking employees have died due to COVID-19. In the past two months, Tyson Foods has installed barriers and provided masks to protect its workers, yet 24 of its plants have since reported outbreaks, two of which have sickened more than 800 workers. Prior to implementing safety measures, only five of the company’s facilities had outbreaks.
Smithfield Foods has also implemented protective measures such as temperature checks, plastic barriers, additional hand-sanitizing stations, and deeper cleaning and disinfection procedures after its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, plant became the country’s largest coronavirus hotspot. Since safety measures were installed, additional outbreaks have been reported at 11 Smithfield plants. At some other meatpacking facilities, protective measures have not been as thorough or enforced. A federal meat inspector in the Midwest reported to USA Today that she visited several plants where workers were not wearing masks, despite some of them testing positive for the coronavirus. After alerting a supervisor, she was told that as long as she had a mask she must continue working or use vacation time or take unpaid leave. .
Produce Processing Facilities Become New Coronavirus Hotspots
By late May, Washington’s Yakima County documented more than 600 COVID-19 cases among agricultural workers. Of those, 62% were workers in the apple industry and other packing operations or warehouses, according to county data. Yakima County now has the highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate on the West Coast with 4,834 cases as of June 10th.
In California, Monterey County is known as “the world’s salad bowl” for its massive vegetable farms, and as of June 5, Monterey reported 247 COVID-19 cases among agricultural workers, 39% of the county’s total cases. Coronavirus cases are also rapidly increasing in Florida’s agricultural community of Immokalee, where 2,581 cases were reported as of June 13, up significantly from its 966 cases reported June 8.
43,000 Pounds Of Beef Recalled For Possible E. Coli Contamination
According to the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, nearly 43,000 pounds of ground beef have been recalled for potential E. coli contamination, including packages sold at Walmart nationwide. The beef was produced June 1 at Lakeside Refrigerated Services of Swedesboro, New Jersey, sold under the brand names Thomas Farms and Marketside Butcher, and marked “EST. 46841” in the USDA inspection mark. The USDA classified the announcement as a “Class I” recall, meaning it’s a “health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.” The recall notice said that consumers with questions should call the Lakeside Processing Center Call Center at 856-832-3881.
Science
New Research Links Acne to Sugar, Milk, and Chocolate
According to a new study of 25,000 French adults, consumption of milk, sugary drinks, and fatty foods appears to be directly associated with acne. The research was published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Dermatology. “This is an important study, and it adds to the body of evidence which has found that certain eating patterns may be one factor playing a role in acne for some individuals,” said board-certified dermatologist Dr. Rajani Katta, who was not involved in or with the study. The findings are part of a long-term observational analysis of French dietary habits called the NutriNet-Santé study, which began in May 2009. Study participants recorded what they ate over a 24-hour period on three separate occasions in November of 2018 and then again six months later. “Our current thinking on the role of diet and acne has really undergone a significant shift in the last decade and a half,” said Dr. Katta. One reason for this dietary association, according to the study, may be that a high glycemic-load diet causes a rise in circulating levels of insulin, hormones and other compounds which create oxidative stress and inflammation, leading to the development of acne.
World Food Prize Goes To Ohio State University Soil Scientist
The World Food Prize honors an individual’s achievements that have improved the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. This year’s winner, Rattan Lal, is a professor of soil science at Ohio State University and is the founding director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center there.
Lal’s work has focused on the principle that crop residues are essential for maintaining healthy soil by restoring depleted carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the soil. This approach differs from conventional soil fertility strategy, which has relied heavily on fertilizer since the 1970s. In the 1990s, Lal’s research revealed that restoring degraded soils by the increasing organic matter in it improved soil health and helped combat rising carbon dioxide levels by sequestering atmospheric carbon in the soil. “Dr. Lal is a trailblazer in soil science with a prodigious passion for research that improves soil health, enhances agricultural production, improves the nutritional quality of food, restores the environment and mitigates climate change,” World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson said.