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01 Climate change is bringing back long-lost forms of food poisoning

02 Despite now offering $15 minimum wage, Amazon still a top employer of SNAP recipients in many states

03 Biden advisors push a new plan to slow global warming: A soil carbon bank for farmers

04 Farmers are depleting the Ogallala Aquifer because the government pays them to do it

Cafe? Yes. Cafeteria? No. New York City closed schools on Thursday, but restaurants are still open for indoor dining, albeit at reduced capacity. Seem backward? Public health experts agree. Some of the disconnect can be attributed to local politics-the NYC mayor, who made the decision to close schools, has said that indoor dining should be reevaluated, while the state governor, who has the authority to close restaurants and gyms, has made no moves to do so. Yet Vox points out that there's an overlooked element to this story: Money. Federal support has largely dried up, meaning restaurants and their workers have no cushion if they're forced to close again. "It's not the Covid pandemic that has harmed so many businesses," one expert told Vox. "It's our mismanagement of the Covid pandemic."

In poor taste. California Governor Gavin Newsom is on an apology tour after facing widespread criticism for attending a dinner party that violated the state's social gathering restrictions. Last week, Newsom attended an outdoor dinner party with twelve guests at Michelin-starred restaurant French Laundry. State guidelines cap gatherings at three households, and the governor's office didn't dispute that the party breached the limit. "You should expect nothing less from me, and I expect more from myself," Newsom said at a press conference on Monday. The uproar over his move reflects Californians' agitation over pandemic restrictions, heightened anxiety as cases rapidly rise throughout the state, and general weariness with hypocrisy. The San Francisco Chronicle has the story.

Flaming hot health. A new study found that people who eat chili peppers may be 26 percent less likely to die of heart disease and 23 percent less likely to die of cancer than everyone else. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic compared data from over 570,000 people in the U.S., Italy, China, and Iran, Insider reports. Their findings did not determine how many or which chili pepper lower the risk. Nor did they prove that eating chili peppers can directly cause better health outcomes. Previous research has concluded that eating hot peppers may reduce inflammation, lower the risk of certain illnesses, and relieve pain. These benefits are linked to the chemical capsaicin, naturally found in hot peppers and responsible for the spicy sensation associated with chilis. 

Bad bets. In mid-April, as the coronavirus was ripping through Tyson's largest pork plant in the United States, where a county sheriff said working conditions had him "shook to the core," managers were telling supervisors to ignore "the glorified flu," and organizing a cash wager on how many employees would test positive for Covid-19. Those explosive allegations were made in a recently amended lawsuit filed by the family of Isidro Fernandez, a Waterloo, Iowa, plant worker who died from complications from the virus. The suit seeks damages for misrepresentation and gross negligence, Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. More than 1,000 workers at the plant, or over third of its workforce, have contracted the virus, and Fernandez's family is the fourth to sue, after three others filed a wrongful death lawsuit in June. Tyson has yet to file a formal response to the new allegations, but has said in previous court filings that it vigorously disputes the claims. In July, the meat giant, which has had far more cases than any other meatpacker, announced it would start testing employees in all facilities.

Onions are fire. Shay Myers, a third-generation farmer in Oregon, has gone viral on TikTok with his videos about onion storage. Myers is the CEO of Owyhee Produce and uses his TikTok account to give users an inside look at farming. A recent video of him explaining how onions are often stored for up to eight months after harvest has "popped off," The Takeout reports. Myers' account has brought a new understanding of American agriculture to the youth, with one user commenting, "Onions do be hittin' different right now."

Bulking up. Survival mode is hard to break out of. So, it seems, are the quarantine-driven shopping habits that go along with lockdown mentality. This past week, both Walmart and Home Depot posted earnings reports citing healthy increases in sales. Disposable income once spent on concerts and travel have gone into home projects, as indicated by the 17 percent increase in sales at Home Depot from August to October 2020. Now, as a new round of lockdowns seems imminent in response to Covid's third wave (combined with a lack of financial assistance from Congress), Bloomberg's Sarah Halzack points out: "Neither company issued guidance. suggesting they still anticipate significant volatility in the coming months."

01 New York accuses one of the nation's largest egg producers of price gouging during the pandemic

02 Robot chicken butchers, brought to you by Covid-19

I scream for humanity. On Tuesday, ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's denounced the British government's efforts to stop asylum-seekers from crossing into the country by boat, AP reports. About 4,000 people have embarked on the dangerous journey into England by small vessels this year, often in an effort to escape violence and instability from their home countries. After one official vowed to make the route "unviable," the company tweeted that "the real crisis is our lack of humanity for people fleeing war, climate change and torture."

While Ben & Jerry's has long championed progressive causes, the company has largely managed to avoid the accusations of opportunism that so often beset corporations that try-or say they try-to do good. After years of organizing among immigrant rights activists, for instance, the company in 2017 signed a Milk with Dignity agreement that guarantees higher wages and paid time off for dairy workers. Currently, it's calling for Congress to include improved rights for workers, including undocumented workers, in its next Covid-19 relief bill. In a recent cover story, Bloomberg Businessweek explains how an ice cream brand managed to become a serious, successful advocate for social justice-succeeding where countless PR departments have failed.

Fly from home. Stranded at home, vacations and family trips canceled, millions of Americans lament the bygone days of frequent plane travel. But one thing we definitely don''t miss is the airline food-or do we? According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, an odd nostalgia has set in: Would-be travelers now long for the sub-par, disappointing meals we once paid too much for at Terminal C, or ate joylessly at 35,000 feet. With the help of companies like Imperfect Foods, which stocks and sells surplus food, and Gate Gourmet, an in-flight catering company, travelers can now have meals originally meant for JetBlue, Garuda Indonesia, and other airlines shipped directly to their homes. The flavors may leave something to be desired, but you can still taste the anticipation of touching down-a small way to relive the trip without actually taking it.

The Children of Smithfield. Meatpacking plants across the U.S. have frequently become Covid-19 hot spots, with at least 40,000 of the industry''s workers testing positive for the virus so far. Now, the children of meatpacking workers are speaking out on behalf of their parents, many of whom are immigrants and refugees, about the unsafe working conditions and lack of personal protective equipment inside these facilities. For Latino USA and The Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN), Esther Honig spoke to the daughter of Smithfield employees in Crete, Nebraska about why she and other adult children are advocating for their parents' safety. 

Retribution. Most food banks do little to address the larger systemic forces that create hunger, as The Counter contributor Andrew Fisher has pointed out. But how might these charitable organizations also promote inequity within their own walls?

Rut Martinez-Alicea, the newly-hired director of equity at the Oregon Food Bank, explains the corrective actions she''s taking in a profile by Food Bank News. Her agenda includes reimagining and redesigning pay structures for employees, in order to better recognize and compensate for their differences, like a new hire's cost of living, or their foreign language competency. The idea is that the organization must fix its internal culture before it can be more broadly successful. "If we continue to dedicate resources to a model of food distribution and not appropriately fund the resources that lead to structural change," she said, "then we are not being good stewards of our funding-and we are being ineffective."

Bills, bills, bills. We're several months into the pandemic. Shocks to the food supply chain have largely subsided. So why are groceries still so damn expensive? The short answer is that there's really no short answer. In a new examination of retail price changes over the last few months, NBC calls the phenomenon "up like a rocket, down like a feather"-though experts can''t quite agree why prices have been so slow to return to baseline. Some blame it on a "complex algorithm" that factors in added labor costs, supply restrictions, and short-term losses. Others say the grocery industry is just making more money. 

Mood lighting. Farming crops under solar panel installations-a practice known as agrivoltaics-has been a boon in many ways. It''s a highly efficient use of land that can reduce electricity costs while protecting crops from extreme weather. But there's always been one huge drawback: The shadows that solar panels cast inhibit photosynthesis, minimizing plants' growth potential.

Now, a breakthrough may be on the horizon: A new tinted panel design can filter certain light wavelengths through to crops, while maintaining electricity-harnessing elements, according to a new study published in Advanced Energy Materials. As Anthropocene reports, basil and spinach grown during the study had much higher above-ground masses-63 percent and 35 percent respectively-compared to the same produce grown under clear panels. The harvest from the tinted panels was also richer in protein. Sounds like a win-win.

01 New EPA finding: Glyphosate harms 93 percent of endangered species

02 Singapore just became the first nation to approve cell-cultured meat for human consumption

03 Deep distrust: Why few farm workers show up for COVID-19 testing

Eating In

Not a cloud in the sky. For thousands of years, members of Arizona's Hopi tribe have dry farmed in desert valleys, relying on the summer monsoons and winter moisture to nourish their corn and other crops. But years of drought and high temperatures, worsened by man-made climate change, have threatened this ancient tradition, and now it's on its last legs. The Arizona Republic visits the fields, where Hopi people, baking in the hottest summer on record, say they're determined to preserve their way of life. "In our hearts, we know this is where we live, and we''re going to continue surviving out here," the tribe chairman said.

Stalled. The battle over gig workers' rights is about to heat up nationwide. But the workers themselves might not be able to fight. After Californians in November voted to categorize app-based drivers and couriers as independent contractors-as opposed to employees-companies like Uber and DoorDash are now expected to back similar measures in other states. But most gig workers, researchers have found, aren't U.S. citizens, and thus, can''t vote on crucial aspects of their jobs-including how they should be compensated and whether they are owed health insurance. Bloomberg has the story.

Boxed out. This summer, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, a non-profit association that for over 50 years has represented Black farmers, landowners, and their co-ops, supplied 19,000 Farmers to Families Food Boxes to community organizations, churches, and nonprofits across three states. However, the Federation's food box contract was not renewed. Other small growers across the country say they were also neglected by USDA in the last three months, despite earlier contracts, Civil Eats reports. The agency did award new contracts to larger suppliers like Sysco, however.

Gulf (shrimp) stream. Can a $400 fan bring back the buffet line? Food Sign Pros, a business that develops and markets food safety products, hopes the answer is yes, The Washington Post reports. The concept is simple: The company's AirShield sits on top of a buffet and fans a "curtain" of air downward toward the floor, in theory pushing respiratory droplets away from the food. (The product is still being tested to see if it actually works.) Yet even if it can blow away virus-containing particles, the AirShield is likely more hygiene theater than literal air shield. That's because there's still no evidence that Covid-19 can be transmitted through food. Consider this your daily reminder. 

Momofuku millionaire. David Chang, founder of Momofuku and host of Ugly Delicious, is the first celebrity to win the million-dollar prize on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? He has announced he will use the money to support hospitality workers, NBC News reports. On last Sunday's episode, Chang used his last lifeline to phone a friend, Mina Kimes, an ESPN analyst and journalist, to help answer the final question. Chang chose to donate his winnings to the Southern Smoke Foundation, a Houston-based crisis relief organization for people working in the hospitality industry. "I was over the moon we could do that, because it's been a ridiculously tough year," said Chang.

Nouvelle pomme. While out running on a nature trail near his home in Wiltshire county, U.K., Archie Thomas (who happens to work for a wild plant conservation charity) stumbled upon a bountiful apple tree, the variety of which he couldn't readily identify. The yellow, speckled apple befuddled colleagues hoping to identify the cultivar, so Thomas sought an expert at the Royal Horticultural Society, who confirmed this was an unknown variety whose naming rights were up for grabs. The new apple, which is a conventional type crossed with a wild European crab variety (Malus sylvestris) was grown on a tree believed to be more than 100 years old. It was described by Thomas as "tart but not wincingly so, and with enough sweetness to eat raw." One of his coworkers added this romantic notion during an interview with The Guardian: "We can only speculate how it arose, but that's the joy of botany-you never quite know what you'll find, or how it got there. These sort of mysteries only serve to deepen our love of the countryside."

01 The first round of USDA food box contracts is finished. The program is off to a rocky start.

02 Five ways the NAFTA 2.0 could impact your wine and cheese plate

03 USDA axes food box contract with San Antonio event company and other controversial distributors

04 Shutdown Notebook: Are we there yet? Restaurants re-open to spiking numbers, inconsistent regulations, and eager diners.

Plastic pandemic. Before the pandemic, cities and states started to make progress on banning plastic bags and single-use paper products. Now, health concerns have reversed any progress with many retailers banning customers from bringing reusable bags at all, CNBC reports. In the restaurant industry, the increased reliance on food delivery services is simultaneously tied to an uptick of plastic involved in takeout orders. However, evidence indicates the virus is spread from inhaling aerosolized droplets, rather than through surfaces. Health experts from across the world have made a statement addressing the safety of reusables during Covid-19. The statement points out that disposable products present similar issues as reusable ones and lays out best practices for retailers when using reusable products, including employing contact-free systems and complying with food safety and health codes with additional sanitizing procedures.

To stay or to go? As businesses begin to reopen and people gather outside of their homes, these gatherings have led to infection spikes, hospitalizations, and deaths. But government officials are sending mixed messaging and restaurateurs are not public-health officials. When was the last time you stepped foot inside of a restaurant? For The New York Times, restaurant critic Tejal Rao writes about why she's not ready to return to restaurants any time soon. Some restaurants have limited service to delivery and takeout, while others operate now as grocery stores. The fact of the matter is there isn't a vaccine and while closing dining rooms hurts businesses and their employees financially, opening them risks hurting people physically. (Some food writers do not share Rao''s hesitation.)

Digital dash. In Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood, just 38 percent of businesses have a digital presence. That's roughly half of the internet visibility that West Village storefronts have, and it's part of the reason that Chinatown restaurants have suffered particularly high financial losses during Covid-19 shutdowns. Many eateries eschew delivery services, making takeout inaccessible to the Seamless crowd, and some maintain only paper records, making it hard to secure small business loans. In the wake of the city's first coronavirus wave, a younger generation-usually the children of shop owners-are pushing their parents to set up online stores, contract with GrubHub, and market their goods to non-residents. This effort has been far from frictionless, but may be an ongoing, necessary conversation if our pandemic state becomes the norm. The New York Times reports.

From soup pantry to "super pantry." A grim necessity of the Covid-19 era: Super-sized food pantries that can accommodate thousands of drive-through clients per week. Food Bank News reports high-capacity "super pantries" are taking hold in places like San Diego, where demand has jumped from 350,000 to 600,000 people per month since the beginning of the pandemic. Starting Wednesday, a group of 35 area pantries, selected from 100 applicants, began operating with extra capacity, serving an anticipated 130,000 people a month. 

Locked and loaded. This week, five-term U.S. Representative Scott Tipton lost the Republican primary election for Colorado's 3rd Congressional District to a political newcomer-Lauren Boebert, owner of Shooters Grill, a gun-themed restaurant in small-town Rifle. There, waitstaff serving menu items like Guac 9 and Ballistic Chicken wear their own loaded guns, holstered on their hips. "Both the food and the servers pack heat," The Denver Post notes. More recently, Boebert's food license was suspended after she reopened her restaurant during the coronavirus pandemic, defying a county order. Will she make it to Congress? "Unpredictable," the Post declared.

Losing their edge. John T. Edge, founding director of the influential nonprofit Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA), is facing calls from past and current staffers to resign, The New York Times reports. Edge, who is white, has long faced questions about whether it's appropriate for him to helm an institution representing Southern cuisine, and Edge himself acknowledged in 2016 that it was "time for [him] to get out of the way." Now, years later, he still says he's working out a succession plan. Meanwhile, the SFA currently has no full-time employees of color. (SFA has only one part-time staffer of color-an editor for its magazine and podcast, Gravy.) This lack of diversity is painfully at odds with the organization's stated mandate to amplify diverse voices, celebrate the full spectrum of Southern culture, and initiate difficult conversations about race and class. 

The outcry comes at a cultural moment when an increasing number of white men in prominent media positions have faced public reckonings-sometimes due to their own egregious misbehavior, and sometimes due to more subtle re-examinations of their role in perpetuating race- and gender-based injustice. 

On Monday, Peter Meehan, editor of The Los Angeles Times food section (and former editor of the beloved, defunct quarterly journal Lucky Peach) became the latest to resign from his post. Threads posted to Twitter by at least one current and one former staffer have since accused Meehan of bullying, pay disparity, and making racist and misogynistic comments. Yet his personal misbehavior is part of a more concerning pattern: Times staffers, food media peers, and readers have wondered on social media how Meehan, who lives in New York City and traveled to Los Angeles monthly, came to lead coverage of the city's food culture in the first place-and how to address the systemic factors that make it so easy for men like Meehan to float into leadership positions, while it's still so difficult for others to ascend.

01 Though they're frequent targets of theft and vandalism, the gospel of community fridges spreads faster than ill will

02 What do you call a cow getting a massage? A whole moo'd.

03 Five ways the food and beverage industry is packing the polls

04 The United States still uses many pesticides banned in other countries

Bean counter. When Iowa''s Republican Senator Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield met for their second debate last week, one agriculture question stole the show. Greenfield was asked the break-even price for a bushel of corn for an Iowa farmer, and she nailed it to the penny. But when Ernst was asked the break-even price for soybeans, she had no idea. In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Art Cullen, editor of Iowa's The Storm Lake Times, argues that debates are more than just political theater: They can have consequences. And, he says, the soybean moment proves it. "The price of soybeans isn't just a number to know; it sits at the center of a knotty farm-belt fiasco," writes Cullen. The public would likely never know Ernst's blind spot were she to have declined the debate, like our current president recently did.

Cabbage catastrophe. Several typhoons swept through South Korea this summer, causing vast damage to the country''s cabbage fields. Cabbage is in high demand there, particularly as the base ingredient in the fragrant Korean staple, kimchi. Due to the extreme weather, kimchi prices have climbed by 60 percent, Bloomberg reports. "Cabbage prices are going nuts," said one mother of two who loads up on cabbage each fall to make her own kimchi. "I had to rub my eyes to see the price tag again because it didn't make any sense."

Wine bats unite. Did you think every news story had already been written? Don't be silly. There are wineries all over the world that employ armadillos, owls, pigs, sheep, and BATS, to help with pest control and soil health. One particular winery in Paso Robles, California, is the first to receive regenerative organic certification, a "new international farming standard intended to combat climate change," according to Bloomberg. This delightful story includes treats like the vineyard in France that is experimenting with poisonous (!) snakes, and a winery in New Zealand that tried using guinea pigs but kept losing them to hawks.

Lunch losses. School meal programs have taken a massive financial hit during the Covid-19 crisis, losing more than $483 million. In a new survey from the School Nutrition Association-which included responses from school nutrition directors in 1,614 school districts across the country-each reported a drop in participation in the school lunch program, Food and Environment Reporting Network reports. Advocates worry this will have long-term consequences on the ability to feed low-income children. Schools are reimbursed based only on the number of meals served, so when that number goes down, schools get less.  The reimbursement formula does not take into account costs that remain fixed, like production and equipment costs and cooks'' salaries, leaving many districts in a bind. 

Stir it up. Of the myriad tools used to assure that citizens can vote safely during a pandemic, perhaps the most mundane is the humble coffee stirrer. Yet hundreds of thousands have been ordered by Davidson County, Tennessee (which encompasses Nashville), to facilitate touchless screen voting. The method was successful enough during the August primaries that it''s been adapted for the 450,000 county residents expected to vote in the general election. "We didn''t want to do the touching because we would have to do the cleaning after every voter," administrator of elections Jeff Roberts told NewsChannel 5 Nashville, noting that the stirrers could be recycled for future use. Other counties are relying on comparable tools such as popsicle sticks and Q-tips to ensure our democratic process.

Labor scofflaws. The battle over the future of the gig economy is boiling over in California, where delivery apps are fighting tooth and nail to keep their contract workers from being classified as employees-and aren't afraid to blur a few legal boundaries to make it happen. In two weeks, voters will decide the future of Proposition 22, a ballot initiative that would exempt app-based delivery companies from a new labor law requiring them to pay workers minimum wage and overtime pay, among other mandated benefits. Now it appears that some apps are pressuring their own shoppers-the ones they insist are are "independent"-to disseminate pro-Prop 22 propaganda. In early October, delivery app Instacart required some of its Bay Area shoppers to include "YES 22" stickers and flyers in grocery deliveries. Workers call the move "absurd and alarming," while labor lawyers say that this level of granular control strengthens the argument against Prop 22. They also point out that the requirement could potentially violate state labor laws that prohibit "employers from controlling their employees'' political activities." CNN has more.

01 Thousands of food workers walk off the job in a "Strike for Black Lives"

02 The Shutdown Notebook: Two doors re-open, one door closes forever. This is not an easy happy ending.

03 As food insecurity soars in north Denver, a Latina-led rapid response team is supporting the city's most vulnerable families

04 Bristol Bay, Alaska, wards off coronavirus spread among locals while seasonal fishery workers fall ill

05 Congress is negotiating the next round of Covid-19 aid. Here's what that means for the food industry.

Stopping stereotypes. Trader Joe's said it will repackage its international food products after a petition called on the grocery chain to "remove the racist branding." About 2,400 people had signed the petition as of Monday, CBS News reports. Petitioners want the products labeled "Trader Ming's," "Trader Jos?," and "Trader Giotto's" removed, claiming the packaging perpetuates racist stereotypes and exoticizes other cultures. The petition comes after Quaker Oats' decision last month to remove Aunt Jemima, and the subsequent rebranding of Uncle Ben. A Trader Joe''s company spokeswoman said they expect to complete the change in packaging "very soon."

Mask off. One by one, America's major grocers are requiring shoppers to wear face masks. One big holdout? Winn-Dixie, a Deep South supermarket chain. Last week, the company said mask mandates were a "highly charged issue" with its customers, and a spokesman said it didn''t want to put workers "in a position to navigate interpersonal conflict." He had a point: Think about all those viral videos of enraged customers, charging through stores and wrestling retail workers, in defiance of polite requests. Then on Monday, after President Trump tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask and called them "patriotic," the chain changed its mind. Why? The Washington Post said it was due to "customer feedback."

Wave out your candles. Bad news: Blowing out birthday candles may not be the safest tradition. Turns out, this birthday ritual results in a 1,400 percent increase in the spread of bacteria, The Washington Post reports. Candles in cake are a tradition dating back to ancient Greece, where it was believed that the smoke would carry your wish up to the gods. Whether or not the tradition will last in a Covid-19 world, people have come up with creative ways to lessen the...blow. Some people have opted to place a candle in an individual cupcake or poke candles through a paper plate, meant to serve as a germ shield over the cake.

Buffet, the vinegar slayer. In grocery stores across America, self-serve hot deli buffets and cold salad bars stand abandoned like uninhabited islands in the wake of Covid-19. Some of these stations are currently being used as repositories for prepackaged foods, reflecting a mere fraction of the prior selection-not to mention the profits-they once offered. But what to do when the new normal is still constantly in flux? Even some experts are stumped. "It's a huge question, and no one really knows," Gabrielle Rosi, a store design expert, tells Bloomberg. "You have these massive metal pieces just sitting there. It's a big challenge." Some stores have opted for retrofit kits that turn salad bars into chilled display cases, while other retailers are betting on a $35,000 robotic vending machine called Sally that can create fresh custom salads from 22 separate ingredients.

SNAPped up. More than six million people have signed up for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) since the start of the pandemic, The New York Times reports. It's the largest three-month increase in history, and the program may swell even further if expanded unemployment benefits lapse. Since the start of the pandemic, Congress has authorized states to disburse the maximum allowable benefit to every eligible household, regardless of income. That means a single person receiving the lowest-available benefit level-$16 per month-automatically saw an increase to $192 per month. House Democrats have passed a relief bill that calls for an additional 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits. 

Oink. While slaughterhouses may have returned to pre-pandemic capacities, hog farmers will likely still have to cull large swaths of their herds later this year. Pork consumption rises in the fall and winter, and due to the long life-cycle of pigs, farmers began inseminating sows to meet that high demand as early as January-before the potential impacts of the Covid-19 emergency on the food supply became apparent. For now, processors are using the slacker summer months to catch-up on spring's backlog, HuffPost reports. But once production ramps up-and that near-certain "second wave" of coronavirus hits-producers will be looking at culling around 2.5 million pigs by the end 2020, industry analysts estimate.

01 How the kitchen became political: A short history of the "dinner-table issue"

02 Government watchdog report finds child farmers erroneously receiving subsidy payments

03 Shut out of government relief, New York City street vendors ask for support

04 Missouri food bank makes a business case for food as medicine

05 The Alaska Native village of Kake, Alaska, is defending its right to hunt during the pandemic

Zero stars. On Sunday night, Los Angeles Times food critic Patricia Esc?rcega posted a thread on Twitter, accusing the publication of "immoral, unethical" pay discrimination. In her statement, she said that her salary was two-thirds of that paid to her co-critic, Bill Addison, a white man with whom she shared the same title and responsibilities. Esc?rcega, a Latinx woman, said that the discrepancy was antithetical to the paper's recent, purported efforts to examine its mistreatment of people of color, both internally and in its reporting. In a statement, Los Angeles Times disputed the allegation, and said that Addison's higher compensation is due to his having more experience and winning more journalism awards. (Addison himself has called on the paper to pay Esc?rcega equally, as did former restaurant editor Ruth Reichl, who shared her own experience of gendered pay discrimination at the paper.) Los Angeles magazine has the story.

Navajo lockdown. On Monday, the Navajo Nation ordered a three-week stay-at-home lockdown for the entire reservation, allowing only essential businesses to remain open. Tribal officials said the 27,000-square mile reservation had 900 new cases in the last week, bringing total cases to 13,249 with 598 deaths, AP reports. Residents are urged to wear face masks, practice social distancing, and limit gatherings to less than five people. All schools on the reservation will operate online and essential businesses may remain open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Covid-19 has swept through Navajo nation at an uncontrollable rate which left the reservation closed between March and August.

Tyson take two. Since the spring, Tyson Foods has clocked more than 11,000 cases of Covid-19 among employees, according to the Food and Environment Reporting Network's tracking project. As cases tick upward again nationwide, the company has spent heavily on infection-tracking algorithms and employee testing, The Wall Street Journal reports. The new algorithm cross-references positive employee tests with the location of their work stations and reported infection rates in adjacent communities. Despite the company's claims that the "food supply chain is breaking" back in April, Tyson Foods announced $692 million in quarterly income in a report released Monday, up from $369 million a year ago, even after it purchased the algorithm and spent money on other safety features. Really seems like the food supply chain didn't break after all-and perhaps Tyson could've afforded to protect employees from the virus earlier in the game. Paying out long-promised sick leave might be a good start. 

OWCH-A. Under President Trump, the federal agency that enforces workplace safety hasn't done much enforcing. Rather than mandate coronavirus-specific rules and standards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has encouraged employers to self-police and voluntarily follow Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. It's closed thousands of worker complaints without investigations. And it's issued meager fines to billion-dollar meat companies. That's likely to end under a Joe Biden administration. The President-elect has vowed to issue mandatory workplace safety rules, and Politico points out it could happen quickly, given that he doesn't need Senate approval to push them through. Business groups, predictably, say that's a bad idea, because they need "flexibility."

Before sunset. Customers eating outdoors at their favorite restaurants are racing against time as daylight is cut short and seasons grow cold. Often called the early-bird special, 5 p.m. dinner reservations have become the new normal for many. Eating earlier also has its health benefits. "Your body is programmed to metabolize during daylight hours. The only problem is when you eat so early you find yourself eating a second dinner," says dietitian Carli A. Liguori. But will outdoor diners continue to savor the early-bird special as winter nears? The Wall Street Journal has the story. 

Gout away. The arthritic condition known as gout has often been associated with the upper crust, yet it affects more than 9 million Americans each year. Historically, expensive and decadent foods like foie gras, scallops, and caviar were associated with gout due to their richness in the chemical compound purine. Purine produces excess uric acid in the body, eventually forming sharp crystals that cause inflammation and joint pain. The New York Times points out: "The rich keep getting richer, but there's been no corresponding spike in sales of historically gouty luxury foods like veal and foie gras; if anything, their appeal has waned with increasing concerns about the ethics of producing them." So what's to blame for gout's rising prevalence? Obesity, high-fructose corn syrup, yeasty beer, and genetic factors, to name a few.

01 Ranchers say they can graze away wildfires. Environmentalists beg to differ

02 Covid-19 has increased online SNAP purchases twentyfold-and Amazon, Walmart have a lock on virtually all those sales

03 The only catfish native to the Western U.S. is running out of water

Dialing in. Much has been written about the quest to get broadband internet to rural farmers, but efforts are picking up steam to help get migrant farmworkers online as well. Daily Yonder reports on an effort by Google in the Columbia River Gorge to get seasonal fruit pickers online for telemedicine and summer school. Try to imagine the myriad challenges of being a migrant farmworker-and how being able to get online might help.

Tips, topped. As restaurants and bars reopen, advocates are re-upping their efforts to end the tipped minimum wage, FairWarning reports. This is a battle that has been raging for years: In most states and municipalities, restaurants and bars are allowed to pay their workers sub-minimum wages (sometimes as low as $2.13 per hour). Technically, employers have to supplement their employees' income if their wages plus tips fall below the state's minimum, but in practice, that doesn't always happen. A recent compliance check found 1,170 out of 9,000 restaurants violating the law. Now that Covid-19 has made restaurant workers vulnerable to infection on the job, the fight against the tipped minimum has taken on renewed urgency. 

Strictly racist. At the Ouzo Bay restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, Marcia Grant and her 9-year-old son Dallas were denied from dining because her Black son didn't meet the establishment's dress code. Discriminatory dress codes have long been a tactic to prohibit entry to those in baggy clothing, athletic wear, hats, and work boots among others. These policies continue to allow restaurants to scrutinize Black patrons and are not equally applied to all guests. Grant recorded the now-viral incident, which compares her son dressed in athletic attire to a white child wearing a similar outfit. Atlas Restaurant Group, the owner of Ouzo Bay, issued an apology statement. However, this wasn't the first incident the company has faced. Vice has the story. 

Better go catch it. The entwined tragedies of widespread hunger and food waste plagued America long before the coronavirus pandemic. In the last few months, activists have started "community fridges" across New York's five boroughs-no-questions-asked coolers plugged in outside bodegas and apartment buildings, stocked with otherwise-trashed, still-edible fruits, greens, chicken, and in Harlem, "the best mac and cheese on the island." We've all seen the heartbreaking images of endless lines outside food banks and pantries, and farmers dumping huge amounts of milk in trenches. The activists running the fridges say their efforts are a necessary corrective to all that. "There is no need for anyone to be hungry," an organizer tells The Cut. "The tonnage of food that we're rescuing? Humbling is the best word."

Read the room. Creators have always used adversity as inspiration for their art, but when that muse is still the very present-and very deadly-Covid-19, one should probably tread lightly. Imagine the uproar when a dish from Chicago's Alinea in Residence pop-up that resembled the coronavirus made its way onto Instagram. The canap? in question-a greyish round of coconut custard dotted with freeze-dried raspberries and Szechuan peppercorns-garnered hundreds of replies, and a hearty defense from Alinea Group co-owner Nick Kokonas on the post. "Art is often meant to provoke discomfort, conversation, and awareness. This is no different," Kokonas countered to one of the many commentators. "Everyone on here saying we are somehow oblivious need to think just a single level upwards." If that's the hill you want to die on, sure, but we never had this problem with the Baby Yoda cocktail.

"Essential" workers. More evidence of Covid-19's disproportionate impact on communities of color has started showing its ugly face at meat processing plants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 17,358 cases of coronavirus among 264 meat and poultry processing plants with 91 recorded deaths, The Hill reports. Race and ethnicity information was only reported for about half of these more than 17,000 cases, but of those reported, 87 percent were people of color. Even more concerning, this figure was drawn from under-reported numbers: Less than half of the states actually reported their numbers to the CDC. Of those recorded, Black workers made up nearly a fifth and Hispanic workers more than half the infected populations. This highlights the extreme level of vulnerability minorities face, in professions that already have higher infection rates than the general population.

01 Pandemics aren''t limited to people: How the world''s most famous seed vault defends plants against their next big outbreak

02 Shorter, warmer winters are killing Georgia peaches. Three new varieties could help fix that.

03 Fast-growing animals make the meat industry billions. But as slaughter plants close, scientists seek new ways to put livestock on a diet.

04 The Shutdown Notebook: Gavin Kaysen invites you to Demi for dinner at eight. Only the food will be the same.

Testing, tested. Millions of high school students across the country this week took Advanced Placement tests in hopes of placing out of college coursework. For the first time, the tests were administered online, and the process was not without its hiccups. Perhaps most flagrantly, the College Board apparently had no plan for including students who lacked internet access: When a New York City teacher called the organization on behalf of a high-achieving student with no internet at home, the person on the other end of the line suggested she tell her student to take the test from the parking lot of McDonald's, the New York Daily News reports. Getting grilled on history while noshing a McGriddle? No thank you.

Can I kick it? Most cafeterias-from sports stadiums to public schools-outsource their operations to food service giants like Aramark and Sodexo. But these companies don't entirely depend on day-to-day business for revenue. Rather, they derive a significant portion of their profit from an obscure "kickback" system, in which large food suppliers like Pepsi and Sysco offer sizable rebates in exchange for large purchase quantities. This "bulk discount" arrangement shuts out smaller food suppliers and those who can't afford to provide kickbacks, resulting in a food system dominated by big suppliers and management companies, according to food sustainability advocates. One potential solution? They're calling for school administrators to mandate some purchasing from small or local suppliers in their contracts with management companies. Food and Power reports.

Chaos gardens. Most farmers in Kansas and other Great Plains states don't grow fruits and vegetables. They grow massive tracts of soy, corn and wheat-commodities that are shipped overseas, or fed to farm animals, or processed into oils and sweeteners. There are signs that the Covid-19 pandemic may be changing that. Daphne Miller, a physician and environmentalist, writes in Civil Eats about grain farmers who are planting a few acres of vegetables-a mish-mash of peas, squash, radishes, and other plants that they call "chaos gardens" or Milpa mixes. Each acre, some farmers estimate, can generate thousands of pounds of produce. "Why would you want to grow more [grain] when there is such a surplus and revenue is so terrible?" one of them asks. That's not a new question-but the pandemic is forcing some farmers to finally answer it.

Hazard, lite. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, companies like Amazon, Kroger, and Rite Aid offered extra pay to employees who continued to show up at work despite the risk of virus transmission. Now, apparently, the companies have decided the threat has passed-or perhaps, more cynically, they're eyeing unemployment numbers and betting they can replace anyone who misses work. Many major retailers have already phased out bonus pay and temporary wage increases, and more are expected to do so in the near future. The Wall Street Journal has more.

Chicken cues. Have you thought about buying chickens during the pandemic? Well, you're not alone. Covid-19 has brought us to rethink our food systems and raising chickens isn't rocket science. For The Washington Post, food columnist Tamar Haspel outlines seven tips, including how to choose your breed wisely, and ensure they're protected from predators. She also reminds us that, at the end of the day, backyard eggs don''t taste better (Haspel wrote this now-legendary debunker a decade ago). Oh yeah, and don't clean the coop.

Float on. Restaurateurs are surely getting creative about how they enforce social distancing, but Ocean City, Maryland's, Fish Tales may win for zaniest idea. The seafood spot's solution to keeping folks apart are wheeled tables surrounding each patron, surrounded by what looks like an oversized rubber floating tube. The resulting monstrosity resembles an adult-sized toddler walker for the accident-prone. "It''s like a bumper boat, but it''s actually a table," Fish Tales owner Shawn Harmon said of the design, to the Salisbury Daily Times. And after a few cocktails, perhaps a game of bumper tables is in order? (You really do need to see these things to believe them.)

01 FDA rolls back ingredient and calorie labeling regulations, citing supply chain disruptions

02 The Shutdown Notebook: Last week's reality would have been this week's misstep, as Gavin Kaysen abandons one re-opening plan for another

Hair don''t care. Last weekend, North Carolina gave hair salons the green light to re-open, bringing grooming relief to thousands of residents who've had to resort to DIY hair cuts during the pandemic (corona-cuts, if you will). But there's a catch: One salon in Wilkesboro is turning away any clients who work at the nearby Tyson poultry processing facility, which has been linked to over 500 cases of Covid-19. "They're getting our food, but they won't service us," one woman who works at the facility complained to Huffington Post. The anger is understandable, but maybe the larger issue is that it's still not safe in some regions to re-open all businesses. After all, hair salons are vulnerable to spreading Covid-19: In Missouri, two stylists potentially exposed 140 people to the virus after reopening.

Burst bubbles. Ever wondered where seltzer gets its fizz? Turns out, a lot of the carbon dioxide we drink is a byproduct of the ethanol production process. While Covid-19 kept people at home and out of their cars, demand for gasoline tanked (and with it, demand for ethanol) and carbon dioxide production slowed. The Wall Street Journal reports that prices have increased as a result. One brewer told the Journal his bubble costs have increased by 25 percent in the past month, but he hasn't yet raised beer prices on his customers. If the production lag persists, though, prices may continue to rise throughout the summer, ultimately pushing up the costs of soda and beer. This could create-sorry-a bubble bubble. 

Plastic pandemic. Reusable grocery bags were first to go, now silverware and ceramic plates could be next. As restaurants across the country re-open for full-service dining, states like California are at odds with new CDC recommendations, Politico reports. The agency is advising businesses to use disposable dishes, utensils, napkins, and tablecloths-a step back for California, which had led the way in eliminating single-use plastics before the Covid-19 pandemic. The state's recycling and clean water groups are pushing back on the federal guidance, posing questions around how much is known about surface transmission of the novel coronavirus. Some environmental organizations are reaching out to restaurants directly, asking that they make only reusable dishware available for on-site dining and provide utensils for take-out orders only upon request.

Chicken, rice, and justice. Want to make a career in food? Don't open a restaurant, the conventional wisdom goes, because they have some the highest failure rates in any industry. (And that was before the pandemic.) Get into foodservice, instead-the technical name for the meals served at institutions like schools, hospitals, cafeterias, and social service agencies-and there's a chance you can work consistently. Next City takes a close look at ChiFresh Kitchen, a new co-operative commercial kitchen owned and operated by formerly incarcerated Black women, who are targeting nursing homes and schools as potential contracts they'd like to secure. As the founders explain, the big idea was to find jobs for other people like them, women who face a 46 percent unemployment rate, promote the worker-owned, small-business model, and break up big food-service contracts that prevent smaller operations like theirs from being players in the institutional food-service market. Food, oddly, was a logical choice. It was either that, they said, or laundry, or last-mile deliveries.

Not OK. Even in normal times, food-service workers face significant mental health vulnerabilities. But the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated those risk factors, Civil Eats reports. Service workers in tipped environments-including waiters, bartenders, dishwashers, and cooks-are more likely to develop mental illness than those in salaried industries, tend to have higher rates of heavy alcohol consumption, and earn an average of just over $20,000 per year, while nearly a quarter lack medical insurance. Those pre-existing factors, combined with a rash of restaurant closings and surging economic insecurity within the industry, have led to a growing mental health crisis-and workers, restaurateurs, and industry leaders are searching for ways to provide community and stability during a time of isolation and uncertainty. 

Frontline teens. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from April to July of 2019, 21.2 million people ages 16-24 were employed. The most common industries for youth jobs last summer included food, health, and education services. Now, many of the jobs were commonplace for youth workers-being a grocery store cashier, for instance-have become part of the "essential" workforce deemed critical during the Covid-19 pandemic. And in some families, teenagers are also the new essential income earners. Teen Vogue spoke with four teenagers who said they are working to make up for the income their parents lost due to the pandemic. On top of juggling jobs and schoolwork, these young may also be managing very real risks to their health and safety. Aryam, a high schooler in Chicago, moved 30 minutes away from her immediately family in order to protect her grandfather, who lives in the family home, from exposure to any illness she might bring home from her job at Chipotle. "My family needed a source of income, so I decided to work and help out," she said.

01 Does the American diet make us more vulnerable to Covid-19?

02 Servers and bartenders bet their futures on getting out the vote

03 Pilgrim's Pride agrees to $110 million settlement on price-fixing charges after executives indicted

04 This food-rescue veteran mobilizes, collaborates, and yearns to be out of work

No more noods. Kraft has removed all advertisements from a #SendNoods campaign after facing social media criticism over the sexually suggestive nature of the content. The outcry came from an unofficial cohort described by Marketing Dive as "average moms," who worried about the provocative ads'' proximity to children. But QAnon conspiracists piled on, connecting the campaign to its belief in a deep-state-led child trafficking ring that they say is being single-handedly dismantled by President Trump. Kraft's campaign, which launched last week around National Noodle Day, was intended to provide comfort and connection during the pandemic by encouraging consumers to "send noods" to each other. (It''s cool if you have to Google the reference.) But now, if you want to send noods, they can''t be covered in cheese powder.

Yes we can. Food preservation enthusiasts are sounding the alarm on a nationwide mason jar shortage. During our pandemic summer, they say, people had more time than usual to try their hand at canning produce-home-grown in personal "victory gardens" or purchased with anxious determination at a farmers'' market. (Just ask our West Coast editor, who, against her instincts, became a homemade jam maker this summer.) One of the most prominent mason jar manufacturers in the U.S. has already ramped up production to meet surging demand for jars and lids. Despite the shortage, however, public health experts don't recommend re-using metal lids. That''s a recipe for botulism. Instead, try freezing or dehydrating to preserve those bounties. CNN has the story.

Table for one. For students of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), homecoming isn''t just a game day. It''s a lifestyle. On-campus tailgates are an experience, and defy the booze-and-barbeque routine of lesser academic communities. Crab boils, fish fries, and okra soup are common offerings at an HBCU homecoming. But those feasts are just one part of a food-and-fellowship tradition that extends far beyond a student''s four-year tenure. Brunch, a more recent homecoming tradition, has become an alumni favorite, whether hosted in town or hundreds of miles away. This year, of course, many of those festivities are canceled for public health reasons. But that won''t stop alumni from recreating the energy of game day remotely, Nicole Taylor writes, for The New York Times, by cooking homecoming brunch staples at home-namely, chicken and waffles, a dish with deep roots in African-American culinary history. Bottomless mimosas? That's on you.

Domestic predators. Wild predators like wolves, mountain lions, and bobcats are now getting nearly half of their food from human beings. That marks a large shift away from their more traditional food source: the natural world. Worse, the trend could mean increased conflict between species as they compete for resources, or more human-carnivore encounters, Wired reports. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of New Mexico used hair, bone, and fur samples to determine whether predators were relying directly on human food sources-rummaging through trash bins, for instance-or indirectly, by preying on smaller animals that eat trash, like mice and rabbits. They were able to confirm that the predators in their study were eating human food, and most of it from what we discard, or ... wait for it ... by eating our pets. And what food did they eat the most? "Human foods like corn, because we give corn to everything," said the lead researcher.

FRANCHISE. What do you call a Quarter Pounder with bacon, a Sprite, and fries with barbecue sauce? The Travis Scott meal, a recent collaboration between McDonald's and the rapper, sells for $6 and has boosted sales for the Golden Arches, sending its stock price skyward. But the PR-friendly combo has also collided with McDonald's corporate culture at a strange time: The company is facing two lawsuits filed by Black executives and franchise owners, who accuse McDonald''s of racial discrimination. The first, filed by two former executives who were demoted from their positions as senior vice presidents for reasons they say were rooted in race, claims that the company "conducted a ruthless purge" of Black leaders and franchise owners. The second, filed by a group of 52 Black franchise owners, alleges that McDonald''s forced them to open in low-income, high-crime areas, offered less financial support than white owners received, and suffered harsher internal reviews. Marcia Chatelain, a historian who has written widely about the company''s uneasy history with race relations, sees the Travis Scott meal as a ploy to target young customers of color, a significant demographic for the chain. At the same time, McDonald''s has seen its Black leadership drop, from 42 Black employees in upper-level positions in 2014, to just seven by last year.

Panic-buying, but for countries. The panic-buying trend has resurfaced, albeit on a much larger scale. Jordan has stockpiled 17 months'' worth of wheat. Egyptian imports are up 50 percent since April. Morocco has slashed taxes on imported wheat. Bloomberg reports that countries around the world are racing to shore up their food stocks amid mounting concerns over potential supply-chain disruptions due to a resurgence of Covid-19. An analyst at Archer Daniels Midland's global trade desk, which reported its best second quarter on record this year, chalked it up to a fundamental change in the way countries manage crises: Whereas the "just-in-time" philosophy reigned a year ago, many policymakers have since adopted a "just-in-case" mindset. Second (third? fourth?) wave, here we come.

01 Covid-19 rips through motel rooms of farmworkers who pick nation's produce

02 Lawsuit claims "all natural" salmon "from Maine" is neither of these things

03 A California judge ruled Uber and Lyft must classify drivers as employees. What does that mean for DoorDash and Instacart?

04 Agricultural workers still denied millions in wages each year

Better humor. It's a low-stakes city ritual to gripe about the incessant jingle-jangle melody of the ice cream truck, running on loop all summer long. Well guess what? You were right to be annoyed, because the most popular ice cream truck song is problematic! Turkey in the Straw, which you can probably remember if you furrow your brow for a minute, has an iffy racist history dating back to its use in late-1800s minstrel shows. But in a stroke of marketing genius, Good Humor has partnered with rapper RZA (of Wu-Tang Clan fame) to create a new ice cream truck melody. Deadline has more on the campaign.

Fruits of labor. Over the course of the pandemic, many people have grappled with remote work or faced layoffs due to social distancing orders. Farm workers, however, have continued to show up for the essential job of picking and packing some of the nation's most valuable crops, including cherries and peaches, often while facing heightened health risks and lacking adequate protective measures from employers. Even during a pandemic, many of these workers have struggled to afford standard housing, sometimes living in groups of 15 to a room. They often lack legal permission to work in the U.S., or they depend on the controversial H-2A program. So why is it that the people most integral to our food system live under extraordinarily precarious conditions? Brooke Jarvis at The New York Times examines the political and economic factors that shape the way farm workers work, live, and move in the U.S.

Hold the toppings. The onslaught of Covid-19 shortages continues, and this time it's affecting everyone's favorite pizza add-on: pepperoni. According to Bloomberg, increased prices and lack of availability of the ingredient are compounded by several pandemic-based factors. For one thing, the process and marginal profitability of making and curing the product has made manufacturers rethink where to focus limited labor efforts. Then there are all of those processing plant closures and outbreaks compromising meat supply chains. The result is price hikes as high as 50 percent for independently owned pizzerias, which tend to have less buying power than chain operators. "It's an American right to have pepperoni on pizza," a pizzeria owner told Bloomberg. "Pepperoni is such a huge part of pizza it's important to us that we keep it accessible."

Tip your waiter. Across the country, hospitality workers, with only limited resources and conflicting guidelines, worry about their safety as they continue to serve customers who don't take the pandemic seriously. Reporters Tim Carman and Emily Heil from The Washington Post spoke to numerous employers and workers about the risks working in the restaurant industry right now. Jennifer Moreau, a former cook at a suburban Cincinnati restaurant, Senate Blue Ash, was told to refrain from posting on social media about a fellow employee's positive test result and was expected to show up at work 24 hours later. Moreau did not return to work because she feared for her own safety. Meanwhile, Lena Schlegelmich works at Thunderhead Brewing in Nebraska. She stopped wearing a mask after her tips significantly decreased whenever she did, and customers mocked her for wearing a "face condom." Each worker's fears are as individual as their situations but one thing's for sure: Their lives are at risk every day they come into work.

Iberia, Texas? Iberian ham-real Iberian ham-comes from blackfoot pigs who have spent their lives gorging themselves on acorns in oak-shaded pastures on the Iberian peninsula. The Portuguese and Spanish specialty is aged for three years, then sold at eye-popping prices around the world. Sound like an industry ripe for disruption? Perhaps, The Guardian reports. Two new companies in Texas and Georgia have begun importing blackfoots and fattening them up on pecans, peanuts, and sunflower seeds with the intention of marketing the product as-you guessed it-"Ibericus meat" or "jam?n ib?rico Americano." A Spanish "ham industry consultant" quoted in the story is furious, claiming that the American ham will steal market share from its Spanish counterparts, and also that a pig fed peanuts can't possibly taste as good as one that guzzled acorns. If you give a hog a cookie .. 

Rare air. By now, most supermarkets, grocery stores, and retailers have taken the usual coronavirus precautions, like installing plastic barriers, social distance signage, and masking up workers. But what about all of that chilled, recirculated air, carrying and spreading imperceptible virus particles? Epidemiologists, engineers, and union leaders are asking stores to change and upgrade their air filtration systems to protect against future spread. They're asking to install hospital-quality systems that trap tiny particles-like the MERV 13 filter. CNN reports that Lidl, a German discount grocery chain, is already making the switch in their American stores.

01 The weather chills, and restaurants face a choice: invest in extending outdoor dining or let the changing seasons shut them down

02 I'm a farm worker in Washington state, picking apples during the wildfires. All I have is a cloth mask to protect myself.

03 Federal judge overturns a controversial "joint employer" rule, making fast-food corporations liable for their franchisees'' labor violations

04 California farmworkers say they didn''t get masks to wear during wildfires

Eating In

05 In lockdown, I''ve been cooking Armenian food to stay connected with my community. The kitchen is too quiet.

06 Grocery shopping is my favorite daily ritual. Covid-19 couldn''t change that-but it did change me.

Checks, out. In California, a ballot measure called Proposition 20, aimed at rolling back penalties on shoplifting, was launched and financed primarily by law enforcement groups. But a Los Angeles Times report finds that grocery stores have been backing it, too-not just national chains like Albertsons and Kroger, but also regional chains like Bristol Farms, Gelson's, and Raley's. Even mom-and-pop stores are chipping in donations. Before the pandemic pushed millions of Californians into dire straits, the grocers said that shoplifting and organized retail crime had been on the rise-due to criminal justice reforms, they believe.

On the house. The UK government offered to pay half the bill for restaurant meals, up to ?10 ($13.20) per person per meal, starting in August. This windfall added up to 64 million meals in the first three weeks, Quartz reports. During lockdown, Britain's restaurant industry saw a 60 percent drop in sales-the government hopes the "Eat Out to Help Out" policy would incentivize consumers to dine out again. Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist, explored the psychological impact of bargains in his 2017 book. His findings suggest that once people have a meal out on the government's dime, they're more than likely to return in the future.

"I''m scared for my life." The new school year is just beginning in New York City and food service workers worry they will be unsafe to return to. While schools switched to online learning last spring, many workers continued to prepare food for the city's grab-and-go meal program. Staff members like Traulane Agrusa were exempted from working in the kitchen under Matilda's Law, allowing immunocompromised New Yorkers to stay home. However, the Department of Education has ordered workers to return in person on September 21. While the focus remains on the safety of classrooms, including School Ventilation Action Teams who will inspect classrooms, the same is not true for school kitchens. Even if the facilities have proper ventilation, some workers say that other safety precautions are not being implemented. Gothamist has the story. 

Berry naughty. A former executive at berry giant Driscoll's has been sentenced to 29 months in prison, after stealing over $1.5 million from the company and using it to buy a house, a car, and set up a generous slush fund for his girlfriend. Marc Marier was first hired in 2017 to serve as real estate director-a position with the power to sign off on invoices worth less than $250,000. And sign off he did. Marier quickly set up a fake company, from which he submitted to Driscoll's at least 15 fake invoices, squirreling away payments to a personal account. Marier, The Salinas Californian reports, has agreed to pay it all back.

Lunch at the Ladybird. Restaurant owners are forced to make tough decisions during the pandemic. Should they open for take-out? Expand outdoor dining? Reduce hours? Close permanently? For Meg Heriford, owner of Ladybird Diner in Lawrence, Kansas, the decision is layered. When her diner closed its doors to patrons in March, Heriford began handing out free lunches to the growing homeless population in Lawrence. The operation has grown since; they're feeding 200 people each day with support from community donations. But now Heriford reckons with another decision: Will she ever reopen the bustling diner that once was, and if she does, who will continue to feed the neighborhood? The Washington Post has the story.

Starvation of the ticket muncher. The pandemic has toppled demand for gaming at Chuck E. Cheese: The Skee-Ball machines are no longer spitting out coils of paper tickets, meaning kids are no longer gleefully feeding purple "ticket munchers" in exchange for mood rings and stuffed animals. Now there's a surplus of fake money (and also, probably, mood rings). Here's where the real world of dollars and cents and the fake world of game money collide: To destroy 7 billion unused tickets, or enough to fill 65 shipping containers, the bankrupt Chuck E. Cheese is proposing it spend $2.3 million, Restaurant Business Magazine reports. According to a court filing, if the tickets weren't destroyed, they could be redeemed for $9 million worth of prizes. For those of you who were wondering: That means the approximate monetary value of a Chuck E. Cheese ticket is 0.13 cents. No wonder we all got addicted to credit card points. 

01 China suspends chicken imports from Covid-impacted Tyson plant in Arkansas

02 Cities capped food delivery platform fees during the pandemic. Grubhub and Postmates resisted these limits, citing confusion.

03 For many migrant teens in California, school closures led to work in the fields

04 Dicamba has killed tens of millions of trees across the Midwest and the South

You better not work. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order closing key immigration avenues for more than half a million workers and their families, The New York Times reports. His order suspends the issuance of visas for skilled and seasonal workers and for people participating in cultural exchange programs, and is expected to have broad ramifications in many industries including tech, hospitality, and academia-as well as the future of immigrants who have expended time and energy positioning their lives on the prospect of moving stateside. The Trump administration justifies its move as one that will free up high-paying jobs for American citizens, though detractors see it as yet another xenophobic maneuver among many. The order exempts visas for farm workers, a labor force that is largely unprotected and underpaid, and that doesn't have a pathway to citizenship.

Baking for Black lives. The bake sale has always been a powerful tool for grassroots activism. Georgia Gilmore, a Black cook from Alabama, used her cooking skills to raise money during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Now, three pastry chefs launched Bakers Against Racism, an international bake sale which took place from June 15-20, whose proceeds went directly to organizations in support of Black lives. The organizing bakers saw how the Black Lives Matter movement needed constant funding to post bail, send money to families, and maintain long-term organizing efforts. For those deprived of more formal political sway, home-baked goods have long been a useful tactic, which is why women were the first to host them, according to TASTE Magazine. As of June 22, they collectively raised $1.3 million, with donations continuing to roll in. 

True glove. A lot is said about mouth-feel, but does the sensation of eating a hamburger with your bare hands enhance the taste? Some Americans may scoff at the idea, but years ago across Russia and Eastern Europe, upscale hamburger chains adopted a fad of providing disposable black nitrine gloves to its customers. Though the gloves were initially touted as a symbol of clout and not hygiene, in the post-pandemic dining era, restaurateurs in other parts of the world are taking a second look at the practice. George Motz, the self-proclaimed burger expert, told The New York Times, that even with our elevated Covid-19 safety concerns, the glove trend will not catch on here because "Americans take their burger culture way too seriously."

Virus migration. This is a farmworker's life: Riding buses to work, shoulder-to-shoulder. Picking fruits and vegetables in hot fields, on your hands and knees, right next to someone else. Sleeping in cramped apartments. It's these conditions that contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, and the reason why farmworkers in America's tomato capital have one of the highest rates of infection, globally. Now, as those same farmworkers prepare to leave Florida, and begin their annual migration up the eastern seaboard and into the Midwest for the summer harvest, many are worried they will bring the coronavirus with them. The outbreak in Immokalee, public health experts tell The New York Times, may not be local for much longer.

Playing the odds. Los Angeles County public health officials recently inspected approximately 2,000 restaurants, only to find half of them were not complying with safety standards. Officials stress the necessity of following safety guidelines both for customers and merchants in order to avoid new coronavirus outbreaks as the economy opens again. Despite a rise in the number of cases, officials say they think it's safe to reopen as long as rules are being followed. Violators will be revisited and patrons can file complaints to a public health hotline. The Los Angeles Times has the story.

Bittersweet. Last week, we reported that the Quaker company announced plans to rebrand its Aunt Jemima syrup after decades of criticism. The character was portrayed by real women on television and at promotional events until 1958. Now, USA Today reports two of the families of the former spokesmodels oppose the rebranding. "The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side-white people," said Larnell Evans Sr., a descendant of Anna Short Harrington, one of the early Aunt Jemima models. "This company profits off images of our slavery. And their answer is to erase my great-grandmother's history." (There was a similar follow-up to the removal of the Native woman from Land o'' Lakes butter.)

01 In the most popular nutrition journals, 1 in 7 articles have food industry involvement

02 Foreign-born workers were blamed for spreading Covid-19 in meatpacking plants. Their behavior was not the issue, new research suggests.

03 Would you let someone grow produce in your yard, for food justice or for profit?

04 70 percent of farm labor investigations end in violations

Awash. The French Laundry just can't get a break, it seems. Last month, the restaurant became a subject of derision after news outlets reported that California Governor Gavin Newsom potentially violated his own social distancing guidelines by attending a dinner party at the three-Michelin-star restaurant. Now, it's getting heat for collecting $2.4 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds-that's 17 times the average forgivable loan received by neighboring restaurants, ABC7 reports. The company appears to have secured this money through two loans, potentially through the use of a subsidiary-a not-uncommon maneuver to bypass the program''s one-loan-per-company limit. That aside, there's nothing particularly egregious here: Unlike some restaurant chains and franchising giants, French Laundry didn't take more than the program's cap, nor did it exploit a chain restaurant loophole in order to qualify as a small business. Perhaps the real shame is the price it's charging for food: A "White Truffle and Caviar dinner" will apparently set you back at least $1,200-equivalent to the first coronavirus stimulus check. Maybe read the room, Thomas Keller?

Stollen time. Do you have a secret pandemic food ritual? Baking sourdough doesn't count: We're talking peanut butter cups hidden under the bed and eaten while you're pretending to shower, or a bacon, egg, and cheese purchased surreptitiously and scarfed during a "morning walk." For writer Virginia Sole-Smith, the ritual is eating grocery store sushi in her car after a shopping trip-15 blissful minutes, accompanied by a podcast, with no children or work or other demands on her time, she writes in The New York Times. For parents in particular, carving out a little secret eating time (ideally in a way that makes you feel like you're getting away with something) can be a powerful coping strategy: "You're aware that you are overwhelmed and you're actively taking care of yourself," one dietitian told Sole-Smith. 

Creative lull. The pandemic has not only shuttered small businesses, but also our ability to socialize freely in places like coffee shops, restaurants, and bars, which spark creative thinking, The Conversation notes. That's not to say that the lack of human interactions results in the decline of innovation, yet our ideas may be stifled and go undiscovered. Further research shows that being around other working people can motivate us to do the same. The public places we once populated also had a hand in our productivity, from their lighting and temperatures to the architectural and interior design.

Cookie puss. Classic Oreos are the best-selling cookies in the world, so why do its manufacturers keep introducing new flavors? According to The New York Times, each time a different, limited-edition variety was introduced during the past three years, sales of the original Oreos went up more 20 percent-that's on top of the 12 percent bump novelty flavors experienced during that same period. But choosing which new taste combinations to release-there have been 65 global launches since 2012-is done by a top-secret team composed of food scientists, marketers, product developers and consulting chefs, and can take as long as two years. The resulting flavor profiles, everything from birthday cake, to jelly donut, to wasabi, tend to cause a buying frenzy, but even they are sometimes overshadowed by standard-flavored Oreos in different colors and packaging. Here's our wish: a variety pack of Oreos' best-tasting novelty cookies from around the world. But until then, we'll still gladly settle for the original (and vegan) variety.

Driverless. Starting in 2021, Walmart will begin fulfilling customer orders with new driverless trucks in its home state of Arkansas. The retail giant is expanding its pilot with autonomous vehicle company Gatik, which has logged 70,000 operational miles in "operational mode" (using a safety driver behind the wheel) since 2019. Starting next year, the driverless trucks will make the same two-mile route but this time, without a safety driver, between a "darkstore" where merchandise is stored and a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Bentonville. Walmart said the autonomous fleet with safety drivers will now expand to Louisiana to test out an even longer delivery route of 20 miles, Business Insider reports.

Turn on the faucet. Last week, investors began trading futures on a hot commodity: California water. This one's a little different from your typical farm commodity, though. First, it's the source of all life on Planet Earth. Second, the traders won't be physically exchanging the product, but instead, buying contracts that represent a specific amount of water at prices based on a NASDAQ index. The trading of water will continue, as always, between various public agencies, and "wealthy outsiders won't be siphoning off" the supplies, The San Francisco Chronicle assures readers. But that doesn't preclude those same investors from driving up prices, either. You call it drought-they call it fiduciary duty.

01 Food halls used to play second-best to real restaurants. Now they offer an unlikely refuge to a battered restaurant industry.

02 Can biotech startups make breast milk without the breast?

03 USDA unveils new rules to combat organic fraud

04 New Bayer-engineered seed is resistant to five different types of pesticide

by Johnathan Hettinger   Read more

Failure to act. JBS, one of the world's largest meatpackers, initially did little to slow the spread of coronavirus at its massive beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, according to The Denver Post-a critical lapse that led to the deaths of six employees. More than 500 pages of emails and other records obtained by the Post suggest that personal protective equipment and social distancing guidelines were not taken seriously until late March, shortly before workers started to die. Even as hundreds of employees began to call out sick, the company posted on Facebook that the state's stay-at-home order "DOES NOT apply to us," while promising that employees who did show up would receive five pounds of meat; days later, a county health wrote to the company that its "work while sick" culture was worsening the outbreak, and ordering it to screen for symptoms. To date, 286 JBS workers in Colorado have tested positive for Covid-19, though safety measures introduced more recently seem to have slowed the spread.

Back online. About four months ago, the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees 80 percent of the country's food supply, announced it would stop routine factory inspections, due to the dangers posed by Covid-19. Inspections since dropped from over 900 a month to just eight in April. Citations for unsafe conditions fell to nearly zero. That's over now, as Law360 reports that FDA is resuming on-site enforcement next week. With the hiatus over, we should consider ourselves lucky to have avoided a killer outbreak-of the foodborne illness variety.

Shocker. For some pub-goers in the United Kingdom, social distancing seemed too taxing-especially after downing a few pints. So the management of The Star Inn took the drastic step of installing an electric fence (replete with a large yellow warning sign) to enforce separation between patrons and employees working behind the bar. Though landlord Johnny McFadden insists to CornwallLive that the fence is usually turned off, tales of drunk patrons getting electrocuted have already turned into drunken lore. "Before the fence, people were not following social-distancing and were doing as they pleased," said McFadden. "But now people take heed to the guidance around social distancing."

Caffeine slump. The world of work-from-home and social distancing has left cafes and coffee shops in the dust. Coffee consumption is estimated to drop worldwide for the first time since 2011, USDA is predicting. Before the pandemic, cafes and restaurants accounted for nearly 25 percent of the coffee demand, Bloomberg reports. The decline in demand for coffee also has a rippling effect on the 125 million people across the globe who rely on the bean for their livelihood. While some regions are beginning to reopen for business, a second (or third, or fourth) wave of infections may set back their endeavors.

Puff, puff, don''t pass. Anxious times can call for palliative care. You know, like weed snacks? Weed edible sales increased 50 percent in March, with more than a dozen states declaring cannabis stores and medical marijuana dispensaries essential businesses. The industry has seen an influx of first-time customers as more people grow skeptical of inhaled products-partly spurred by studies of vaping and respiratory risks associated with Covid-19, The New York Times reports. New consumers working from home have opted to enjoy edible cannabis which, in the close quarters of quarantine living with roommates or family, can be more discreet. The cost of edibles range anywhere from $18-$20 for a bag of 10 gummies.

CANcel culture. People are calling for a boycott of Goya-a brand of ingredients popular in Hispanic cuisine, including canned beans and seasoning blends-after the company's CEO praised President Donald Trump during a White House appearance last week. On Twitter, eaters are now crowdsourcing Goya alternatives, from lesser-known competing brands to DIY spice blends. The backlash is rooted in a sense of betrayal, Seattle chef Eric Rivera points out in a Washington Post report. Trump has made numerous xenophobic comments targeting Latinos and his administration has enacted policies that split up families at the U.S.-Mexico border, invoked fear among Latino communities, and attempted to deport Dreamers. Meanwhile, the Goya executive is defending himself against the criticism, comparing it to suppression of speech.

01 Marion Nestle knows it''s not easy to be a smart consumer of food, or of media. The only solution may be to get political.
 

02 Should states require food and farm businesses to test their employees for Covid-19?

03 Smithfield Foods, California companies fined for "failing to protect" employees from coronavirus in a new wave of accountability actions by OSHA

04 Fast-growing chickens have long suffered from unique health problems. Is it time to ban them from animal welfare certifications?

Eating In

05 For 10 years I've used a calorie-counting app to maintain a healthy weight. Since I started stress-eating this year, I can't bring myself to log in.

06 I stood in Soviet breadlines as a kid. The pandemic has unleashed my long-forgotten fear of scarcity.

Conscious consumption. Last month, the venerable James Beard Foundation announced it was canceling its annual awards. The nominating committee needed to rid itself of "systemic bias," and as others reported, despite a recent focus on racial and gender diversity, Black chefs and restaurants were still being shut out. That's exactly what Beard himself would have wanted, says John Birdsall, author of a forthcoming biography. "Whatever his sins," he writes for The Washington Post, "he always championed an expansive, democratic notion of food." Celebrating an industry backed by deep-pocketed investors? Awards shows hosted by Robin Leach, with "limited-production Napa cabs swirled in voluminous glasses"? No thanks. 

Feeding millions. In the new school year, the safety of students, educators, and staff are all on the line. Whether districts are continuing remote learning or expected to reopen, cafeteria workers, who have fed millions of students and their families since the spring, are at high risk of both Covid-19 exposure and unemployment. Many of these workers don't qualify for benefits like health insurance. And for cafeteria workers on college campuses, over 95 percent of workers represented by the labor union United Here have lost their jobs. The Atlantic has the story. 

A Martian menu. Orange skies, hurricanes, and a global pandemic do not make Earth seem like the most welcoming place for humans. But if the Earth becomes truly uninhabitable, and humans flee to Mars, what will our species eat? Fresh produce, reports The Takeout. Mars has less than ideal conditions for farming. There's jarringly cold temperatures, no water to be found, and close to no oxygen in the atmosphere. Also the red soil is full of iron oxide: not what you look for in a lettuce farm. Yet a team of Dutch scientists successfully grew 10 different crops in iron-heavy soil during a simulation designed to replicate Mars. And according to the lead scientist, the lab-grown tomatoes were impressively sweet. 

This. Sick. Eat. As restaurants reopen across the country at varyingly diminished capacities, it might not come as a surprise that workers are getting the short shrift from both owners and customers. In an interview with New York magazine''s Grub Street, a restaurant manager in Arkansas details the unrelenting challenges of running a restaurant during a pandemic: Little leadership, thin masks, customers who refuse to socially distance. In a sentence that darkly encapsulates the quandary faced by workers not just in the food industry across the country, the manager notes: "It's not safe for me to be here - but I can't afford to leave." The one silver lining in his testimony is the promise of a $1.50 per hour bonus, announced by his boss in April. Problem is, five months later, it's still not showing up in anyone's pay. Check, please?

Flower power. Like so many other business owners navigating the Covid-19 pandemic, Scott Thompson knew he had to pivot the pick-your-own farm his family has run for 70 years. Instead of strawberries and pumpkins, the Wisconsin-based farmer planted sunflowers-22 acres of them-enough to encourage two million blooms. Now, folks are flocking to see the golden fields, pick flowers, and picnic, all while social distancing. "If I''m out in the field, everybody is like, ''Thanks for doing this,' (and) ''This is what I needed,'" Thompson told CNN. "People are so happy to be out there and have a place to go."

Packing problems. Since 1986, cigarette butts have been the most common item collected from beaches and waterways-until now. For the first time, food wrappers were the most collected item, a sign of how big a problem single-use packaging has become. Each year, the Ocean Conservancy carries out an international coastal efforts cleanup. In 2019, more than 940,000 volunteers across 116 countries collected nearly 32.5 million pieces of trash, Fast Company reports. The Conservancy says in the early days of the effort, glass bottles, metal caps, and paper bags were common among the collected items. However, since 2017 the top 10 items now all consist of plastic.

01 Why are journalists always visiting diners in Trump country?