Food Industry Archive

Pepsi fails McDonald’s audition — After two years experimenting with selling PepsiCo products in addition to Coca-Cola products, McDonald’s has decided to stick with Coca-Cola exclusively. The burger chain was testing Pepsi’s non-fountain drinks such as Gatorade and bottled Mountain Dew. McDonald’s will continue to test bottled drink options like teas and sports...

More...

A new survey from the National Association of Wheat Growers found that more than three-quarters of the farmers who grow wheat in this country support using biotechnology to develop new, more-productive strains of grain. However, the company that’s done the most-significant research in the area — Syngenta — is in no rush to bring genetically altered wheat seeds on the market....

More...

A three-year drought is taking its toll on California agriculture, and that could end up affecting what Americans eat — and how much we pay for it. Reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada mountains are at about a third of their capacity, even with recent rains. Last week, the federal Bureau of Reclamation — which supplies about a quarter of all water used in California’s Central...

More...

You’re a historic city unlike any other, considered by many to be the most beautiful in the world. You’re famous, you’re world-renowned, and you attract 20 million tourists a year. But you’re broke. You’re recovering from recent floods and your buildings are crumbling. Who do you call? The Coca-Cola Company, apparently. Coke is negotiating a $2.7 million contract...

More...

Sustainable agriculture fans applaud Obama USDA pick — President Obama’s announcement that he would nominate Kathleen Merrigan as deputy secretary for the USDA inspired praise from advocates of organic, local food and sustainable agriculture. An assistant professor at Tufts University, Merrigan worked on the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. [Source: Daily Dish] Bloggers:...

More...

Casual dining chains used to hold a secure place between cheap fast-food restaurants and expensive gourmet options. They held the middle, the perfect mixture of price and quality that Goldilocks might have proclaimed “just right.” But the economic downturn is changing things. Goldilocks has had her hours cut back, and it’s not so clear anymore just what she’s looking...

More...

There are plenty of good reasons to avoid the genetically modified sugar beets that were harvested for the first time last fall. First of all, the plants are loaded with pesticides. The entire point of the Roundup Ready sugar beets is that the plants are resistant to Roundup, the Monsanto pesticide, so farmers can drown their crops in the chemical and the beets will survive while all the weeds...

More...

Morton Salt may be one of the few hoping that Dow Chemical fails to close its $18 billion takeover of Philadelphia chemical company Rohm and Haas. Rohm and Dow are set to meet in court next month, where the former will try to force the latter to close the deal at $78 a share. The merger poses risks for Morton, which is best known for providing household salt. The unit could get dismantled if...

More...

As of this week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has ended its truce with McDonald’s. For nine years, PETA was working with the burger chain “to modernize the company’s animal welfare standards and make further improvements” according to PETA’s “McCruelty” site, but now the group has lost its patience. At issue is the least cruel way to kill...

More...

Joy of Cooking portion sizes have grown — Professor and food author Brian Wansink has found that portion sizes in the cookbook Joy of Cooking have gone up by 35 percent over the years. Other research shows portion sizes began to increase dramatically in the early 1980s, corresponding with the start of the obesity epidemic. [Source: Food Politics] Low milk prices killing dairy cows —...

More...