New Food Podcast, Cornucopia-The Cult, Culture and Business of Food
Check out Cornucopia – The Cult, Culture and Business of Food, a new podcast with NBN’s Matt Levine and Jeremy Spiro-Winn. Food isn’t just fuel. It’s a part of culture. A ritual we share with others. A unifier. Cornucopia will explore these meanings and myths, the influencers and the influenced. Why people eat this and not […]
Halo Top Introduces World’s First Fried Chicken Ice Cream
Halo-Top the leader in low-calorie, high-protein, and low-sugar ice cream that slims your waistline and wallet at the same time, announced today it’s newest flavor, Fried Chicken Mint Chip. Justin Wolverton, recovering attorney and Halo-Top’s founder unveiled the limited-edition flavor outside a strip mall in Topanga Canyon today offering scoops to the sweaty masses outside the studio of Zumba By […]
Legacy Brands Offer Lebron Limited Edition Soda and Doritos Roulette, Tiny ReGrained Offers Dull Giants Insight on How to Innovate
It’s rare for this old industry goat to get excited about new products these days. The CPG innovations are as about as exciting as a self-flushing toilet while many natural/organic brands offer great products that are the grocery equivalent of a Maserati sedan. You know those oh-so-lovely ice creams that sell for $14 a pint […]
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal by Monsanto Litigants
The Supreme Court will not review a lower court decision protecting Monsanto’s right to sue farmers inadvertently found to have crops containing the company’s GMO patents. As noted in the FoodDemocracyNow website, “farmers had sought Court protection under the Declaratory Judgment Act that should they become the innocent victims of contamination by Monsanto’s patented gene-splice technology they could not […]
Health Activists Raise Their Fur to Protest BPA Laden Pet Toys
Decrying what he termed a “shocking lack of feline and canine respect,” Wilmer Stinky Formica called on Congress to “safeguard America’s four-legged furry friends from their chew toys by requiring manufacturers to make all products BPA free.” Bisphenol A, a chemical used in making plastics is associated with a variety of negative health impacts. Formica, […]
Seattle’s Mayor and Whole Foods Debate Fair Wages and Benefits; PCC Shines Bright in Debate
We’ve written about fair wages here often and NBN was glad to read about Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn’s battle with Whole Foods. A controversy has emerged over the Mayor’s lack of support for efforts to open a new store in West Seattle because he believes that the non-union (our adjective, not his) retailer is likely to drive down […]
Consumers Union Continues to Highlight Trader Joe’s Sale of Meat on Antibiotics While FDA Seeks Speedy Approval for New Antiobiotics to Combat Super Bugs
Consumers Union continued to draw attention to Trader Joe’s sale of meat raised using antibiotics as part of its Meat Without Drugs Campaign. The campaign which is seeking to convince grocers to sell only meat raised without antibiotics has also included outreach at Trade Joe’s stores in Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland and Washington, […]
Pepsico Shocker! Taylor’s Tonics & Prometheus Springs Unite in Hostile Takeover of Pepsico; CEO Indra Nooyi to Remain
NBN EXCLUSIVE: In a shocking announcement Taylor Peck of Taylor’s Tonics and Lex Mincolla of Prometheus Springs announced their hostile takeover of Pepsico, the 2nd largest food and beverage company in the world. The two men, dubbed “the brashest bon vivant bad boys in beverages” by Maxim magazine were uncharacteristically subdued at a press conference […]
GE Salmon Update:Target Signs on to Growing List of Retailers Pledging Not to Sell Genetically Engineered Salmon; FDA ruling expected soon
As reported in Food Safety News Target is the latest retailer to sign a pledge to not sell genetically engineered salmon. The Friends of the Earth Campaign for GE Free Seafood now includes a wide and extensive list of retailers including Aldi (owner of Trader Joes), Trader Joes, Whole Foods, H.E.B. Giant Eagle and Meijer. […]
Michael Pollan and Two Other New York Times Stories You Need to Read
Three stories in the New York Times you shouldn’t miss. Sunday May 19 the newspaper’s environmental reporter Eileen Rosenthal looks at whether its time to ban plastic bags. A great story that combines personal anecdotes everyone can relate to with details and terrific graphics about the huge and unfathomable mess bags are creating. Of course […]
Congressional Support For Organic Weak; Organic’s “Lack of Respect for Traditional Agriculture” Troubling to One Congressman
A recent story by the Associated Press reported on the growing consumer demand for organic products also detailed the challenges to getting more supportive policies from a USDA and a Congress dominated by the interests of large agriculture. An effort to change current federal law to allow organic farmers to create an organic industry-wide marketing […]
Great Soda Syrup Recipes in Make Your Own Soda
As regular readers know here at NBN we’ve been ‘creating’ our own seltzer for many years but have never had the least bit of interest in purchasing any pre-made syrups made for our Soda Stream. Yuck. But recently we received a copy of Anton Nocito’s book that contains so many great tasting syrup recipes […]
Media Watch Week of May 20th
Two informative pieces from Bill Moyers. His interview with David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz on Toxic Information and advice on how to avoid toxic chemicals at home. Forbes Magazine story claiming organic lobbyists are anti-biotech and hypocritical Food Safety News on USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s remarks to the Organic Trade Association Policy Conference […]
Chipotle Now Labels GMO Ingredients
Chipotle is the company that changed the fast food game when it introduced Niman Ranch pork into its pork carnitas and showed narrow-minded number crunchers that despite a higher price with Niman pork, sales grew with the use of a top quality ingredients; its fleet response to growing concerns over GMO food is equally impressive. It […]
Video: Not Safe For People Who Can’t Stand Bullsh–
Watch the video here from a coalition of beverage companies that oppose increased government oversight on sodas and more.
Media Watch Week of May 13
Bloomberg News interview with Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb. Supermarket News on Asian supermarkets reach for 2nd and 3rd generation young shoppers. “With no single ethnic food retailer dominating the U.S., the race is on to capture new markets where second- and third-generation shoppers are more likely to patronize chains like Whole Foods Market or […]
SFW Flanhunt Offers GPS Based Hookup Site For Hungry and Frisky Guys
FLANHUNT is the first hookup site for men who like men who like to cook great food. The developer of the application, who prefers to remain anonymous but will be tweeting under the alias Erica Von Marzipan, said through a spokesperson that “I’m happy to leave the self-celebratory proclamations to the loud-mouth Grindr guy. […]
As Expected Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Monsanto in Seed Patent Case
In our piece about fighting in the organic foods industry we said context was everything. Well, we’re having a hard time thinking that despite Monsanto’s expected victory,this isn’t something way less than half-full; this isn’t something really, really bad. Its hard to put a good spin on this, even though the Supreme Court ruling was […]
Danone, Stonyfield Yogurt Corporate Parent, Buys Happy Family Organic Baby Food Maker
French Group Danone, owner of Stonyfield Yogurt announced today that it was acquiring a 90% share of organic baby food and children’s food maker Happy Family. The company, originally called Happy Baby has been a strong innovator in the baby food category, introducing the first frozen organic baby food line, before abandoning that approach and […]
Media Watch Week of May 6
Washington Post story on the wide benefits of antioxidants and the myths about them. Hain Celestial Foods discusses how potential federal GMO labeling rules would impact CPG brands far more negatively than companies like Hain. Seems like a bit of reach as this legislation, though one that should have already been implemented on a national level, […]
Gay Controversy Dooms Boy Scouts Green Building Effort; Radiant Floor Heating Merit Badge Suspended
Continued controversy over the Boy Scouts of America’s recent announcement that it would allow openly gay scouts but prohibit openly gay scout leaders and volunteers prompted the US Department of Energy to rescind its partnership with BSA. Last fall the Department of Energy and the Scouts begun plans to for a series of new […]
Grist’ Story Offers Insight for Organic Industry Spats between the OCA and OTA
Context is everything. Half-full or half-empty? All or nothing? White or black? New York Mets or New York Yankees? (Okay, forgive that last comparison but if you lived in my brain, you’d understand). Seriously, despite my degree in political science, my passion for policy debate (okay, arguing) and my progressive political DNA I can’t […]
Hollywood Squares Major Influencer, Says Pew Research Study, Last of the Boomers, What Went Wrong?
The Pew Research Center recently announced the major conclusion’s from its just published cross-cultural, demographic hagio-analytic report: Last of the Boomers, What Went Wrong? Among the studies most surprising findings is the conclusion that four leading macro-cultural events can be identified as primary factors in “creating the generation that has wrought economic and spiritual malaise like […]
Monsanto’s Man in the Senate, Missouri’s Roy Blunt
Mother Jones details the previously mysterious Senator who added a rider to unrelated legislation protecting Monsanto and the few other GMO seed companies. The rider, which was a surprise last minute addition to a bill unrelated to agriculture or GMO oversight mandates that the USDA “ignore federal court decisions that block the agency’s approvals of […]
John Mackey Debates Ayn Rand, Self-Interest and Narcissism
As those regular readers know we have a love hate affair with Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. While we wish more corporations were like Whole Foods, espousing values for more than just stockholders and a triple bottom line approach (people, planet and profit) to success, there aren’t. If there were, Mackey’s consistent willingness to step on […]
Whole Foods Scores Another Green Coup, Announces Rooftop Greenhouse in Gowanus Brooklyn Store
Fresh after what many called the company’s groundbreaking rules regarding vendors and GMO transparency, Whole Foods scored another big green thumbs up with its Monday announcement that Gotham Greens would operate what the company stated is “the nation’s first commercial scale greenhouse farm integrated within a retail grocery space.” Gotham Greens current hydroponic operations in […]
Nostalgic for 80’s NYC, Longing for Cannoli & Thoughts About NYC Green Festival
Maybe its because I used to drive a cab in Manhattan in the 1980’s when the city was broke and tranny hookers and sex clubs commandeered the late night meat market streets long before the Apple Store, Japanese designer boutiques and oh-so-haute hotelier sprouted from the loins of the 1%. Like more and more of […]
Wal-Mart’s Growing Grocery Power and Why We Can’t Shop To A Better Economy
We don’t often point our proverbial internet fingers and say read this and pass it on,but today is one of those days. According to the article, published in partnership with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, “Having gained more say over our food supply than Monsanto, Kraft, or Tyson, Walmart has been working overtime to present itself as a […]
Dangers of Tweeting While Eating Thai Noodles and Pondering GMOs; But Monsanto Still Sucks
A funny thing happened while reading the NY Times opinion page and eating my favorite noodle soup at King of Thai Noodles #2 on Clement Street. (Which Yelp unfairly gives only 3.5 stars but that is an issue for another time). NBN tweeted about a NY Times piece detailing Monsanto’s efforts at convincing Vietnam […]
Brilliant Video on the Costs of Bottled Drinking Water as Soda Stream Controversies Bubble Up
It’s hard to fathom that not too long ago analysts once estimated that the market for bottled water was extremely small. After all why would people in countries with clean water supplies pay for something that they can get for free. But of course the human animal works in mysterious ways, especially when marketing is […]
Best-Selling Author John Berendt’s New York Kitchen
Our featured celebrity is the man who made history with his non-fiction masterpiece, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. While best known for his literary blockbuster, the non-fiction Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt began his career as a classic New York City journalist. At Harvard he worked on the […]
Green Energy News-NYC and Garbanzo Bean Growers Announce Plan to Fuel Taxis on New FalafelFuel
In a press conference at New York’s City Hall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Taxi & Limousine Commissioner Matthew W. Daus and Norharvest Bean Growers Association Norbert Johannson unveiled a plan to fuel all taxicabs and car service vehicles in the city on a new bio-fuel made from garbanzo beans.“For too long chick peas have been unfairly […]
Amazon Whole Foods. Tech is our pimp and even strung out vegan Daddy John Mackey needs a fix.
“These people, they just want to sell Whole Foods Market and make hundreds of millions of dollars, and they have to know that I’m going to resist that,” Mackey said to me at one point. “That’s my baby. I’m going to protect my kid, and they’ve got to knock Daddy out if they want to […]
Open Letter to Natural Products Expo West Attendees
Once again we reprint an NBN classic. ‘Confessions of a Booth Babe’ first appeared in March, 2006. Submitted by An Anonymous Body Care Booth Babe: Dear Retailers and Expo West Attendees, I had the dubious pleasure of working in a booth in the Personal Care Pavilion at Expo West earlier this year. Initially I was […]
Rumors of Our Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated. Cornucopia, Our New Podcast Launches March 10th
If this website was a bear we’ve been hibernating irregularly. While NBN has been on top of trends our insights and commentary have been directed elsewhere, namely to clients and others that pay the old fashioned way, with checks rather than clicks. Yet we’ve got some exciting news. We’ll be launching a new podcast that […]
Starbuck’s Shuttering of La Boulange stores in SF Bay Area No Surprise
The $100 million acquisition now looks so clearly what many expected from the start. That the coffee giant cared less about anything La Boulange offered than a brand name and a bit of added cache to the chain’s superbly boring pastries and fresh food. Today they have a new brand, but the products are as […]
Part 2 of The Original Urban Cheapskate Shops at Whole Foods Brooklyn
If you missed the first part of this semi-ongoing series (or should we say, with apologies to Homer, saga, find it here. Warning: if you read this over breakfast you might laugh so hard you’ll choke on your locally roasted Ethiopian Amaro Gayo. I solved the problem of cycling to Whole Foods by going […]
As Amy’s Kitchen Plans for East Coast Plant Emerge, Farmers There Get Excited
While Amy’s is an exceptional company, when it comes to locating their new plant, the organic frozen foods powerhouse is about as conventional as the bottom line. Not that’s there’s anything wrong with that but we’re certain more than a few public officials in Santa Rosa, California and Ashland, Oregon were disappointed as it looks […]
