The “March Against Monsanto” in 52 countries, an unapproved strain of its genetically modified wheat growing on its own in Oregon, cancelled wheat export orders…. A rough week for Monsanto. Now it threw in the towel in Europe where its deep pockets and mastery of lobbying had failed: “It’s counterproductive to fight against windmills,” it explained.
Beer, Wine, & Food
Government by Eurocrats: The EU Olive-Oil Dispenser Debacle
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Government by Eurocrats: The EU Olive-Oil Dispenser Debacle
Like so many debacles in the EU, it started with the unelected European Commission. It’s immune to voters, but not to lobbyists and corporations. Under the guise of “consumer protection” or some other harmless moniker, it generates zany laws that tend to benefit large corporations. But last week, it went too far, even for Europeans.
Starving the World for Power and Profit: The Global Agribusiness Model
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on Starving the World for Power and Profit: The Global Agribusiness Model
Contributed by Don Quijones: A daily ration of bread is now beyond the reach of roughly a billion people on planet Earth. What’s more, hunger is spreading like a pandemic, making incursions from its traditional strongholds in the global south to towns and cities across depression-hit Southern Europe. In Greece….
The Winners Of the Amazing American Beer War
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Winners Of the Amazing American Beer War
Amidst the things in the US economy that aren’t going in the right direction, the debacles, fiascos, and nightmares, is an industry of scrappy upstarts, tiny operations, and larger companies that use American ingenuity, marketing, and the right amount of hops to stand up to Wall-Street-engineered giants—and they’re winning the amazing American beer war.
Self-Medicating With Watered-Down Bourbon: An Insidious Inflation
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Self-Medicating With Watered-Down Bourbon: An Insidious Inflation
We’ve had an endless series of products whose ingredients have been cheapened in order to maintain the price. Consumers won’t be able to taste the difference, the theory goes. So, as the horse-meat lasagna scandal in Europe is spiraling beautifully out of control, we’re now getting hit where it hurts: Maker’s Mark is watering down its bourbon.
The Beef Industry’s Deadly Secret: “Blading” and “Needling”
by Wolf Richter • • 3 Comments
I love steaks. Rare. So I’m biased. But now there is the report of a year-long investigation into the potentially deadly industry practice of mechanical tenderization. It has been going on for decades, with innumerable victims. The risks have been known since at least 2003. Yet the industry resists even the most basic labeling requirement that would save lives.
The Empire State Vixen Index And Other Befuddled Ironies
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Empire State Vixen Index And Other Befuddled Ironies
We’ve all heard about Wall Street employees who lost their jobs and ended up doing something unrelated, chasing after a dream, starting up a software company, working on a crab boat, teaching English to immigrants, run a taco truck, become a pole dancer…. So there should be indices that measure the number of people undergoing sudden and unlikely career changes—to give us a better gauge of the real job market.
Beer, A Reflection Of The World Economy?
by Wolf Richter • • 7 Comments
As a kid in Germany, I engaged in underage beer drinking. I was too young to drive, so it didn’t bother anyone, except me the next day. It was when German beer consumption peaked at 151 liters per capita, the highest in the world. But then I went to America … and German beer consumption took a multi-decade dive. In the US and other Western countries, the beer industry is now morose as well, but it’s booming elsewhere.
The Fine Wine Bubble Blows Up
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Fine Wine Bubble Blows Up
I love wine, but I’m leaning towards Californian wines; they’re awesome and grow in my extended neighborhood. More precisely, I love drinking wine, not keeping it locked up in a refrigerated vault, and certainly not investing in it. Hence, I have little sympathy for those who were buying high-dollar French wines for the purpose of investing in them, instead of drinking them, and I certainly don’t feel sorry for them in their plight. But a plight it is.
Mad Cow: the Costs of Trying to Keep Costs Down
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Mad Cow: the Costs of Trying to Keep Costs Down
“The US is one of two major beef-exporting countries with no comprehensive traceability system,” said Erin Borror, economist at the Meat Export Federation. The other country is India. The issue was Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease. Humans contract it by eating contaminated beef. It’s always fatal. Lack of traceability “places the US at risk if an outbreak occurs in this country,” Borror said. That was last November.