McDonald's and Fishing

Happy belated Halloween - hope everyone had a spooky time! With inflation and climate continuing their mad streaks this week, we definitely got more tricks than treats. Anyway, enough about us.

This week:

🍔 McDonald’s is starting to get cocky.

🍌 Cavendish bananas are at risk of going extinct.

🧀 Cheese makers in France are starting to feel the heat.

🐟️ Alaska is trying to protect its king salmon.

🇮🇳 India faces a fast food dilemma…

FAST FOOD
WE AIN’T McLOVIN’ IT

Remember when McDonald’s used to be the cheap? Yeah, well you can’t say that anymore 😭. One franchise in Connecticut, for instance, has started charging OUTRAGEOUS prices for its food. Notable mentions include:

• $18 for a Big Mac combo meal,

• $19 for a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Bacon meal,

• $18 for a McCrispy sandwich, and

• $18.29 for a 10-piece box of Chicken McNuggets!

While this is just one example, the company says it’s part of a carefully orchestrated, wider strategy to cope with inflation, higher ingredient prices, and a lower number of restaurant visits across the country. To add to this golden-arched misery, the company said it would be adjusting its menu prices FURTHER to account for new Californian regulation that is enforcing a $20-hourly minimum wage.

Despite this, the fast-food giant hit it out of the park with their latest earnings, reporting $2.32 billion in net income (up from $1.98 billion last quarter) as well as revenue and sales increases of 14% and 8.1%, respectively. And, when it comes to explaining the price increases, many analysts seem to agree that customers just keep on buying because they’re still convinced of McDonald’s “perceived” value and affordability 🫠. With all this in mind, we have to ask:

• Is this permanent?

• Is this the new fast food reality?

• Is McDonald’s doing this because it has to, or because it can?

SUPPLY CHAIN
BANANA EXTINCTION

Humans eat a lot of bananas. More specifically, humans eat around 100 BILLION Cavendish bananas every year. Its long shelf-life and resistance to most major deadly diseases, while also being the easiest to farm, has made the Cavendish banana one of the most popular staples in any home kitchen.

However, this eating spree could come to a grinding halt as the beloved (*insert euphemism*) fruit could face extinction. Cavendish banana plantations in practically every continent are experiencing serious problems with Panama Disease, a form of wilt which prohibits the banana plants’ ability to absorb water. But before we a panic, there are several ways to address this:

• Genetically modify Cavendish bananas so that they become resistant to Panama Disease.

• Find the surviving Cavendish bananas, then “copy and paste” them all around the world.

• Mass produce several other types of bananas to introduce genetic diversity.

Of the three proposed solutions, the last one seems to be the most popular, the most affordable, and the most likely to yield ultra-strong, Schwarzenegger-type banana variants 💪. So far, we’ve been told that this is a problem that won’t be huge for about ten years and that banana-lovers should have nothing to worry about…if a solution is found quickly 😰.

FRANCE
A CHEESY IDENTITY CRISIS

We all understand the sense of superiority you get when you buy the #fancy cheese at the store. But, from the ooey gooey to the hard blue cheeses, there’s just something about specifically French cheeses that makes them special 🤤🤌 . Unfortunately, however, our umami-filled, glut-inducing, extra creamy, deliciously French experiences may have to go through some pretty radical changes in the near future 😭.

Due to increasing global temperatures, cheese producers in France are having to rethink their strategies when it comes to providing their signature flavours. Dryer grasslands and water shortages all across Europe have meant that cows and goats have stopped producing the same quality of milk needed to adhere to strict French cheese-making standards. In some cases, cows have stopped producing milk altogether due to the extreme heat conditions.

To be eligible for the coveted “Appellation d’Origine Protegée” (“Protected Designation of Origin”) label, which acts as a guarantee of quality and a reason for high-quality French cheeses to be priced so highly, cheese-makers must adhere to PAGES of rules. Some of them include:

• Farmers can only use certain breeds of animals.

• Animals must come from a specific region within France.

• Animal feed must include a designated number of plants and no silage.

• The milk cannot be pasteurised.

• The cheese must be dried at a certain temperature and for a designated number of hours.

These guidelines go on. But with the climate changing, it’s becoming harder for farmers to produce the same high-quality cheeses and benefit from their higher prices that come with subscribing to such guidelines. The question then becomes, “what’s more important: climate action or bureaucracy?” Thankfully, we know just how flexible the French can be when it comes to their food… 👀 🙃 

ALASKA
NEW FISHING REGULATIONS

Overfishing and rising water temperatures in the Kenai river, Alaska, have led to a drastic reduction in king salmon populations; from a yearly average of 44,227, before 2019, to 13,922 this year! The state of Alaska’s response…ban commercial fishing nets in the Kenai peninsula.

The reactions have been varied, to say the least. Seafood is one of Alaska's biggest economic engines, bringing in around $6 billion a year, according to the Wall Street Journal. And, while such regulation is, understandably, trying to solve a key environmental problem, the issue of jobs and wage security is still up in the air.

Studies are currently being conducted to find whether commercial fishing nets can be redistributed in a way that cannot affect the king salmon. But until then, one of Alaska’s largest industries is taking some serious punches from regulators.

INDIA
FAST FOOD’S NEW FRONTIER

What happens when fast food companies find out that people don’t want to eat their food anymore? Do they adapt to what the customer wants? Don’t be ridiculous 😆. They just move to a country that has 1.4 billion MORE customers!

According to Bloomberg, sales of snacks and soft drinks in India have almost tripled over the past decade, exceeding $30 billion last year. And for large companies, like Unilever and Coca Cola, the country has become an untapped resource just waiting to be further explored.

The thing is, since the South Asian country liberalised it has been exceptionally easy to market food that has no nutritional value and is loaded with oil and starchy carbohydrates. Unlike in Europe or in North America, fast food companies don’t need to include notes on sugar or salt content and, what’s more, many food and beverage companies label their packages in English (despite English only being spoken by around 10% of the population LOL).

Yeah, you could say that there is the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) that monitors this stuff. But when you find out that business lobbyists for the biggest food companies, including Nestlé and Coca Cola, outnumber non-profit organisations by more than two-to-one at crucial FSSAI meetings, you start to become a little bit more suspicious 🧐.

Yes, India’s economy is growing rapidly. But, at the same time, the country’s obesity rate has almost tripled in the last thirty years. The question, then, is this: “how can one of the fastest growing economies in the world keep on this track, while also protecting the health interests of its citizens?”

BEFORE YOU GO…

• David Chang’s legendary NYC restaurant, Momofuku Ko, served its last meal on 4th November.

• Despite the increasing popularity of weight loss drugs, Hershey experienced net sales growth.

• California raises the hourly minimum wage to $20 and Chipotle, as well as other restaurants, is FOR SURE gonna raise menu prices because of it.

• Two brothers, having fled Lebanon during the 1970s, are now selling their wine business to Treasury Wine for $1 billion.

• Since 2020, the number of children being employed illegally by poultry companies in the US has doubled.

• Nestlé announces the release of three new vegan fish-alternatives that will be sold across Europe.

• Global Investment Bank, Morgan Stanley, is using its $500-million investment fund to back Huel as part of its climate action plan.