Stock Splits and Salad Bars

Hey Food Junglers! The attention shifted to cows this week, with avian flu, methane emissions, and reforestation all on the agenda. Let’s dig in.

This week:

🥗 Sweetgreen falls in love with meat.

📈 Chipotle has the back of its employees.

🐄 The Avian Flu saga sees no signs of stopping in the US.

🍭 Big food companies are in the hot seat in the UK.

🌳 Rainforests get a makeover in Brazil…

CLIMATE
SWEETGREEN ADVERTISES MEAT

Sweetgreen announced that it would introduce beef to its menu in an effort to attract more customers for dinner and, generally, to appeal to a growing number of meat lovers in the US.

Understandably, this has caused outrage amongst consumers who felt that this directly contradicts the company’s climate pledges, as beef production is one of the largest drivers of global warming.

Sweetgreen urged that it would be offsetting its carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits. However, carbon credits themselves are yet to be confirmed as a legitimate way to help the environment.

ZOOMING OUT: The salad giant urged that it would only source beef from Australia and New Zealand that has been cultivated using regenerative farming techniques.

But, given meat’s well-known climate impact, this may have already spelled doom for the company’s reputation.

BUSINESS
CHIPOTLE ON FIRE

Chipotle will soon be approving a stock split to allow employees to purchase shares of the company at a discounted price.

Behind this decision is a desire for the company to incentivise workers to stay at Chipotle and refine their skills so that food can be served faster and in a more efficient way.

And, in addition to the stock split, Chipotle will be awarding a one-time equity grant to all its restaurant general managers, as well as all employees with more than 20 years of service.

ZOOMING OUT: Chipotle already offers debt-free degrees for student workers and tuition reimbursement. So, in an environment where hospitality workers are dropping like flies, this is another win for the burrito-maker.

POLICY
THE AVIAN FLU SAGA CONTINUES

According to the latest news on the avian flu in the United States, which has affected nine states so far, the US government has proven to be incredibly ineffective in dealing with the situation.

State officials have admitted widespread testing has yet to begin and many dairy farmers who have been in contact with infected cattle are yet to be vaccinated.

On top of that, interviews with more than three dozen federal officials indicate that the US Department of Agriculture doesn’t want to admit that the American food supply is unsafe, and so is reluctant to initiate mandatory testing of all cattle.

ZOOMING OUT: Although only 36 herds - out of a potential 26,000 nationwide - have been infected, reluctance to prevent the virus from spreading is a little worrying.

And until a proper solution is suggested, expect prices of beef and chicken to keep rising.

SUPPLY CHAIN
BIG FOOD GETS GRILLED

Bite Back - a charity organisation led by UK chef Jamie Oliver - has accused the world’s biggest food companies of using bright colours and cartoons in an “unethical” effort to manipulate children into wanting junk food.

The charity analysed 262 sweet food products in an attempt to propose stricter regulations on food packaging, to address childhood obesity, and to enforce a 9:00 pm watershed on advertising unhealthy products.

During this analysis, seven out of ten businesses studied were found to have had two-thirds of their packaged food and drink sales come from products that are classed as high in fat, sugar, or salt.

ZOOMING OUT: PepsiCo, Mars, Kellogg’s, and others, will all be asked to prove that their products are not as dangerous as claimed. But, given the recent movement against ultra-processed foods in the UK, they’ll have a steep hill to climb.

THE BRIGHT SIDE
BRAZILIAN RE-PLANTING

In keeping with the livestock theme, I thought I would highlight a slightly more positive story.

Rapid deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is fairly well known at this point, with the main reason for it being cattle ranching.

re.Green, however, wants to make a profit by doing the opposite: “re-forestation”. This Brazilian company, essentially, plans to restore native trees in deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest, while getting paid by larger companies to protect biodiversity.

In return, these companies will be able to offset their own emissions. Simply put, a credit for each ton of carbon that the trees pull out of the atmosphere can be sold to companies that want to compensate for their own pollution.

Of course, this is just another way of saying “carbon credit”, which has proven to have many critics. But, in this instance, I look at this as a way to make biodiversity - especially in an area that needs protection - lucrative. Food Jungle approved ✅ 

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BEFORE YOU GO…

• Tyson Foods said improving chicken profitability helped offset losses in its suffering beef business.

• Italy's right wing coalition has passed rules curbing the installation of solar panels on agricultural land.

• Grocery delivery company - Instacart - is partnering with Uber Eats to offer a new perk to its customers: restaurant delivery.

• Restaurant chain - Panera Bread - is discontinuing its line of caffeinated beverages called “Charged Sips” that are at the centre of several lawsuits.

TAKE A BREAK

Hi there everyone! It’s our pleasure to introduce another newsletter in the food space - BETTER BIOECONOMY - from a food technology enthusiast, Eshan Samaranayake.  

Like the team at Food Jungle, Eshan is doing his absolute best to advertise those who are making food healthier, cleaner, more sustainable, more animal-friendly AND accessible to all.

So, if you are interested in reading more on food tech, go check it out! Food Jungle approved ✅