Water Loss and Ice Cream

Welcome back Food Junglers! It’s been a tough week with geopolitical situations getting more tense and the world heating up even more. And while these are difficult topics, discussion is still necessary. Let’s dig in.

This week:

🍦 Unilever breaks up with ice cream.

🚰 Water is increasingly hard to come by in Afghanistan.

⛑️ Gaza struggles to feed its population.

🏷️ Labelling regulations become tighter in the US.

🍫 A sustainable chocolate producer enters the chat…

BUSINESS
A MESSY DIVORCE

Unilever has decided to list its ice cream division as a separate entity, affecting around 7,500 jobs, in an effort to save $870 million over the next three years.

Ben & Jerry’s - owned by Unilever - is the likely winner from this outcome, as the ice cream giant has repeatedly clashed with Unilever over its controversial political activism and decision to have an independent board.

Overall, though, Unilever sees a business that’s no longer worth it. In-store freezers, alone, account for 10% of the company’s greenhouse-gas emissions and sales of ice cream have been lagging.

ZOOMING OUT: Challenges will still exist, no doubt, as the rise of weight-loss drugs - like Ozempic and Wegovy - is threatening ALL of Unilever’s ultra processed foods and not just ice cream. But this seems like a good strategic first move.

CLIMATE
AFGHANISTAN DROUGHT WORSENS

A report by the UN's World Food Programme has declared that 15.3 million people in Afghanistan are now facing acute food insecurity due to intense heat that is damaging agricultural infrastructure.

In fact, 75% of the country’s 34 provinces is experiencing severe or catastrophic drought conditions. And, in a country where 30% of GDP comes from agriculture, this is a huge problem.

Aside from severe climate changes, critics are also pointing out the lack of adequate assistance that the Taliban - the paramilitary group controlling the region - is distributing.

ZOOMING OUT: A country that was once rich with cumin and aubergines now has farmers taking out loans to buy flour. Still, this is not a unique situation. The El Niño weather pattern is creating water worries in Canada, Mexico, India and many other countries.

SUPPLY CHAIN
FAMINE IN GAZA

According to several reporters, famine is “imminent” in a war-torn Gaza that is recovering from an Israeli raid on Al-Shifa Hospital.

70% of the people in northern Gaza are suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20% threshold that is considered to be famine.

Worse still, this is the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by the Integrated Food Security Classification system.

ZOOMING OUT: While 200 tons of food recently left Cyprus by boat to help the struggling citizens, this is far from enough. And with food delivery to the region being exceptionally difficult to organise, it is unclear whether more can be delivered soon.

POLICY
BIDEN CLOSES A LOOPHOLE

The US Agriculture Department has finalised a rule that eggs, meat, and poultry products can only be labelled as “Made in the USA” if animals were raised, slaughtered, and processed within the United States.

Set to go into effect on January 1st, 2026, this will close a loophole that allowed meatpackers to claim their meat as, technically, made in the US even if it was imported.

The main intention of the rule is to both increase transparency between processors and consumers and help smaller farmers financially benefit from processing their meat within the US.

ZOOMING OUT: The decision hasn’t gone without criticism. Canadian farmers argue that this could disrupt livestock supply chains around the border states, adding another financial burden amidst an already tough economic environment.

THE BRIGHT SIDE
A GREEN EASTER

On a lighter note, I thought I’d give an Easter chocolate recommendation that would soothe both the stomach AND the soul.

Founded by Mathieu Senard and Edouard Rollet, Alter Eco is a California-based chocolate company that prioritises the wellbeing of its cocoa farmers and the environment.

And aside from the chocolate producer being USDA Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, and Carbon Neutral Certified, I love how transparent they are, detailing exactly from whom they source and where their profits go.

The company also calculates exactly how many acres of land they preserve every year and how many farmers they’ve helped along the way, which I think is super cool.

On top of that, they were the first chocolate company to launch a commercially compostable candy wrapper in their chocolate truffle line! Food Jungle approved ✅ 

SHARE THE JUNGLE

This is living proof of the Easter Bunny ITSELF chilling after having just shared Food Jungle with its other animal friends. And you can do the same! 🥰 

BEFORE YOU GO…

• Zimbabwe's staple maize harvest is expected to halve to 1.1 million tons this year.

• Chipotle plans to do a 50-for-1 stock split to make its shares more accessible to employees and investors.

• PepsiCo is to become the exclusive provider of beverages at all Subway sandwich shops in the US.

• The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Campbell Soup for illegally releasing too much bacteria, phosphorous and other contaminants into a river that feeds into Lake Erie.

• A coalition of Nestlé shareholders has filed a resolution challenging the food giant to “improve” its sales of healthy food products.

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 ✅