tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/food-industry-20436/articlesFood industry – The Conversation2024-03-17T19:01:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256682024-03-17T19:01:29Z2024-03-17T19:01:29ZWhy is toddler milk so popular? Follow the money<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582110/original/file-20240315-28-i7q9zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C997%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/toddler-hands-holding-cup-white-fresh-2057012747">FotoDuets/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toddler milk is popular and becoming more so. Just over a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jhn.12851">third of Australian toddlers</a> drink it. Parents <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01933-X/fulltext">spend</a> hundreds of millions of dollars on it globally. Around the world, toddler milk makes up nearly half of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mcn.13097">total formula milk sales</a>, with a 200% growth since 2005. Growth is expected to continue.</p>
<p>We’re concerned about the growing popularity of toddler milk – about its nutritional content, cost, how it’s marketed, and about the impact on the health and feeding of young children. Some of us voiced our concerns on the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-12/toddler-milk-nutrition-benefits-marketing-parents/103517864">ABC’s 7.30 program recently</a>.</p>
<p>But what’s in toddler milk? How does it compare to cow’s milk? How did it become so popular?</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gOFTZmptaN0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">We shared our concerns about toddler milk and what this means for parents and children.</span></figcaption>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/misleading-food-labels-contribute-to-babies-and-toddlers-eating-too-much-sugar-3-things-parents-can-do-194168">Misleading food labels contribute to babies and toddlers eating too much sugar. 3 things parents can do</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>What is toddler milk? Is it healthy?</h2>
<p>Toddler milk is marketed as appropriate for children aged one to three years. This <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10140693/">ultra-processed food</a> <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/nutrition-and-packaging-characteristics-of-toddler-foods-and-milks-in-australia/1C6BA80843B773FC058BD3087D1A22BA">contains</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>skim milk powder (cow, soy or goat)</p></li>
<li><p>vegetable oil</p></li>
<li><p>sugars (including added sugars)</p></li>
<li><p>emulsifiers (to help bind the ingredients and improve the texture)</p></li>
<li><p>added vitamins and minerals.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Toddler milk <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/nutrition-and-packaging-characteristics-of-toddler-foods-and-milks-in-australia/1C6BA80843B773FC058BD3087D1A22BA">is usually</a> lower in calcium and protein, and higher in sugar and calories than regular cow’s milk. Depending on the brand, a serve of toddler milk can contain as much sugar as a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/nutrition-and-packaging-characteristics-of-toddler-foods-and-milks-in-australia/1C6BA80843B773FC058BD3087D1A22BA">soft drink</a>. </p>
<p>Even though toddler milks have <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-019-01950-5">added vitamins and minerals</a>, these are <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/373358/9789240081864-eng.pdf?sequence=1">found in and better absorbed</a> from <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/synthetic-vs-natural-nutrients">regular foods and breastmilk</a>. Toddlers do not need the level of nutrients found in these products if they are eating a varied diet. </p>
<p>Global health authorities, including the <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/373358/9789240081864-eng.pdf?sequence=1">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), and Australia’s <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/the_guidelines/n56_infant_feeding_guidelines_150917(1).pdf">National Health and Medical Research Council</a>, do not recommend toddler milk for healthy toddlers.</p>
<p>Some children with specific metabolic or dietary medical problems might need tailored alternatives to cow’s milk. However, these products generally are not toddler milks and would be a specific product prescribed by a health-care provider. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.choice.com.au/babies-and-kids/feeding-your-baby/first-foods/articles/are-toddler-milks-necessary">Toddler milk</a> is also up to <a href="https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-022-00765-1">four to five times</a> more expensive than regular cow’s milk. “Premium” toddler milk (the same product, with higher levels of vitamins and minerals) is more expensive. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/undernourished-stressed-and-overworked-cost-of-living-pressures-are-taking-a-toll-on-australians-health-223625">cost-of-living crisis</a>, this means families might choose to go without other essentials to afford toddler milk.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman holding blue plastic spoon of formula powder over open tin of formula, milk bottle in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582090/original/file-20240315-30-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toddler milk is more expensive than cow’s milk and contains more sugar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/powder-milk-blue-spoon-on-light-779728180">Dragana Gordic/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/8-everyday-foods-you-might-not-realise-are-ultra-processed-and-how-to-spot-them-197993">8 everyday foods you might not realise are ultra processed – and how to spot them</a>
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<h2>How toddler milk was invented</h2>
<p>Toddler milk was created so infant formula companies could <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/nutritionlibrary/breastfeeding/information-note-cross-promotion-infant-formula.pdf?sfvrsn=81a5b79c_1">get around rules</a> preventing them from advertising their infant formula. </p>
<p>When manufacturers <a href="https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(21)01197-7/abstract">claim benefits</a> of their toddler milk, many parents assume these claimed benefits apply to infant formula (known as <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/nutritionlibrary/breastfeeding/information-note-cross-promotion-infant-formula.pdf?sfvrsn=81a5b79c_1">cross-promotion</a>). In other words, marketing toddler milks also boosts interest in their infant formula.</p>
<p>Manufacturers also create brand loyalty and recognition by making the labels of their toddler milk look similar to their infant formula. For parents who used infant formula, toddler milk is positioned as the next stage in feeding.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-feeding-with-formula-heres-what-you-can-do-to-promote-your-babys-healthy-growth-106165">If you're feeding with formula, here's what you can do to promote your baby's healthy growth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How toddler milk became so popular</h2>
<p>Toddler milk is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article-abstract/82/3/425/7172846?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">heavily marketed</a>. Parents <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37203416/">are told</a> toddler milk is healthy and provides extra nutrition. Marketing <a href="https://uconnruddcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2909/2020/09/Infant-Formula-and-Toddler-Milk-Brief_9-23-19.pdf">tells parents</a> it will benefit their child’s growth and development, their brain function and their immune system.</p>
<p>Toddler milk is also presented as a <a href="https://uconnruddcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2909/2020/09/Infant-Formula-and-Toddler-Milk-Brief_9-23-19.pdf">solution</a> to fussy eating, which is common in toddlers.</p>
<p>However, regularly drinking toddler milk could increase the risk of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kathy-Cowbrough-2/publication/44645020_Feeding_the_toddler_12_months_to_3_years--challenges_and_opportunities/links/53e2409e0cf2d79877aa22e5/Feeding-the-toddler-12-months-to-3-years--challenges-and-opportunities.pdf">fussiness</a> as it reduces opportunities for toddlers to try new foods. It’s also sweet, needs no chewing, and essentially displaces energy and nutrients that whole foods provide.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Toddler wearing bib with food smeared on face" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582092/original/file-20240315-20-3y4x18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toddler milk is said to help fussy eating, but it may make things worse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-girl-toddler-picking-her-food-492304303">zlikovec/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-tell-if-your-kids-fussy-eating-phase-is-normal-92118">How to tell if your kid's 'fussy eating' phase is normal</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Growing concern</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-04-2022-who-reveals-shocking-extent-of-exploitative-formula-milk-marketing">WHO</a>, along with public health academics, has been raising concerns about the marketing of toddler milk for years.</p>
<p>In Australia, moves to curb how toddler milk is promoted have gone nowhere. Toddler milk is in a category of foods that are <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2008B00660/asmade/text">allowed to be fortified</a> (to have vitamins and minerals added), with no marketing restrictions. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission also <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-to-reauthorise-agreement-to-not-advertise-infant-formula-seeks-submissions-on-toddler-milk-advertising">has concerns</a> about the rise of toddler milk marketing. Despite this, there is no change in how it’s regulated.</p>
<p>This is in contrast to <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/topics/pregnancy-birth-and-baby/breastfeeding-infant-nutrition/marketing-infant-formula">voluntary marketing restrictions</a> in Australia for infant formula.</p>
<h2>What needs to happen?</h2>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01933-X/fulltext">enough evidence</a> to show the marketing of commercial milk formula, including toddler milk, influences parents and undermines child health.</p>
<p>So governments need to act to protect parents from this marketing, and to put <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01933-X/fulltext">child health over profits</a>. </p>
<p>Public health authorities and advocates, including us, are calling for the restriction of marketing (not selling) of all formula products for infants and toddlers from birth through to age three years.</p>
<p>Ideally, this would be mandatory, government-enforced marketing restrictions as opposed to <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/topics/pregnancy-birth-and-baby/breastfeeding-infant-nutrition/marketing-infant-formula">industry self-regulation</a> in place currently for infant formulas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/essays-on-health-how-food-companies-can-sneak-bias-into-scientific-research-65873">Essays on health: how food companies can sneak bias into scientific research</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We musn’t blame parents</h2>
<p>Toddlers are eating <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mcn.13097">more processed foods</a> (including toddler milk) than ever because time-poor parents are seeking a convenient option to ensure their child is getting adequate nutrition.</p>
<p>Formula manufacturers have used this information, and created a demand for an unnecessary product. </p>
<p>Parents want to do the best for their toddlers, but they need to know the marketing behind toddler milks is misleading.</p>
<p>Toddler milk is an unnecessary, unhealthy, expensive product. Toddlers just need whole foods and breastmilk, and/or cow’s milk or a non-dairy, milk alternative.</p>
<p>If parents are worried about their <a href="https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/nutrition-fitness">child’s eating</a>, they should see a health-care professional.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Anthea Rhodes, a paediatrician from Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer McCann is a researcher with the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), a co-chair of the Infant and Toddler Foods Alliance, and a member of the Public Health Association of Australia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karleen Gribble is a member of the Public Health Association of Australia, the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative, the Australian Breastfeeding Association, the Infant and Toddler Food Research Alliance and the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Hull is a member of, and volunteers for, the Australian Breastfeeding Association and is a member of the Public Health Association of Australia. She is also an executive on the Infant and Toddler Food Research Alliance. Naomi is the National Coordinator for the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Australia.</span></em></p>Toddler milk is high in sugar and can leave toddlers reluctant to try new foods. It’s also heavily marketed to time-poor parents. We’re worried.Jennifer McCann, Lecturer Nutrition Sciences, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin UniversityKarleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney UniversityNaomi Hull, PhD candidate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245912024-03-12T12:29:23Z2024-03-12T12:29:23ZSalty foods are making people sick − in part by poisoning their microbiomes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580543/original/file-20240307-30-s3d9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1729%2C1732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Salt has taken over many diets worldwide -- some more than others.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/salt-on-pile-royalty-free-image/115788609">ATU Images/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People have been using salt since the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21841-7">dawn of civilization</a> to process, preserve and enhance foods. In <a href="https://www.sidestone.com/books/archaeology-of-salt">ancient Rome</a>, salt was so central to commerce that soldiers were paid their “salarium,” or salaries, in salt, for instance. </p>
<p>Salt’s value was in part as a food preservative, keeping unwanted microbes at bay while <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.260090302">allowing desired ones to grow</a>. It was this remarkable ability to regulate bacterial growth that likely helped spark the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26017985">development of fermented foods</a> ranging from sauerkraut to salami, olives to bread, cheese to kimchi.</p>
<p>Today, salt has become ubiquitous and highly concentrated in <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sodium/sodium-sources">increasingly processed diets</a>. The evidence has mounted that too much salt – specifically the sodium chloride added to preserve and enhance the flavor of many highly processed foods – is <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/10/13/1045651839/eating-too-much-salt-is-making-americans-sick-even-a-12-reduction-can-save-lives">making people sick</a>. It can cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2019.11.055">high blood pressure</a> and contribute to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2105675">heart attacks and stroke</a>. It is also associated with an increased risk of developing <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fnu14204260">stomach</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fcdn%2Fnzz030.P05-039-19">colon cancer</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00016489.2024.2315302">Ménière’s disease</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18830-4">osteoporosis</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2018.23">obesity</a>.</p>
<p>How might a substance previously thought <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1342/the-salt-trade-of-ancient-west-africa/">worth its weight in gold</a> have transformed into something <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41371-022-00690-0">many medical institutions</a> consider a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.0947">key predictor of disease</a>?</p>
<p>Salt lobbyists may be one answer to this question. And as <a href="https://gastro.uw.edu/people/faculty/damman-c">a gastroenterologist</a> and research scientist at the University of Washington, I want to share the mounting evidence that microbes from the shadows of your gut might also shed some light on how salt contributes to disease.</p>
<h2>Blood pressure cookers</h2>
<p>Sodium’s role in blood pressure and heart disease results largely from its regulating the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1161/01.CIR.53.4.589">amount of water inside your blood vessels</a>. In simple terms, the more sodium in your blood, the more water it pulls into your blood vessels. This leads to higher blood pressure and subsequently an increased risk for heart attack and stroke. Some people may be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-020-00407-1">more or less sensitive</a> to the effects salt has on blood pressure.</p>
<p>Recent research suggests an additional way salt may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00204-8">raise blood pressure</a> – by altering your gut microbiome. Salt leads to a decrease in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fnu14061171">healthy microbes</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fnu10091154">key metabolites</a> they produce from fiber. These metabolites <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00204-8">decrease inflammation</a> in blood vessels and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.18558">keep them relaxed</a>, contributing to reduced blood pressure.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Salt shaker next to a blood pressure cuff" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580552/original/file-20240307-18-c1oq15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Extra salt may contribute to high blood pressure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/blood-pressure-cuff-and-salt-royalty-free-image/86495796">Jupiterimages/Stockbyte via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the exception of certain organisms that thrive in salt <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0201-3">called halophiles</a>, high levels of salt can <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-does-salt-have-antibacterial-properties">poison just about any microbe</a>, even ones your body wants to keep around. This is why people have been using salt for a long time to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK50952/">preserve food</a> and keep unwanted bacteria away.</p>
<p>But modern diets often have too much sodium. According to the World Health Organization, healthy consumption amounts to less than <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/salt-reduction">2,000 milligrams</a> per day for the average adult. The global mean intake of <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/salt-reduction">4,310 milligrams</a> of sodium has likely increased the amount of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ki.1985.38">salt in the gut</a> over healthy levels.</p>
<h2>Salt of the girth</h2>
<p>Sodium is connected to health outcomes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.jacc.2014.12.039">other than blood pressure</a>, and your microbiome may be playing a role here, too.</p>
<p>High sodium diets and higher <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0201-3">sodium levels in stool</a> are significantly linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.14980">metabolic disorders</a>, including elevated <a href="https://doi.org/10.2147/DMSO.S338915">blood sugar</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002%2Ffsn3.2781">fatty liver disease</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.4162%2Fnrp.2023.17.2.175">weight gain</a>. In fact, one study estimated that for every one gram per day increase in dietary sodium, there is a 15% <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nutres.2018.04.008">increased risk of obesity</a>. </p>
<p>A gold-standard dietary study from the National Institutes of Health found that those on a diet of ultraprocessed foods over two weeks ate about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.008">500 more calories and weighed about 2 pounds more</a> compared with those on a minimally processed diet. One of the biggest differences between the two diets was the extra 1.2 grams of sodium consumed with the ultraprocessed diets.</p>
<p>A leading explanation for why increased salt may lead to weight gain despite having no calories is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2008.04.008">sodium increases cravings</a>. When sodium is combined with simple sugars and unhealthy fats, these so-called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22639">hyperpalatable foods</a> may be linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105592">fat gain</a>, as they are particularly good at stimulating the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155%2F2016%2F7238679">reward centers</a> in the brain and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.020164">addictionlike</a> eating behaviors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of a chef's hand dispensing a pinch of salt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580540/original/file-20240307-28-lr4cr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many people could do with a pinch less of salt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-a-chef-adding-salt-into-his-recipe-royalty-free-image/1339981307">skynesher/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Salt may also connect to cravings via a short circuit in the gut microbiome. Microbiome metabolites stimulate the release of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-body-already-has-a-built-in-weight-loss-system-that-works-like-wegovy-ozempic-and-mounjaro-food-and-your-gut-microbiome-220272">natural version</a> of weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, the gut hormone GLP-1. Through GLP-1, a healthy microbiome can control your appetite, blood sugar levels and your body’s decision to burn or store energy as fat. Too much salt may interfere with its release.</p>
<p>Other explanations for salt’s effect on metabolic disease, with varying amounts of evidence, include increased <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097%2FMNH.0000000000000152">sugar absorption</a>, increased <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac160">gut-derived corticosteroids</a> and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713837115">sugar called fructose</a> that can lead to fat accumulation and decreases in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fnu14020253">energy use for heat production</a>.</p>
<h2>Desalin-nations</h2>
<p>While many countries are implementing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmab008">national salt reduction initiatives</a>, sodium consumption in most <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/wheres-the-salt/">parts of the world</a> remains on the rise. Dietary salt reduction in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7042a4">United States</a> in particular remains behind the curve, while many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nfs.2015.03.001">European countries</a> have started to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab274">see benefits</a> such as lower blood pressure and fewer deaths from heart disease through initiatives like improved <a href="https://www.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IARC_Evidence_Summary_Brief_2.pdf">package labeling</a> of salt content, reformulating foods to limit salt and even salt taxes. </p>
<p>Comparing the nutrition facts of fast-food items <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.111895">between countries</a> reveals considerable variability. For instance, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/04/16/150728142/fast-food-in-the-u-s-has-way-more-salt-than-in-other-countries">McDonald’s chicken nuggets</a> are saltiest in the U.S. and even <a href="https://www.coca-cola.com/us/en/brands/coca-cola/products/original#accordion-c55f229edc-item-93131ee8b3">American Coke</a> contains salt, an ingredient it <a href="https://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?search_terms=coca+cola&search_simple=1&action=process">lacks in other countries</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hand shaking salt on a packet of fries beside a soft drink" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580549/original/file-20240307-24-bxdz7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some fast foods have more salt than others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/excess-salt-being-added-to-chips-french-fires-royalty-free-image/1069612086">Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/03/30/707747077/after-a-century-a-voice-for-the-u-s-salt-industry-goes-quiet">salt industry</a> in the U.S may have a role here. It lobbied to prevent government regulations on salt in the 2010s, not dissimilar from what the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1468-0009.2009.00555.x">tobacco industry did with cigarettes</a> in the 1980s. Salty foods sell well. One of the key voices of the salt industry for many years, the now-defunct <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/healthcare/281914-salt-lobby-warns-sodium-reduction-will-endanger-public-health/">Salt Institute</a>, may have confused public health messaging around the importance of salt reduction by emphasizing the <a href="https://www.acc.org/About-ACC/Press-Releases/2023/02/22/20/42/Too-Little-Sodium-Can-be-Harmful-to-Heart-Failure-Patients">less common</a> instances where restriction can be dangerous.</p>
<p>But the evidence for reducing salt in the general diet is mounting, and institutions are responding. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued <a href="https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/guidance-industry-voluntary-sodium-reduction-goals">new industry guidance</a> calling for a <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/sodium-reduction#">voluntary gradual reduction of salt</a> in commercially processed and prepared foods. The <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/03/30/707747077/after-a-century-a-voice-for-the-u-s-salt-industry-goes-quiet">Salt Institute</a> dissolved in 2019. Other organizations such as the <a href="https://affi.org/affi-statement-on-fda-release-of-voluntary-sodium-reduction-goals/">American Frozen Food Institute</a> and major ingredient <a href="https://www.cargill.com/salt-in-perspective/new-report-outlines-how-us-food-companies-can-improve-offerings">suppliers such as Cargill</a> are on board with lowering dietary salt.</p>
<h2>From add-vice to advice</h2>
<p>How can you <a href="https://theconversation.com/hangry-bacteria-in-your-gut-microbiome-are-linked-to-chronic-disease-feeding-them-what-they-need-could-lead-to-happier-cells-and-a-healthier-body-199486">feed your gut microbiome</a> well while being mindful of your salt intake?</p>
<p>Start with limiting your consumption of highly processed foods: salty meats (such as fast food and cured meat), salty treats (such as crackers and chips) and salty sneaks (such as soft drinks, condiments and breads). Up to <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-materials/sodium-your-diet">70% of dietary salt</a> in the U.S. is currently consumed from packaged and processed foods. </p>
<p>Instead, focus on foods low in added sodium and sugar and high in potassium and fiber, such as unprocessed, plant-based foods: beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2017.1383355">Fermented foods</a>, though often high in sodium, may also be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.019">healthier option</a> due to high levels of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53242-x">short-chain fatty acids</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fiber-is-your-bodys-natural-guide-to-weight-management-rather-than-cutting-carbs-out-of-your-diet-eat-them-in-their-original-fiber-packaging-instead-205159">fiber</a>, <a href="https://gutbites.org/2024/01/18/like-fiber-polyphenols-in-food-boost-glp-1-ignite-mitochondria-help-coordinate-metabolic-health/">polyphenols</a> and potassium.</p>
<p>Finally, consider the balance of dietary sodium and potassium. While sodium helps keep fluid in your blood vessels, potassium helps keep fluid <a href="https://gutbites.org/2024/03/02/too-much-or-too-little-salt-balanced-advice-on-sodium-to-potassium-ratios/">in your cells</a>. Dietary sodium and potassium are best consumed <a href="https://gutbites.org/carb-fiber-ratio-calculator/#NCS">in balanced ratios</a>.</p>
<p>While all advice is best taken with a grain of salt, your microbiome gently asks that it just not be large.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Damman is on the scientific advisory board at Oobli and One BIO.</span></em></p>Salt is an essential nutrient that has helped civilizations flavor and preserve their foods for millennia. Too much dietary salt, however, is linked to a host of health problems.Christopher Damman, Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168352023-11-12T19:14:24Z2023-11-12T19:14:24ZWho’s lobbying whom? When it comes to alcohol, tobacco, food and gambling firms, we’re in the dark<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558269/original/file-20231108-23-hhpw6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C1000%2C658&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-people-shaking-hands-finishing-meeting-420967090">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alcohol, tobacco, food and gambling industries are among those that lobby government ministers and their advisors to help shape public policy.</p>
<p>But when we looked for details of who’s lobbying whom in Australia, we found government lobbyist registers largely left us in the dark.</p>
<p>In our recently <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/38/5/daad134/7326506">published research</a>, we found these registers were time-consuming to navigate and not detailed enough. The registers couldn’t give us a comprehensive picture of who’s lobbying whom, and how often. Most registers weren’t set up to do so.</p>
<p>We’re concerned about this lack of transparency and the potential for business interests to have undue influence over health policies. This has the potential to <a href="https://transparency.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NIS_FULL_REPORT_Web.pdf">diminish trust in government</a>, a risk to democracy.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-tax-how-pwc-kpmg-and-other-consultants-risk-influencing-public-health-too-209687">It's not just tax. How PwC, KPMG and other consultants risk influencing public health too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why are we concerned about lobbying?</h2>
<p>In Australia, anyone can lobby governments and has a right to represent their views. It’s an important part of the democratic process. Yet not everyone has fair access to decision makers. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://theconversation.com/paying-the-piper-and-calling-the-tune-following-clubsnsws-political-donations-60639">individuals and businesses</a> have outsized and <a href="https://theconversation.com/influence-in-australian-politics-needs-an-urgent-overhaul-heres-how-to-do-it-103535">undue influence</a> on government decision making. Lobbying is one form of such influence.</p>
<p>For instance, in the past ten years or so, the <a href="https://movendi.ngo/news/2021/12/06/australia-alcohol-lobby-pushes-to-weaken-public-health-again/">alcohol industry</a> has lobbied to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/38/3/daac022/6573372">delay implementation</a> of pregnancy warning labels.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1683996791820398592"}"></div></p>
<p>The gambling industry, which has funnelled <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-14/how-the-gambling-industry-cashed-in-on-political-donations/100509026">millions of dollars</a> into both major political parties, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/24/gambling-companies-accused-of-using-big-tobaccos-tactics-in-push-for-weaker-regulations">lobbied to weaken gambling regulations</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-even-winning-is-losing-the-surprising-cost-of-defeating-philip-morris-over-plain-packaging-114279">tobacco industry</a> sued the Australian government for its plain packaging laws, <a href="https://tobaccotactics.org/article/alliance-of-australian-retailers/">after concerted lobbying</a> had failed to derail plans to introduce them. While the lawsuit was unsuccessful, this has <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-tobaccos-decisive-defeat-on-plain-packaging-laws-wont-stop-its-war-against-public-health-140439">deterred</a> other governments from implementing similar laws. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-businesses-want-the-ear-of-government-and-are-willing-to-pay-for-it-90688">Why businesses want the ear of government and are willing to pay for it</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A deep dive into lobbyist registers</h2>
<p>Understanding who is seeing which government ministers or their advisors and what they are meeting about is the first step towards protecting against undue political influence and fostering political integrity.</p>
<p>So we decided to look at lobbyist registers to see what they tell us. These registers are like <a href="https://lobbyists.ag.gov.au/register">digital phone books</a>, with information about lobbyists. The aim of these registers is to guard against undue or unethical political influence. </p>
<p>Last year, we systematically extracted information from all lobbyist registers in Australia. All jurisdictions, except for the Northern Territory, have one. We: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>compared the disclosure requirements of Australian with international registers</p></li>
<li><p>mapped the population of lobby firms, lobbyists and clients that were active in each jurisdiction</p></li>
<li><p>identified which lobby firms represented tobacco, alcohol, gambling and ultra-processed food organisations.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1656525972781387776"}"></div></p>
<h2>Here’s what we found</h2>
<p>Compared to international lobbying registers, Australian registers provided little information. In the United States, for instance, companies must disclose <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying">how much money</a> they spend on lobbying.</p>
<p>Only four jurisdictions (federal, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Queensland) provided information about whether a lobbyist had previously worked in government. We need to know this to gauge whether there are any conflicts of interest.</p>
<p>Of the registers that provided this information, few provided enough detail to identify the specific position or the exact date a lobbyist left government. Of particular concern, 96 lobbyists said they both <em>had</em> and <em>had not</em> worked in government, raising questions about oversight of these registers.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politicians-who-become-lobbyists-can-be-bad-for-australians-health-124078">Politicians who become lobbyists can be bad for Australians' health</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Which industry hired the most lobby firms?</h2>
<p>Of the four industries we explored, gambling organisations hired the most lobby firms, followed by food, alcohol and tobacco. </p>
<p>Tobacco companies hired lobby firms in six jurisdictions, potentially contravening Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which <a href="https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-19-ftct/19-3-who-fctc-guiding-principles-and-general-obligations-">warns against</a> the tobacco industry lobbying governments.</p>
<p>Most registers are a directory of lobbyists rather than their activities. So, as most registers did not require disclosure of lobbying activities, it is unclear what service the firms provided for the tobacco industry.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-worked-out-how-many-tobacco-lobbyists-end-up-in-government-and-vice-versa-its-a-lot-205382">We worked out how many tobacco lobbyists end up in government, and vice versa. It's a lot</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s missing?</h2>
<p>Registers only provide information about “<a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/integrity/australian-government-register-lobbyists">third party</a>” lobbyists that work for professional lobby firms. This excludes many lobbyists working in Australia, such as those working directly for tobacco or alcohol companies or industry associations. In practice, this means a great deal of lobbying is hidden from the public.</p>
<p>Except for Queensland, registers did not provide a record of lobbyist meetings or contact with government officials. This information is important to understand who meets whom, and why. </p>
<p>The lobbyist registers hold no information about how much money is spent on, or received for, lobbying activities. </p>
<p>Lastly, we cannot see which individual lobbyists worked for which client. For firms that represent organisations with different interests, this raises questions about potential conflicts of interest.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1683365436094840832"}"></div></p>
<h2>Greater transparency and oversight needed</h2>
<p>In the past year, Australia has created the <a href="https://www.nacc.gov.au">National Anti-Corruption Commission</a> and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Political_Influence_of_Donations/PoliticalDonations/Report_1">recommendations</a> about reforming political donations. Lobbying reform is the next logical step to ensure an integrated and coherent approach to political integrity. </p>
<p>The Australian government, like others, has a <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/integrity/publications/lobbying-code-conduct">lobbying code of conduct</a> with rules about ethical behaviour. It also stipulates that former members of government are not allowed to work as lobbyists for a “cooling off period” of 12 or 18 months (depending on where someone worked in government).</p>
<p>However, in the lobbying code, “lobbyist” is only understood as those working for third-party firms (such as the ones we analysed). It places no restrictions on ministers or government officials taking jobs with companies they used to regulate, or the consulting sector. Expanding the definition to include all forms of lobbying would help close this loophole. </p>
<p>We also need better enforcement of the rules around lobbying with sanctions and fines imposed to improve compliance.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-revolving-door-why-politicians-become-lobbyists-and-lobbyists-become-politicians-64237">The revolving door: why politicians become lobbyists, and lobbyists become politicians</a>
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</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Lacy-Nichols receives funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation. She is a member of the People's Health Movement, Healthy Food Systems Australia and the expert advisory group on commercial determinants of health for the World Health Organization. The findings of the research reported in this article, and the views expressed, are hers alone and not necessarily those of the above organisations.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Cullerton receives funding from the NHMRC and the Children's Health Foundation. She is on the executive of the Food and Nutrition Special Interest Group for the Public Health Association of Australia. </span></em></p>We found lobbying registers were hard to navigate and not detailed enough.Jennifer Lacy-Nichols, Research fellow, The University of MelbourneKatherine Cullerton, Research Fellow, Food and Nutrition Policy, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2140562023-10-25T17:53:55Z2023-10-25T17:53:55ZIn defence of Bill C-282: Canada’s supply management supports farmers while safeguarding consumers<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/in-defence-of-bill-c-282-canadas-supply-management-supports-farmers-while-safeguarding-consumers" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The recent passage of <a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-282/third-reading">Bill C-282</a>, legislation that prevents Canadian trade negotiators from surrendering additional supply managed commodities — like eggs and dairy — in international trade negotiations, has reignited debates over Canada’s supply management system.</p>
<p>Canada’s supply management system is designed to align the production of dairy, eggs and poultry with domestic consumption through the judicious use of quotas and tariffs. </p>
<p>Critics of the bill <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/no-party-wants-to-kill-this-bill-that-could-keep-groceries-more-expensive-forever">argue it may hamstring our trade negotiators and raise food prices</a>, claiming that Canada’s supply management system is designed to “constrain supply, strangle competition with tariffs and keep prices high” by limiting dairy, eggs and poultry imports from the United States.</p>
<p>However, there is no evidence to support these claims. This kind of criticism relies on outdated beliefs in the sanctity of the so-called free market and its ability to produce cheap goods.</p>
<p>If Canada wishes to preserve domestic farms and enhance food security, officials must have limits on what they can give up to American and other foreign interests. We argue the current supply management model works to provide competitive prices to consumers, while also providing a living wage for farmers.</p>
<h2>The Canadian model is working</h2>
<p>If the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated anything over the past several years, it’s that <a href="https://www.uc.utoronto.ca/eating-age-covid-19-food-security-canada-during-and-after-pandemic">local food production is necessary to ensure food security</a>. Evidence suggests that the global food system has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2129013">exacerbated environmental degradation and food insecurity</a> while consolidating power in the hands of a select few global food corporations.</p>
<p>It’s clear we need to invest in local, community-based food sources — something supply management is able to facilitate by the nature of its operation. The supply management model is focused on supplying food to the Canadian market, with very limited opportunity for exports. </p>
<p>Under this model, dairy and eggs are generally marketed in the region in which they are produced — <a href="https://grayridge.com/">Ontario eggs are sold</a> in Ontario supermarkets — thereby privileging the local.</p>
<p>Supply management also <a href="https://www.nfu.ca/campaigns/food-sovereignty/">reflects some of the concepts common to the food sovereignty movement</a>. Food sovereignty refers to the right for people to define their own food and agriculture systems and produce healthy and culturally appropriate food using ecologically sound and sustainable practices.</p>
<p>Food sovereignty puts community first, prioritizing local and regional food needs. Notably, Canada’s supply management system has been recognized as an <a href="https://www.nfu.ca/campaigns/supply-management/">important institution of food sovereignty</a> by the National Farmers Union because of its defense of local food production.</p>
<p>Canada’s supply management system also contributes to rural sustainability. Smaller dairy (an average farm size of 88 milking cows) and egg (an average farm size of 23,000 laying hens) farms provide a stability on rural concession roads that is unmatched when they are adequately supported. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eggfarmers.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2019-02-20_Strengthening-Canadas-rural-economies.pdf">Supply-managed farms outshine their counterparts</a> in the hog, beef and oilseeds/grains sectors by making more investments, creating more jobs and contributing more to the GDP per farm.</p>
<h2>Fairer production</h2>
<p>Canada’s current supply management model works well for both consumers and producers. Producers reap the rewards of a system that ensures farmers are paid fair prices for their products, covering the costs of production. Meanwhile, consumers enjoy the benefits of a stable supply of eggs, safeguarding them from significant price fluctuations.</p>
<p>Supply management is a legitimate tool for co-ordinating production with demand and <a href="https://www.cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2011DT-01.pdf">avoiding overproduction and waste</a> — two chronic issues that have plagued the United States and Europe, despite significant price supports, subsidies, government purchase programs and import restrictions.</p>
<p>In today’s economic landscape, ensuring food affordability is as critical as ever. Despite worldwide inflation, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/food-inflation-how-canada-s-grocery-prices-compares-to-other-nations-1.6425009">Canada had the second-lowest food inflation rate in the world</a> at 8.9 per cent over the year from June 2022. This stands in contrast to the 19.6 per cent increase in the United Kingdom and the European Union, Hungary’s 45.1 per cent and Argentina’s staggering 95 per cent.</p>
<h2>Farmer wages</h2>
<p>The connection between fair farmer incomes and food sustainability and sovereignty must be emphasized.</p>
<p>If food producers can’t make a living, they will leave the industry and cause catastrophic consequences. This is already happening in some places. In the U.K., rising production costs and lower farm prices <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/29/uk-dairy-farmers-costs-milk-price-energy-feed-bills">are forcing farmers out of the industry</a> and jeopardizing the U.K.’s self-sufficiency in the dairy sector.</p>
<p>In Australia, <a href="https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/dairy/dairy-farmers-leaving-industry-amid-major-loss-of-confidence/news-story/895e4ac0662678640937beed170ceaa0">farmers are leaving dairy by the thousands</a> because of price crashes. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the world’s largest exporter of dairy, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/131610390/indebted-dairy-farmers-in-for-a-tough-time-as-milk-price-weakens-while-costs-go-nuts">the livelihoods of dairy farmers remain precarious</a>. Egg prices in New Zealand increased year-over-year <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/492153/here-s-why-egg-prices-are-still-climbing-according-to-the-industry">by 75 per cent in June</a>.</p>
<p>Even in the U.S., <a href="https://edairynews.com/en/selling-cows-dairy-farmers-business/">the story is similar</a>. Rapidly rising input costs like fuel, insurance, feed prices and labour costs, combined with stagnant or lower milk prices, have led farmers to depart that industry.</p>
<p>As supermarkets, middlemen and global food corporations pay farmers less and input costs go up, this situation has been aptly called “<a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/opinion/300590422/higher-farming-costs-will-quickly-start-eating-into-dairy-profits">a cost of farming crisis</a>.”</p>
<h2>Deregulation threatens sustainability</h2>
<p>The recent passage of Bill C-282, and the discussion of the bill in the Senate, presents an opportunity to reflect on the importance of food systems that serve to enhance Canadian food sustainability, security and sovereignty. As the earlier international examples make clear, deregulation in dairy farming has not led to vibrant, sustainable industries, but quite the opposite. </p>
<p>Further proof is highlighted by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/31/us-dairy-policies-hurt-small-farms-monopolies-get-rich">food policy analysts in the U.S.</a> who are calling on the government to reform dairy policies they argue have caused “devastating farmer loss and hardship, and a worsening environmental outlook.” </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2023/01/31/new-report-exposes-corporate-monopolies-driving-u-s-dairy-crisis/">Food and Water Watch report</a> illustrates how U.S. dairy policies centred around export markets have hurt family-sized farms by slashing on-farm profits, encouraging extreme industry consolidation and increasing environmental degradation and exploitative practices of resources. </p>
<p>Bill C-282 attempts to protect a domestic system that rejects this model. Policymakers and all Canadians should work to support systems that allow for valuable food industries to flourish, rather than dismantle them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Muirhead receives funding from Egg Farmers of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jodey Nurse has received funding from Egg Farmers of Canada in the past. Her current work is not funded by them.</span></em></p>If Canada wishes to preserve domestic farms and enhance food security, officials must have limits on what they can concede to American and other foreign interests.Bruce Muirhead, Professor of History and Egg Farmers of Canada Chair in Public Policy, University of WaterlooJodey Nurse, Faculty Lecturer, McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2151172023-10-19T12:30:15Z2023-10-19T12:30:15ZRancid food smells and tastes gross − AI tools may help scientists prevent that spoilage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554034/original/file-20231016-21-91k6p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C9%2C2073%2C1400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pantry staples can go rancid when exposed to oxygen. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/unrecognizable-woman-organising-pantry-legumes-and-royalty-free-image/1445167928?phrase=pantry&adppopup=true">Daniel de la Hoz/Moment</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever bitten into a nut or a piece of chocolate, expecting a smooth, rich taste, only to encounter an unexpected and unpleasant chalky or sour flavor? That taste is rancidity in action, and it affects pretty much every product in your pantry. Now <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/in/business/software/what-is-ai/">artificial intelligence</a> can help scientists tackle this issue more precisely and efficiently.</p>
<p>We’re a group of chemists who study ways to extend the life of food products, including those that go rancid. We recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.3c05462">published a study</a> describing the advantages of AI tools to help keep oil and fat samples fresh for longer. Because oils and fats are common components in many food types, including chips, chocolate and nuts, the outcomes of the study could be broadly applied and even affect other areas, including cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. </p>
<h2>Rancidity and antioxidants</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/what-is-rancidity.html">Food goes rancid</a> when it’s exposed to the air for a while – a process called oxidation. In fact, many common ingredients, but <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/lipid">especially lipids</a>, which are fats and oils, react with oxygen. The presence of heat or UV light can accelerate the process.</p>
<p>Oxidation leads to the formation of smaller molecules such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/ketone">ketones</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/aldehyde">aldehydes</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/fatty-acid">fatty acids</a> that give rancid foods a characteristic rank, strong and metallic scent. Repeatedly consuming rancid foods <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.200600303">can threaten your health</a>.</p>
<p>Fortunately, both nature and the food industry have an excellent shield against rancidity – antioxidants. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Foods turn rancid from a process called oxidation.</span></figcaption>
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<p><a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/antioxidants-explained#supplements">Antioxidants</a> include a broad range of natural molecules, like vitamin C, and synthetic molecules capable of protecting your food from oxidation. </p>
<p>While there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2009.00085.x">a few ways antioxidants work</a>, overall they can neutralize many of the processes that cause rancidity and preserve the flavors and nutritional value of your food for longer. Most often, customers don’t even know they are consuming added antioxidants, as food manufacturers typically add them in small amounts during preparation. </p>
<p>But you can’t just sprinkle some vitamin C on your food and expect to see a preservative effect. Researchers have to carefully choose <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2023.02.003">a specific set of antioxidants</a> and precisely calculate the amount of each. </p>
<p>Combining antioxidants does not always strengthen their effect. In fact, there are cases in which using the wrong antioxidants, or mixing them with the wrong ratios, can decrease their protective effect – that’s called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11101-019-09658-4">antagonism</a>. Finding out which combinations work for which types of food requires many experiments, which are time-consuming, require specialized personnel and increase the food’s overall cost. </p>
<p>Exploring all possible combinations would require an enormous amount of time and resources, so researchers are stuck with a few mixtures that provide only some level of protection against rancidity. Here’s where AI comes into play.</p>
<h2>A use for AI</h2>
<p>You’ve probably seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/gliding-not-searching-heres-how-to-reset-your-view-of-chatgpt-to-steer-it-to-better-results-205819">AI tools like ChatGPT</a> in the news or played around with them yourself. These types of systems can <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-part-robot-a-linguistic-anthropologist-explains-how-humans-are-like-chatgpt-both-recycle-language-203477">take in big sets of data</a> and identify patterns, then generate an output that could be useful to the user.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">AI tools have changed how many scientists conduct research.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As chemists, we wanted to teach an AI tool how to look for new combinations of antioxidants. For this, we selected a type of AI capable of working with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/ci00057a005">textual representations</a>, which are written codes describing the chemical structure of each antioxidant. First, we fed our AI a list of about a million chemical reactions and taught the program some simple chemistry concepts, like how to identify important features of molecules.</p>
<p>Once the machine could recognize general chemical patterns, like how certain molecules react with each other, we fine-tuned it by teaching it some more advanced chemistry. For this step, our team used a database of almost 1,100 mixtures previously described in the research literature. </p>
<p>At this point, the AI could predict the effect of combining any set of two or three antioxidants in under a second. Its prediction aligned with the effect described in the literature 90% of the time.</p>
<p>But these predictions didn’t quite align with the experiments our team performed in the lab. In fact, we found that our AI was able to correctly predict only a few of the oxidation experiments we performed with real lard, which shows the complexities of transferring results from a computer to the lab.</p>
<h2>Refining and enhancing</h2>
<p>Luckily, AI models aren’t static tools with predefined yes and no pathways. They’re <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-celebrated-ai-has-learned-a-new-trick-how-to-do-chemistry-182031">dynamic learners</a>, so our research team can continue feeding the model new data until it sharpens its predictive capabilities and can accurately predict the effect of each antioxidant combination. The more data the model gets, the more accurate it becomes, much like how humans grow through learning.</p>
<p>We found that adding about 200 examples from the lab enabled the AI to learn enough chemistry to predict the outcomes of the experiments performed by our team, with only a slight difference between the predicted and the real value. </p>
<p>A model like ours may be able to assist scientists developing better ways to preserve food by coming up with the best antioxidant combinations for the specific foods they’re working with, kind of like having a very clever assistant.</p>
<p>The project is now exploring more effective ways to train the AI model and looking for ways to further improve its predictive capabilities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project was funded by a grant from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture ACRE Competitive Grant Program. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas de Brito Ayres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pantry food can go bad if exposed to oxygen, but an AI model might help develop more effective preservatives and keep food fresher for longer.Carlos D. Garcia, Professor of Chemistry, Clemson UniversityLucas de Brito Ayres, PhD Candidate in Chemistry, Clemson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146872023-10-11T19:32:50Z2023-10-11T19:32:50ZThe rising cost of living is eroding brand loyalty as consumers seek more cost-effective alternatives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553090/original/file-20231010-26-fam18k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3829%2C2584&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cutting back on pricier food items and focusing on more affordable staple foods could help consumers deal with rising food costs, but these strategies affect brand loyalty.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-rising-cost-of-living-is-eroding-brand-loyalty-as-consumers-seek-more-cost-effective-alternatives" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As Canadians <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9985761/food-insecurity-poverty-report-canada">grapple with the rising cost of living</a>, many consumers are reevaluating their daily choices and purchase habits. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230718/dq230718a-eng.htm">The cost of groceries</a> is forcing many households to make difficult decisions, like having to choose between food quality and affordability.</p>
<p>Amid these economic pressures, the concept of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118785317.weom090154">brand loyalty</a> — the preference consumers have for a particular brand over others — is undergoing a significant shift. Brand loyalty is the result of a mix of factors, including <a href="https://www.businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/1721/im_en_2006_02_Matzler.pdf">trust</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11070969">habit</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v8-i2/3885">the perceived value of goods</a>.</p>
<p>Brand loyalty <a href="https://doi.org/10.1362/026725706776861226">significantly benefits retailers by boosting sales</a>. Not only <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/29/the-value-of-investing-in-loyal-customers/">do existing customers spend more money than new customers</a>, but brand loyalty also reduces the amount brands need to spend on advertising. Effective loyalty programs increase <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/22786821211000182">customer retention</a> and result in positive word-of-mouth, meaning companies can <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/effects-brand-loyalty-competitive-price-promotional-strategies">spend less on marketing</a>.</p>
<p>Losing loyalty, on the other hand, can result in a competitive disadvantage for retailers. It can lead to revenue loss, increased marketing and customer acquisition costs and <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1681254739">negative word-of-mouth</a>. </p>
<p>Once a cornerstone for many food retailers, brand loyalty is eroding as consumers <a href="https://financialpost.com/news/canadians-cutting-back-inflation-not-everything">prioritize immediate cost savings</a> over long-term brand relationships.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly seven million Canadians are struggling to put food on the table. (Global News)</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Adapting to rising food costs</h2>
<p><a href="https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2022/05/consumers-in-canada-changing-spending-patterns-due-to-inflation-study-interview/">Inflation is impacting a wide range of income groups</a>: 81 per cent of lower-income, 50 per cent of middle-income and 35 per cent of high-income earners in Canada are impacted by inflation, spending less on clothing, beauty products and big-ticket items.</p>
<p>Consumers have been adopting various strategies to manage their budgets. <a href="https://canadiangrocer.com/canadians-prefer-eat-home-despite-high-food-prices-survey">Three-quarters of Canadians say they dine out less often</a> because of the rising cost of living, and 70 per cent say inflation has shifted the way they cook.</p>
<p>Despite rising grocery prices, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/ca/investing/is-inflation-making-restaurants-cheaper-than-groceries-heres-what-the-burrito-test-says/">eating at home is still more budget-friendly</a> than eating out and allows for better control over the cost of ingredients. </p>
<p>Some Canadians <a href="https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/169541/why-are-canadians-changing-their-eating-habits/">are also modifying their eating habits</a> by altering portion sizes, cutting back on pricier food items and focusing on more affordable staple foods. While these changes help consumers deal with rising costs, they also come at the expense of brand loyalty.</p>
<p>The digital landscape is also playing a key role in this shift. Consumers are increasingly turning to digital platforms to find economical food options. The convenience of online marketplaces and food delivery services <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/EJMBE-04-2021-0128">exposes them to a wide array of product choices and competitive pricing</a>. </p>
<p>Consumers also use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2015.1112443">online tools like coupons and price comparison options</a> to seek discounts. Loyalty programs lose their appeal when consumers prioritize immediate savings.</p>
<p>This transparency and the ease of comparing prices online encourage consumers to explore various brands, making it more challenging for traditional food brands to sustain customer loyalty. </p>
<h2>Changing consumer priorities</h2>
<p>As prices rise and budgets tighten, consumers are more inclined to seek out more cost-effective options, which often means <a href="https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.42.2.141.62296">abandoning favourite brands in pursuit of better value</a>.</p>
<p>One report found that <a href="https://www.firstinsight.com/press-coverage/study-heres-how-inflation-is-changing-consumers-shopping-habits">42 per cent of consumers now seek sales or shop clearance</a>, 40 per cent adhere to a budget, 28 per cent buy less overall and 25 per cent prefer bulk stores or warehouse retailers.</p>
<p>In pursuit of cheaper alternatives, consumers become more open to trying <a href="https://brandstrat.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/navigating-inflation-in-retail-six-actions-for-retailers-1.pdf">private-label or store-brand products, discounted brands and generic or unbranded options</a>. These alternatives provide shoppers with a practical way to cope with rising prices, allowing them to manage their expenses while maintaining a satisfactory level of product quality.</p>
<p>Inflation also leads to changes in spending habits in a phenomenon known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1100.0630">consumption smoothing</a>. This often involves delaying the purchase of durable goods, prioritizing the purchase of necessities and opting for store-brand products.</p>
<p>In essence, consumers shift their priorities toward cost management, which in turn reduces their loyalty to specific brands. Food companies need to adapt to these changing consumer needs by recognizing affordability and value take precedence in an inflationary market.</p>
<h2>What can retailers do?</h2>
<p>The shift away from brand loyalty can pose challenges for business owners and retailers who depend on consumer spending. Aside from the most obvious solution to the issue — lowering prices — there are other things retailers can do to win back customers.</p>
<p>First, retailers can use <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/01/08/dynamic-pricing-the-secret-weapon-used-by-the-worlds-most-successful-companies/">dynamic pricing</a>, allowing them to adjust prices based on factors like supply and demand, inventory and competition. This approach enables them to offer competitive prices and discounts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13525">while also minimizing food waste</a>.</p>
<p>Second, retailers can also introduce loyalty programs that go beyond conventional point-based systems. By using personalized data from consumers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103088">retailers can tailor rewards and incentives</a> to match individual shopping habits, experiences and preferences. Retailers can also collaborate with other businesses and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.031">incorporate gamification elements</a> to further enhance loyalty.</p>
<p>Lastly, retailers should consider using a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2021/09/09/four-powers-of-value-based-marketing/?sh=374b560d2400">value-oriented marketing</a> approach to elevate consumer experiences. Retailers should <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-017-0523-z">communicate the value of their products</a>, emphasizing quality, nutritional benefits and unique features to justify their price points.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, investing in exceptional customer experience, both in-store and online, can foster strong emotional connections between retailers and consumers. When consumers feel valued by brands, they are more likely to stay committed to that brand’s products. By assuring customers of their commitment to value, retailers can play a crucial role in guiding consumers through these challenging times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Once a cornerstone for many food retailers, brand loyalty is eroding as consumers prioritize cost savings over long-term brand relationships.Seung Hwan (Mark) Lee, Professor and Associate Dean of Engagement & Inclusion, Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityOmar H. Fares, Lecturer in the Ted Rogers School of Retail Management, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2066572023-07-24T20:50:36Z2023-07-24T20:50:36ZCanada’s federal single-use plastics ban: What they got right and what they didn’t<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canadas-federal-single-use-plastics-ban-what-they-got-right-and-what-they-didnt" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>There is little dispute these days over the need to regulate single-use plastics. But there is ample confusion around what plastics to address and how to do so.</p>
<p>In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the intention to reach <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/reduce-plastic-waste/canada-action.html">zero plastic waste in Canada by 2030</a>, spurred on by a ban on some plastic items in 2022. </p>
<p>As the UN <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/nations-agree-end-plastic-pollution#:%7E:text=175%20nations%20agree%20to%20develop,plastic%20production%2C%20use%20and%20disposal">continues to develop its own global regulations</a>, Canadian businesses and consumers are starting to feel the impacts of our single-use plastics ban, and some industries are finding it more challenging than others to adapt. </p>
<h2>Designing a plastics ban</h2>
<p>In order to determine what items to include in the first phase of the ban, the federal government performed a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/evaluating-existing-substances/science-assessment-plastic-pollution.html">scientific assessment of plastic consumption</a>. Based on this study, the ban targeted six items determined to be of highest concern: plastic ring carriers, plastic straws, plastic stir sticks, plastic bags, plastic cutlery and plastic food wares. </p>
<p>The government also laudably <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/reduce-plastic-waste/single-use-plastic-overview.html">categorized plastics as a toxic substance</a>.</p>
<p>However, the question remains: is Canada’s single-use plastics ban actually going to make a big difference? </p>
<p>Among the targeted plastics include common food service items such as takeout containers and plastic cutlery, items which <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2021/06/18/these-four-plastic-items-make-up-almost-half-of-all-ocean-trash/?sh=45080bb5fea4">are among the most commonly found in the environment</a>. This waste alongside the <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/10214/26944">usefulness of plastics for restaurants</a> would seemingly make the food service industry an essential place to start when addressing plastics waste.</p>
<h2>Focus on circularity and reusable alternatives rather than single-use items</h2>
<p>When looking for alternatives to single-use plastics as a restaurant operator, there are a plethora of single-use paper, bamboo, compostable, biodegradable, wood pulp or bio-based plastic options. </p>
<p>However, despite the advantage that many of these alternatives can break down over time, not enough emphasis is put on the remaining essential <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/biodegradableplastics-may-end-up-doing-more-harm-than-good/2023/01/30/46e356b6-a0e3-11ed-8b47-9863fda8e494_story.html">single-use nature</a> of these items. </p>
<p>Indeed, the ability for compostable and biodegradable food wares to be accepted in a municipal composting facility is entirely dependent on the waste management cycle of that municipality, which can differ greatly between neighbouring cities. </p>
<p>Additionally, given the lack of standardization on what <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/blogs/sustainability-works/posts/is-biodegradable-and-compostable-plastic-good-for-the-environment-not-necessarily">is classified as biodegradable</a>, consumers can often be deceived by mislabelled products. </p>
<p>After all, microplastics are biodegraded plastics.</p>
<p>Offering alternative materials to food service operators is certainly a step in the right direction. However, as an effective long-term solution, the government needs to offer support for the integration and growth of <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview?gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-IWkBhBTEiwA2exyO9g_vHbIgcOIC-zk9EkESNDSQWReS0OTFkn3nOFiOia0paS5GuKvIhoCCOkQAvD_BwE">circular systems</a>. </p>
<p>In doing so, we also need to acknowledge the challenges involved in implementing these systems for restaurant operators. </p>
<h2>Challenges and solutions for food service operators</h2>
<p>The greatest <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/10214/26944">challenges operators are facing</a> with this ban are the costs of quickly switching to reusable or compostable items, sourcing issues and the general lack of alternatives that tick all the same material boxes as conventional plastics. </p>
<p>Looking at the way restaurant operators are responding to this challenge, there are a few key solutions we need to be focusing on. </p>
<p>First and foremost is an emphasis on reusables over alternatives. To make a zero-plastic waste transition realistic, we need to focus on supporting the infrastructure and consumer education required to make reusables accessible. </p>
<p>Ample progress has been made in this area since takeout food has <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/new-normal-the-year-in-takeout-trends-as-restaurants-face-a-reckoning-1.5231981?cache=yes">become more common</a> and has resulted in the launch of multiple reusable takeout container startups such as Suppli, Friendlier, or ShareWares. </p>
<p>Additionally, as with any change that affects our daily lives, our own habits are simultaneously the easiest place to start and the hardest to change. As such, a large piece of this transition will be <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JHTI-01-2023-0052/full/html">consumer education</a> so that restaurant goers and grocery shoppers understand the ‘why’ behind this plastics transition. </p>
<p>All levels of government can better support restaurants through this transition by providing guidance, funding and advocacy for scaling reusable startups and for integrating them into food service with different communities likely requiring different levels of support.</p>
<p>Some companies have been experimenting with <a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/tim-hortons-returnable-cups-experiment">their own reusable schemes</a>, however, relying on corporate drive alone will not be sufficient.</p>
<h2>Seeing the plastics ban as an opportunity</h2>
<p>In light of the development of this ban and the deliberations over the United Nations’ plastic regulation treaty, it’s clear that legislation surrounding single-use plastic reduction will likely increase over the next decade. </p>
<p>Restaurant operators, and other industries that regularly handle single-use plastics need to be more proactive about what they will need from their government to become less reliant on plastics in the future. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-barbie-world-after-the-movie-frenzy-fades-how-do-we-avoid-tonnes-of-barbie-dolls-going-to-landfill-209601">In a Barbie world ... after the movie frenzy fades, how do we avoid tonnes of Barbie dolls going to landfill?</a>
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<p>Moreover, the six items included on Canada’s list of banned plastics are by no means comprehensive and <a href="https://davidsuzuki.org/story/canadas-plastics-ban-should-include-beverage-containers/">activists continue to call</a> for additional items to be included. In particular, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/what-is-and-is-not-included-in-canada-s-ban-on-single-use-plastics-1.5136387">nine additional</a> common single-use plastics were found in the environment but are not being practically addressed. </p>
<p>Canada has the opportunity to be a global leader with the implementation of this single-use plastics ban by supporting reuse and moving towards circular practices. </p>
<p>If we can get further support for reusable programs, expand the list of harmful plastics and provide targeted consumer education around the harms of plastic waste then we have a real shot at an exemplary start to a circular economy. </p>
<p>Are we up to the challenge?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada is seen as leading the way in banning single-use plastics. But how comprehensive are these actions, and how realistic is the dream of a zero-waste future?Bruce McAdams, Associate Professor in Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management, University of GuelphEmily Robinson, Post-Graduate Researcher and Food Education Manager, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2097242023-07-23T12:37:45Z2023-07-23T12:37:45ZSchool-approved Cheetos? Why we must protect school food from corporate interests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537811/original/file-20230717-129345-mp356k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C271%2C4031%2C2746&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artwork created by public school students about the availability of healthy foods in schools.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sara Kirk)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/school-approved-cheetos-why-we-must-protect-school-food-from-corporate-interests" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Universal access to healthy school meal programs is <a href="https://cps.ca/en/documents/position/school-nutrition-support">essential for children’s well-being</a>, but Canada lags behind its peers in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxac052">providing nutritious food to children</a>. </p>
<p>While the federal government committed to a <a href="https://www.healthyschoolfood.ca/post/federal-budget-2019-announces-a-national-school-food-program">national school food program in the 2019 budget</a>, it has not funded its implementation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-budget-pledges-a-canadian-school-food-program-but-recipe-requires-funding-112789">Federal budget pledges a Canadian school food program but recipe requires funding</a>
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<p>A <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/school-food/consultation-school-food.html">report on the 2022 consultations</a> on a national school food policy will soon be released. It’s likely that the food industry will have made their corporate interests heard, and industry-affiliated corporations are known to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00842-4">lobby Canadian policymakers to influence federal nutrition policies</a>. </p>
<p>Public engagement is key to building inclusive and accessible public policy. The consultations heard from provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments and community organizations about the value and role of healthy school food. It also heard from the food industry — and this is problematic. </p>
<p>The food industry uses <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.982908">policy consultations</a> to advance competing corporate industry interests to the detriment of public health. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people, mostly women, sit around a table. most are smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538301/original/file-20230719-27-vsufa7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538301/original/file-20230719-27-vsufa7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538301/original/file-20230719-27-vsufa7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538301/original/file-20230719-27-vsufa7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538301/original/file-20230719-27-vsufa7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538301/original/file-20230719-27-vsufa7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538301/original/file-20230719-27-vsufa7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Social Development Minister Karina Gould’s roundtable consultation on the development of the National School Food Policy at the University of Guelph in January 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(University of Guelph)</span></span>
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<h2>Food industry lobbying</h2>
<p>We have good reason to sound the alarm about the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0336-y">power of the food industry in shaping diets and health</a>. The food industry regularly borrows from the political playbook of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00555.x">tobacco</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)62089-3">alcohol</a> and other health-harming industries. They do this to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00185-1">protect their commercial interests</a>.</p>
<p>The federal government has not yet ruled out a significant role for the food industry in the creation of a national school food program. This openness to industry influence or interference is cause for concern due to the <a href="https://www.ijhpm.com/article_3940.html">profit-driven mandate</a> of businesses that make or process unhealthy and unsustainable foods.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i3.483">current patchwork of school-based meal programming across Canada</a> also creates an unhealthy and unsustainable reliance on volunteers and charitable giving. Food companies have been free to strategically position themselves as <a href="https://groceryfoundation.com/pages/toonies-for-tummies">key players in food security through philanthropy</a>. </p>
<p>If Big Food becomes even more involved with school food, who will really benefit? Our children, or shareholders? </p>
<p>The development of a national school food program will be attractive economically to the food industry as multi-national food companies will see it as a way <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.06.013">to increase sales and introduce their brands to children at a young age.</a> </p>
<p>By subtly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2013.878454">positioning their products in schools, the food industry exerts its power to establish its credibility</a>. We saw this with the infamous <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/07/school-lunch-conference-cheetos/">“school-approved” Cheetos</a> in the National School Lunch Program in the United States. </p>
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<img alt="A young blond child finishes what's left of a Cheeto." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538166/original/file-20230719-17-c6fftb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538166/original/file-20230719-17-c6fftb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538166/original/file-20230719-17-c6fftb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538166/original/file-20230719-17-c6fftb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538166/original/file-20230719-17-c6fftb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538166/original/file-20230719-17-c6fftb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538166/original/file-20230719-17-c6fftb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cheetos were once approved in a school lunch program in the United States.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Burnishing reputations</h2>
<p>At a time when food companies are attempting to engage in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/grocery-ceo-ottawa-1.6771887">reputational management</a> in the face of soaring food costs, being seen as the solution to food insecurity might help their image. </p>
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<p>In fact, the food industry promoting itself as being “<a href="https://www.ijhpm.com/article_4138_d04df8b8b99788d0c6cb82046afcdaec.pdf">part of the solution</a>” represents an evolution of non-market tactics that are designed to effectively manipulate public and political perspectives, including regulatory decisions, to favour industry interests over others. This includes children’s health. </p>
<p>There are three steps the federal government must take to prevent corporate influence in the development of a national school program:</p>
<h2>1. Define the role of the food industry</h2>
<p>In collaboration with the provinces and territories, the government must define the role of the food industry and commercial entities in providing food to schools. Schoolchildren must be protected from marketing campaigns and efforts to make junk food more readily available.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.180037">Ultimately, food companies and their charitable foundations should not have a seat at the table</a> in the development of a national school food program or its governance.</p>
<h2>2. Invest in the school food program</h2>
<p>The government must <a href="https://www.healthyschoolfood.ca/proposals-for-a-national-school-nutritious-meal-program">properly fund a national school food program</a>. This will allow Indigenous governments, provinces and territories, along with local school communities, to tailor and customize their food programming free from the influence of corporate charitable giving. </p>
<p>Although the level of investment to make a national program a reality is likely to be significant, relying on the corporate sector to offset these costs should not be an option.</p>
<h2>3. Pass protective legislation</h2>
<p>The federal government can make <a href="https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-252">Bill C-252</a>, the Child Health Protection Act, a government bill and increase the chances of its speedy adoption. </p>
<p>It’s currently a private member’s bill tabled by Liberal MP Patricia Lattanzio to amend the Food and Drugs Act and prohibit food and beverage marketing directed at children.</p>
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<p>Bill C-252 isn’t perfect, and regulations would need to be drafted. But it could provide an additional layer of protection to prevent corporate entities from marketing to children while they’re attending school.</p>
<p>Developing and implementing a national school food program can help build the foundations for a healthy population over the long term. The federal government must limit the influence of the food industry on a national school food program to protect the health and well-being of Canadian children and youth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara FL Kirk receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Public Health Agency of Canada. She is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, a board member of Velo Canada Bikes, a not-for-profit that promotes everyday cycling in Canada, and an academic member of Obesity Canada, a national obesity charity, made up of health-care professionals, researchers, policy makers and people with an interest in obesity.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amberley T. Ruetz co-Chairs the Canadian Association for Food Studies' School Food Working Group, which is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, and is a member of Farm to Cafeteria Canada's Advisory Council. Ruetz has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Prowse receives funding from Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Health Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Machat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An effective national school food program can help build the foundations for a healthy population. That’s why Ottawa must limit the influence of the food industry on a national school food program.Sara F.L. Kirk, Professor of Health Promotion; Scientific Director of the Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie UniversityAmberley T. Ruetz, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of SaskatchewanRachel Prowse, Assistant Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics, Memorial University of NewfoundlandSteve Machat, PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093082023-07-16T11:57:05Z2023-07-16T11:57:05ZIncreasing monopoly power poses a threat to Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537149/original/file-20230712-21301-q8sobd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=282%2C0%2C3414%2C1912&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A recent report from Canada's competition watchdog found that a lack of competition in the grocery sector has led to higher prices for consumers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada is currently grappling with a significant economic issue: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3357041">market concentration</a>. A select few corporations dominate key sectors, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/competition-bureau/news/2023/05/canadas-competition-moment-is-here-lets-seize-it.html">leading to reduced competition</a>, rising prices and limited purchase options for consumers.</p>
<p>Canada’s grocery industry is a prime example of this. A recent <a href="https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/competition-bureau-canada/en/how-we-foster-competition/education-and-outreach/canada-needs-more-grocery-competition">report from the Competition Bureau</a> found that a lack of competition in the grocery sector is resulting in higher food prices. </p>
<p>The grocery industry is dominated by five major players — Loblaws, Metro, Empire (the owner of Sobeys), Walmart and Costco. These five companies <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/competition-bureau-grocery-1.6889712">account for over three-quarters of all food sales</a> in Canada.</p>
<p>The Bureau <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/06/27/what-the-grocery-report-recommends-to-improve-competition.html">recommended four policies to encourage competition</a> in the sector. These include establishing a grocery innovation strategy, encouraging new independent and international players, introducing legislation for consistent unit pricing and limiting property controls.</p>
<p>While independent grocery chains could be a viable alternative, they don’t occupy as large a presence of the market as they do in other countries. The <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9796699/competition-bureau-canada-grocery-study-takeaways">Canadian grocery market is heavily concentrated</a> and limits the ability of independent chains to compete by forcing them to purchase their products from larger chains.</p>
<h2>History of monopolies</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A brass Hudson's Bay Company logo seen outside one of its stores" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537152/original/file-20230712-17-qpvwhi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537152/original/file-20230712-17-qpvwhi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537152/original/file-20230712-17-qpvwhi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537152/original/file-20230712-17-qpvwhi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537152/original/file-20230712-17-qpvwhi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537152/original/file-20230712-17-qpvwhi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537152/original/file-20230712-17-qpvwhi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hudson’s Bay Company was granted a commercial monopoly over the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin, known as Rupert’s Land, in 1670.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Canada’s economy has historically been marked by notable monopolies, thanks to its vast geographical expanse and relatively sparse population. </p>
<p>Entities like the <a href="https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/the-untold-story-of-the-hudsons-bay-company/">Hudson’s Bay Company</a> and <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-pacific-railway">Canadian Pacific Railway company</a> played significant roles in the country’s development. This largely happened out of concern that domestic companies would be overwhelmed by American competitors unless they grew significantly.</p>
<p>Recent trends indicate this phenomenon is not only persisting, but intensifying. While <a href="https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/news/pivot-magazine/canadian-business-monopolies">Sobeys, Loblaws, Metro, Costco and Walmart dominate</a> over 60 per cent of the grocery sector, Bell, Rogers and Telus command about 89 per cent of the wireless telecommunications market.</p>
<p>The concentration of power extends beyond these sectors. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9634933/canada-big-banks-analysis/">The banking industry in Canada is dominated by six banks</a> — the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank, Scotiabank, the Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank, which collectively control about 93 per cent of the industry.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/339828/market-share-of-the-canadian-brewing-industry/">the beer market is largely controlled by two multinational giants</a>, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors.</p>
<p>And the Canadian telecommunications industry is still reeling from the recent <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/canadas-decision-rogers-shaw-deal-may-come-friday-2023-03-31/">merger between two of the industry’s giants</a>, Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications. The implications of this deal are far-reaching.</p>
<h2>The Rogers-Shaw merger</h2>
<p>The Rogers-Shaw merger’s final approval came with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-shaw-approval-1.6797175">21 enforceable conditions</a> Rogers and Videotron must adhere to, aimed at bolstering competition and reducing costs for customers. </p>
<p>The merger’s approval depended on Shaw selling its Freedom Mobile business to Quebecor’s Videotron. If Rogers breaches its conditions, it must pay up to $1 billion in damages. Videotron could be subject to $200 million in penalties if it fails to meet its commitments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man holds up a sheet of paperwork as he speaks into a microphone attached to a podium" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537150/original/file-20230712-26-ztwm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537150/original/file-20230712-26-ztwm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537150/original/file-20230712-26-ztwm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537150/original/file-20230712-26-ztwm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537150/original/file-20230712-26-ztwm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537150/original/file-20230712-26-ztwm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537150/original/file-20230712-26-ztwm9r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne holds up a contract between the telecoms and the federal government as he speaks at a news conference about the Rogers-Shaw merger on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 31, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Despite these conditions, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-shaw-merger-official-1.6799566">some remain skeptical about the impact of the merger</a> on competition in Canada’s telecommunications sector. </p>
<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9597898/rogers-shaw-merger-closes-new-telecom-giant/">Some critics have argued</a> the merger may lead to higher prices for consumers and less innovation. Carleton University political economy professor Dwayne Winseck warned it could lead to a “<a href="https://twitter.com/mediamorphis/status/1372207252363489290">tight oligopoly on steroids</a>.”</p>
<p>On the flip side, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-shaw-internet-deal-1.5950727">other experts believe the merger could benefit consumers</a> by accelerating the rollout of 5G networks and improving infrastructure and services, particularly in rural areas.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-the-rogers-shaw-merger-could-benefit-canadian-customers-201132">Here's how the Rogers-Shaw merger could benefit Canadian customers</a>
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<p>However, these benefits could be offset by the potential for higher prices and less competition. The merger could lead to a dominant market share in Ontario, reducing competition and potentially leading to higher internet prices.</p>
<p>This is particularly concerning, given Ontario’s average monthly price of home internet services is <a href="https://www.cannettel.com/blog/rogers-shaw-merger-implications-internet-prices-ontario">already higher than the national average</a>. This situation underscores the need for a revamp of Canada’s competition laws.</p>
<h2>Loopholes in competition law</h2>
<p>The merger has sparked controversy because it exploited weaknesses in Canada’s anti-monopoly law, <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-34/fulltext.html">the Competition Act</a>, to push the deal through. </p>
<p>The Competition Act has been <a href="https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/canada-monopolies">criticized for failing to prevent acquisitions</a> that allow large firms to eliminate competitive threats and solidify their dominance.</p>
<p>As Canada’s competition watchdog, the Competition Bureau can review mergers to determine if they will be harmful to competition. But since its introduction in 1986, <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/publications/merger-policy-for-a-dynamic-and-digital-canadian-economy/">the bureau has only challenged 18 mergers</a> and has never won a challenge on final judgment.</p>
<p>The law also has a high bar for intervention in a merger, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9169363/merger-laws-canada-competition/">often favouring negotiated agreements</a> that include concessions or remedies that address some of the competition concerns, but not necessarily all.</p>
<p>The Competition Commissioner, Matthew Boswell, <a href="https://financialpost.com/feature/matthew-boswell-ballsy-bureaucrat-block-rogers-shaw">believes the existing competition laws are inadequate</a>. Boswell has been hamstrung by legal loopholes and unable to prevent anti-competitive mergers, like the Rogers-Shaw deal, from happening.</p>
<h2>Challenges and opportunities</h2>
<p>Along with rising consumer prices, limited purchase options and intensifying competition, the growth of monopolies in Canada has led to a host of other issues.</p>
<p>Monopolies have <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/february-2022/competition-hurts-innovation-canada">the potential to stifle innovation</a> — a key driver of economic growth, as a lack of competition tends to dampen innovative efforts. Productivity growth, which is crucial for improving living standards, <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/april-2023/the-low-productivity-of-canadian-companies-threatens-our-living-standards/">is also under threat</a>, as monopolies can create an environment less conducive to efficiency and progress.</p>
<p>As Canada embarks on its post-pandemic economic recovery, policymakers must ensure economic resilience and inclusiveness while preventing existing monopoly issues from worsening. </p>
<p>At the same time, there is an opportunity to reshape the economic landscape to encourage competition and foster innovation, benefiting everyone involved in the market.</p>
<p>This journey towards a more prosperous future will require rigorous scrutiny of developments like the proposed Rogers-Shaw merger and the wisdom to navigate the interplay of monopolies, competition and the broader economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Garros Gong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As Canada embarks on its post-pandemic economic recovery, policymakers must ensure economic resilience and inclusiveness while preventing existing monopoly issues from worsening.Garros Gong, Ph.D. Student in Management Science, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077022023-07-09T12:02:18Z2023-07-09T12:02:18ZThe true cost of food: High grocery prices are not the root issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535884/original/file-20230705-27-d02r66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=384%2C234%2C2745%2C1708&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">By only focusing on how to keep food costs low, we risk ignoring the underlying causes of why people cannot afford food in the first place.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ashley Jean MacDonald)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-true-cost-of-food-high-grocery-prices-are-not-the-root-issue" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Inflation and skyrocketing grocery bills are highlighting how the cost of food is impacting our wallets. Higher prices cost everyone more, but they make it most difficult for those with low incomes to meet their basic needs. </p>
<p>On July 5, the federal government issued a one-time <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/goods-services-tax-harmonized-sales-tax-gst-hst-credit/grocery-rebate.html">grocery rebate</a> to help low-income Canadians with rising costs. Eligible families can receive up to $628 to help pay for their groceries. </p>
<p>In 2022, Canada saw the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2023003-eng.htm">highest rate of food inflation in decades</a>. Although the rate of increase is slowing, Canadian families are estimated to pay up to <a href="https://www.dal.ca/sites/agri-food/research/canada-s-food-price-report-2023.html">$1,065 more for food in 2023</a>. </p>
<p>However, by only focusing on how to keep food costs low, we risk ignoring the underlying causes of why people cannot afford food in the first place.</p>
<h2>Hidden costs</h2>
<p>The price of food at the checkout counter includes the production, processing, distribution and retailing of food. It does not include the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0196333">cost to health care from diet-related diseases</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15703-5_32">current and future environmental impacts</a> or social injustices, like <a href="https://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs/article/view/312/304">underpaying farm workers</a> or using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdy018">forced child labour</a>.</p>
<p>These are referred to as <a href="https://capi-icpa.ca/explore/resources/externalities-and-canadian-agricultural-policy-role-rationale-and-results/">negative externalities</a>. These are the spillover effects of a food production system that does not consider broader impacts on society.</p>
<p>In 2011, the external cost of agricultural production to the environment in Central and Western Canada alone was estimated to be about <a href="https://capi-icpa.ca/explore/resources/measuring-externalities-in-canadian-agriculture-understanding-the-impact-of-agricultural-production-on-the-environment/">$8.9 billion</a>. When externalities are taken into account, the true cost of food in the United States is <a href="https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/report/true-cost-of-food-measuring-what-matters-to-transform-the-u-s-food-system/">three times the amount Americans pay</a>. </p>
<p>This means that much of the food we buy is underpriced because of various social, economic and environmental externalities. We may not be paying for these hidden costs at the checkout, but we do so with our health-care costs, poor food quality and social inequalities. People in the Global South and those living with low incomes are disproportionately impacted by these hidden costs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman shops in the fresh produce section of a supermarket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534187/original/file-20230626-33547-m6ps6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The prices we see at the supermarket often do not reflect the health, environmental and social costs of food production.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Putting food costs in perspective</h2>
<p>With the current focus on increasing food prices, it may be surprising that Canadians spend relatively little on food. According to a 2016 study — the last year for which data is available — Canada was among five countries in the world that <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/">spend the least on food</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3610058701">Canadians spent, on average, 11 per cent of their income on food</a>. Those with the highest incomes spent 5.2 per cent on food, while those living with the lowest incomes spent up to 23 per cent of their income on food. That means those with the lowest income most significantly felt the burden of increased food costs. </p>
<p>The percentage of income spent on food has been decreasing since the 1960s. In <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2018/statcan/62-531/CS62-532-1969-2.pdf">1969, Canadians spent 19.6 per cent of their income on food</a>. While food prices have increased due to the pandemic and inflation, food spending among Canadians has been relatively stable since 2010 at <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110022401&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2010&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2019&referencePeriods=20100101%2C20190101">between 10 to 11 per cent</a> of their incomes. </p>
<p>Although the cost of food increases, the most vulnerable people in the food system, farmers and farm workers, receive a small portion of the proceeds. In Canada, agricultural sector wages are below the average, with weekly earnings about <a href="https://cahrc-ccrha.ca/resources/document/how-labour-challenges-will-shape-future-agriculture-agriculture-forecast-2029">21 per cent less than other sectors</a>. In 2021, U.S. farmers and farm workers received only <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-dollar-series/download-the-data/">7.4 cents of every dollar</a> spent on food. In 2013, <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-dollar-series/download-the-data/">they received 10.2 cents</a>. </p>
<h2>High food prices are not the root issue</h2>
<p>High food prices are not the main reason people can’t afford food. Poverty is. Poverty is a systemic issue, often resulting from poor government policies, income inequality and systemic forms of discrimination. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3610058701">average Canadian household</a> experienced a 16 per cent increase in income from 1999 to 2022. However, the amount of money spent on housing increased by 12 per cent, and spending on health by 35.6 per cent. </p>
<p>In addition, people with low incomes are increasingly identifying systemic issues, like racism and colonialism, as <a href="https://foodsecurecanada.org/resources-news/news-media/research-report-sustainable-consumption-all-revisiting-accessibility">main barriers to achieving food security</a>. Even with low food costs, racialized people face numerous barriers in achieving food security. Systemic discrimination leads to a concentration of social and economic disadvantages that increase food insecurity rates.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2022/07/staff-discussion-paper-2022-16/">Income inequality</a> in Canada increased substantially during the 1980s and 1990s. That pattern hasn’t changed. Today, the groups most likely to experience low incomes continue to be Indigenous Peoples and racialized Canadians. </p>
<p><a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/98-200-X/2021009/98-200-X2021009-eng.cfm#">According to the last census</a>, 18.8 per cent of Indigenous people lived in a low-income household, compared to 7.9 per cent of the non-Indigenous population. Indigenous communities in Canada face food insecurity at a rate two to five times higher than other Canadians.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.17269%2Fs41997-021-00480-0">First Nation Food, Nutrition and Environment Study</a> found households that had access to food obtained using traditional practices were more food secure, and less likely to have complex health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. For members of these households, access to growing and harvesting food for themselves and their community was more important than lower food prices.</p>
<h2>Cheap food comes at a cost</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2023/06/23/why-are-bananas-so-cheap/">Conventional bananas are one of the cheapest</a> food items in Canadian grocery stores. They have contributed to <a href="https://www.fairtrade.net/library/the-external-costs-of-banana-production-a-global-study">chronic underpayment of farmers and farm workers, child labour practices, loss of biodiversity and water pollution</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, conventional bananas have a much higher hidden cost than fair trade bananas. Most of this is attributed to inadequate wages and a lack of social security for farmers and farm workers. By buying fair trade bananas, consumers can significantly contribute to sustainability and greater equity. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A farmer tending to a banana tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532438/original/file-20230616-21-n8qt09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A farmer from the Fairtrade International certified banana co-operative in Ecuador.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Fairtrade Canada)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Fair trade produce might be more expensive, however as a result farmers and farm workers receive fairer wages and there is greater transparency throughout the entire supply chain.</p>
<p><a href="https://fairfoodprogram.org/">The Fair Food Program</a> encourages corporations to buy produce from farms that treat their workers humanely and compensate them fairly. <a href="https://indd.adobe.com/view/2e8c5302-3772-4122-a6a7-f345d4801a16">The latest report from The Fair Food Program</a> demonstrates a decrease in injuries, violence and reported sexual harassment among workers of farms that partake in the program.</p>
<p>In the early 2000s, buyers agreed to <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/food/2014/01/farm-workers-win-extra-penny-ultimate-penny-pincher-walmart/">pay a penny more</a> for every pound of tomatoes, passing it on to farm workers. This went directly to the farm workers, which equated to a 20-35 per cent increase in weekly pay.</p>
<p>The hidden costs of cheap food are disproportionally harming racialized communities and those with low incomes. They also deprive us all of a just, equitable and sustainable food system. Paying farmers and food workers more is an investment in the local economy and a more resilient, equitable and just global food system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monika Korzun currently holds a postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University funded by the McCain Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley Jean MacDonald and Donna Appavoo do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many people are experiencing the sticker shock of higher prices at grocery stores. But the amount we pay for food often does not reflect the real social, environmental and human costs of production.Monika Korzun, McCain Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie UniversityAshley Jean MacDonald, PhD Student, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie UniversityDonna Appavoo, Contract Instructor, Chang School of Continuing Education, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063872023-05-29T21:26:04Z2023-05-29T21:26:04ZThe new Grocery Code of Conduct should benefit both Canadians and the food industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528659/original/file-20230526-24621-aq8k4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5590%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canada's first-ever grocery code of conduct is supposed to enhance transparency, predictability and fair dealing within supply chains.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cost of filling your grocery cart in Canada increased by <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Canada%27s%20Food%20Price%20Report%202023_Digital.pdf">10.3 per cent in 2022</a> and is projected to increase by an additional <a href="https://www.dal.ca/sites/agri-food/research/canada-s-food-price-report-2023.html">five to seven per cent this year</a>. </p>
<p>What is particularly troubling about the food crisis is that the high prices seem to be impacting <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Canada%27s%20Food%20Price%20Report%202023_Digital.pdf">all food product categories</a>, suggesting the problem is affecting the entire food supply chain rather than specific items or sub-sectors.</p>
<p>In response to this and other concerns, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food initiated studies on <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/AGRI/Work">Food Price Inflation and Global Food Insecurity</a>, which included two separate meetings with the heads of four of the five major Canadian grocery retailers.</p>
<p>A result of the meetings — and a cause for cautious optimism — is the decision to develop a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/agriculture-agri-food/news/2023/01/joint-statement-on-the-development-of-canadas-first-ever-grocery-code-of-conduct.html">grocery code of conduct</a> to address issues in the food supply chain.</p>
<p>The code is meant to address long-standing issues in the industry, including <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9590038/grocery-code-of-conduct-draft-canada">grocery retailers imposing large fee increases on suppliers without notice</a>.</p>
<h2>Standing committee meetings</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/AGRI/meeting-52/notice">On March 8</a>, the presidents of Loblaw, Metro and Empire (Sobeys) were summoned to Ottawa to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/grocery-hearings-inflation-1.6770378">testify before the House of Commons agriculture committee</a>. The president of Walmart Canada appeared before the committee <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/AGRI/meeting-55/notice">on March 23</a>. </p>
<p>In both meetings, the <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/grocery-ceos-deny-accusations-that-food-price-inflation-is-driven-by-profit-mongering-1.6303774">executives indicated that food price inflation</a> was due to problems with global supply chains in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic: commodity price increases, labour shortages, transportation bottlenecks, weather disasters and higher energy costs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two middle-aged white men wearing glasses and navy suits talk to one another while seated from behind a desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael Medline, President and CEO of Empire Company Limited, left, and Galen G. Weston, Chairman and President of Loblaw Companies Limited, wait to appear as witnesses at the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food investigating food price inflation in Ottawa on March 8, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To what extent those meetings helped clarify the complex issues affecting grocery supply chains <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/03/08/top-grocers-testify-in-ottawa-today-canadians-will-finally-get-to-hear-from-the-ceos.html">appears to be still in debate</a>. But the decision to create a grocery code of conduct could make these meetings worth it in the long run. </p>
<p>The code of conduct is currently being drafted by grocers, suppliers and <a href="https://agriculture.canada.ca/en">Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada</a>, a government department focused on the country’s agriculture and agri-food sector.</p>
<h2>What the new code should include</h2>
<p>The grocery code of conduct <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/05/05/we-have-to-do-better-canadas-first-grocery-code-of-conduct-a-step-closer.html">is still in development</a>. The draft seems to prioritize <a href="https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/canada-proposed-grocery-code-conduct-resolve-disputes-impose-sanctions">resolving disputes</a>, rather than making long-term structural changes to the way the supply chain operates. </p>
<p>But this could change in the future. According to members of the code’s steering committee, it will be possible to amend the code once it’s up for review in 18 months. </p>
<p>As an expert in supply chain management, I have recommendations for future editions of the code to strengthen relationships and performance across the industry. These changes would benefit not only the companies involved, but also Canadian consumers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A meat counter in a grocery store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grocery code of conduct is being drafted by grocers, suppliers and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ultimate target of the new code should be consumers, while also securing prosperity of the supply chain. To do this, the code should accomplish two things: promoting horizontal competition while also fostering vertical co-operation in the industry. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.monash.edu/business/marketing/marketing-dictionary/h/horizontal-competition">Horizontal competition</a> refers to rivalry between organizations operating at the same level to gain customers — like competing retailers, for example.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6297(199605/06)12:3%3C277::AID-AGR7%3E3.0.CO;2-Y">Vertical co-operation</a> aims to strengthen relationships between companies operating at various stages of the supply chain. Its objective is to improve collaboration in areas including production, distribution, information sharing and pricing.</p>
<h2>Supply chain management practices</h2>
<p>Supply chain management practices could be used to foster both horizontal competition and vertical co-operation in the supply chain. </p>
<p>Extensive academic research has documented the successful implementation of these practices across industries <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540710742527">including, but not limited to, groceries</a>. </p>
<p>There is equally ample evidence highlighting the benefits of these management practices in areas such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09537280801916157">supply and logistics costs</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570710720595">delivery reliability</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-05-2020-0194">sustainability</a>.</p>
<p>The research recommends introducing collaborative practices that go beyond the dispute-resolution measures outlined in the code draft. These practices include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-03-2014-0039">Collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR)</a>. This program aims to improve coordination across the supply chain to reduce uncertainty, improve responsiveness, and minimize costs such as bloated inventories and expedited orders. CPFR is highly applicable to the grocery supply chain. In fact, it was initially developed by <a href="https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/wal-mart-cpfr-pilot-charts-course-stock-growth">Walmart in 1996</a> and is currently used by <a href="https://www.doingbusinesswithlcbo.com/content/dbwl/en/basepage/home/new-supplier-agent/demo/CPFR.html">the LCBO</a> and other consumer goods companies in Canada. The code should encourage the adoption of specific CPFR practices, such as joint forecasting between buyers and suppliers.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0053(200011/12)12:1%3C67::AID-JCAF11%3E3.0.CO;2-0">Target costing</a>. Under this approach, buyers and suppliers work together to reduce costs to guarantee a maximum selling price while protecting margins. As authors <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Lean-Thinking/James-P-Womack/9780743249270">James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones have indicated</a>, this approach requires the “relentless scrutiny of every activity along the value stream.” For this approach to be effective, it must be collaborative and include the fair distribution of responsibility, authority and benefits among supply chain partners.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2012.06.258">Information sharing</a>. Research indicates that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2019.1642530">knowledge exchange yields significant benefits</a> to both buyers and supply networks. The grocery code could facilitate the distribution and exploitation of knowledge, technologies and best practices across the supply chain. These processes would enable <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9597-8">joint problem-solving</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.304">improve optimization</a> and the ability to cope with variations in supply and demand. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Ultimately, competitive goals should apply to the entire supply chain, rather than to specific stages. It is well-known that squeezing suppliers can, in many instances, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12265">quickly erode the supply base</a>. These policies can be severely detrimental not only to the whole industry — including buyers — but also to consumers.</p>
<p>What we need is a comprehensive code of conduct that ensures the long-term sustainability of the industry, while also protecting consumers in the event of future supply imbalances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giovani J.C. da Silveira previously received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).</span></em></p>We need a comprehensive code of conduct that ensures the long-term sustainability of the industry, while also protecting consumers in the event of future supply imbalances.Giovani J.C. da Silveira, Professor, Operations and Supply Chain Management, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2000542023-03-16T20:10:24Z2023-03-16T20:10:24ZUncovering the violent history of the Canadian sugar industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514332/original/file-20230308-20-sn5ci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=130%2C8%2C2784%2C1818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">By reflecting on sugar's origins, we can trace the pathways that have made this commodity so abundant.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/uncovering-the-violent-history-of-the-canadian-sugar-industry" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sugar, we are often told, is bad for us. According to <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/the-sweet-danger-of-sugar">recent health advice</a>, adults should restrict their sugar intake to between six and nine teaspoons daily. But what is more upsetting about sugar is its atrocious history. </p>
<p>Western Europe’s <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/322123/sweetness-and-power-by-sidney-w-mintz/">appetite for “sweetness</a>” helped fuel the horrific transatlantic trade of enslaved peoples, in which at least 15 million enslaved people from Africa were forced to work on <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469663685/capitalism-and-slavery-third-edition/">plantations in the Americas</a>. To this day, working conditions in sugar <a href="https://theconversation.com/child-labour-poverty-and-terrible-working-conditions-lie-behind-the-sugar-you-eat-95242">are among the world’s worst</a>.</p>
<p>Given its heinous human rights record, the question becomes: why do we continue to eat sugar? The answer is complicated. Crucial, however, are <a href="https://sugar.ca/international-trade/canadian-sugar-market/value-of-sugar-to-the-canadian-economy">the significant profits that sugar represents</a>, together with the low prices that sugar commands. </p>
<h2>History of sugar</h2>
<p>For nearly five centuries, European planters made dizzying fortunes in sugar, made possible by <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469663685/capitalism-and-slavery-third-edition/">enslaving workers in colonized lands</a>. Sugar became so integral to European profiteering that it started <a href="https://doi.org/10.7312/beck18524-016">being produced on a global scale</a>. Canadian investors, too, have reaped massive sugar profits.</p>
<p>During the 1700s and 1800s, most Europeans, in what is now Canada, were implicated in the transatlantic sugar and slave trades. Not only did many consume the fruits of the enslaved sugar industry — including molasses and rum, in addition to sugar, <a href="https://cha-shc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Enslavement-of-Africans-in-Canada.pdf">as historian Afua Cooper writes</a> — but some also invested in Caribbean trade, itself powered by enslaved sugar work. </p>
<p>Several Canadian banks — including the Imperial Bank of Commerce and the Bank of Nova Scotia (now known as Scotiabank) — have their origins in the West Indies, where their forerunners <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/07990537-2642737">established themselves early in the 19th century</a>. According to Cooper, the Bank of Nova Scotia exists “in the shadow of West Indian slavery.”</p>
<p>Western Canadians have also profited from unfree sugar labour. The famed western Canadian brand, Rogers Sugar, was established by American Benjamin Tingley Rogers who moved to Canada in 1889. Having grown up in the sugar industry, <a href="http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=7676">Rogers had both sugar connections and expertise</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo of old factory bulidings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514551/original/file-20230309-2232-l3hp15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514551/original/file-20230309-2232-l3hp15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514551/original/file-20230309-2232-l3hp15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514551/original/file-20230309-2232-l3hp15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514551/original/file-20230309-2232-l3hp15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514551/original/file-20230309-2232-l3hp15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514551/original/file-20230309-2232-l3hp15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Original B.C. Sugar refinery buildings in Vancouver in 1892.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(City of Vancouver Archives)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Building <a href="https://blogs.ubc.ca/buildingempire/2021/02/21/rogers-sugar-vancouver-1981/">a refinery in Vancouver</a>, a city newly constructed on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, Rogers created a western Canadian sugar empire — one that sourced raw sugar cane through the Pacific, refined it in British Columbia and sold it throughout the Canadian West. </p>
<p>Railway magnate <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-william-cornelius-van-horne">William Cornelius Van Horne</a>, together with noted investors such as <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/richard-bladworth-angus">Richard Bladworth Angus</a>, Edmund Boyd Osler and <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/donald-alexander-smith-1st-baron-strathcona-and-mount-royal">Donald Alexander Smith</a>, were among the ventures’ early shareholders. By the time of his death in 1918, <a href="http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=7676">Rogers had become “quite wealthy</a>.”</p>
<p>Now owned by Lantic Inc., <a href="https://www.lanticrogers.com">Rogers Sugar remains a recognized Canadian brand</a>. Less well known, though, is Rogers Sugar’s violent past.</p>
<h2>Sugar plantations</h2>
<p>To make the refined sugar that is so familiar to Canadians today, B.C. Sugar (the name of the company that owned Rogers Sugar) sourced both beet and cane sugars. Canadian beet sugar has its own atrocious labour history, as <a href="https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/NR33801.PDF?is_thesis=1&oclc_number=530949579">University of Saskatchewan professor Ron Laliberté</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-law-and-society-la-revue-canadienne-droit-et-societe/article/abs/cartographies-of-violence-women-memory-and-the-subjects-of-the-internment/F291FCC6A7EC2F460E89E7C3CE07E610">York University professor Mona Oikawa</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0829320100006360">other experts</a> have demonstrated. </p>
<p>Refined predominantly in Vancouver, Rogers Sugar was made mostly from raw cane sugar. Since sugar cane cannot grow in Canada, <a href="https://worldcat.org/en/title/20094617">B.C. Sugar sourced internationally</a> from places including Mauritius, Java, Peru, Hawaii, Cuba, Fiji and the Dominican Republic. </p>
<p>B.C. Sugar also ventured into sugar cane plantation ownership: in Fiji between 1905 and 1922, and in the Dominican Republic between 1944 and 1955. Notably, it purchased the latter from the Bank of Nova Scotia.</p>
<p>In both cases, workers reported horrendous conditions. The pay was so low and the work was so menial in the Dominican Republic that, as historian Catherine C. Legrand points out, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-75.4.555">workers left the plantation whenever they could</a>.</p>
<p>In Fiji between 1905 and 1920, B.C. Sugar employed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001946468502200103">indentured workers from India</a> who migrated to the colony on five-year contracts. As on other Fiji plantations, workers were subject to numerous atrocities and treated in ways similar to how enslaved and indentured people <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/chalo-jahaji">were treated on plantations globally</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of rows of tram cars full of sugar cane. In the distance a factory building can be seen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514535/original/file-20230309-305-61e1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514535/original/file-20230309-305-61e1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514535/original/file-20230309-305-61e1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514535/original/file-20230309-305-61e1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514535/original/file-20230309-305-61e1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514535/original/file-20230309-305-61e1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514535/original/file-20230309-305-61e1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sugar cane cars lined up in front of a cane factory in Fiji in the early 20th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(City of Vancouver Archives)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Forced into hard physical labour with little time for sleep, indentured workers at B.C. Sugar’s Fiji plantation endured sickness, confinement, hunger, abuse, injuries, whippings, beatings and more, all for below subsistence pay and the <a href="http://girmit.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/vnaidu_violence_preface.pdf">eventual chance to move out of indentured work</a>. </p>
<p>Conditions were so dire that some workers <a href="https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p212781/pdf/16.-Death-On-Fiji-Plantations-1900-1909-Nicole-Duncan.pdf">tragically perished in B.C. Sugar’s cane fields</a>. When Fiji de-criminalized the desertion of indenture contracts in 1916, it is little wonder that hundreds of workers left the colony’s sugar plantations. These <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/132695/1/PRM_05.pdf">included plantations operated by B.C. Sugar</a>.</p>
<h2>Understanding Canadian history</h2>
<p>Refined sugar is now so common it is difficult to imagine life without it. But, by reflecting on its origins, we can trace the pathways that have made this commodity so abundant. Canadian sugar was built upon violence, including upon enslaved and indentured labour. </p>
<p>By building upon <a href="https://teaching.usask.ca/indigenoussk/import/grab-a-hoe_indians.php">existing research</a> into <a href="https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v7i1.3305">Canadian</a> <a href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/1978-v3-llt_3/llt3art05.pdf">sugar</a>, and by continuing to probe <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/281643610">Canadian sugar companies’ local</a> and <a href="https://worldcat.org/en/title/988075349">global</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00223349508572786">histories</a>, we can gain a clearer picture of how sugar became central to the Canadian diet. </p>
<p>And we can also work toward greater recognition for those who have laboured in the local and global Canadian sugar industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donica Belisle currently holds an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the project, "Canadian Sugar: A Local and Global History."</span></em></p>By reflecting on the violent origins of the Canadian sugar industry, we can bring wider attention to the exploitation underpinning the history of Canadian cuisine.Donica Belisle, Professor of History, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1977332023-01-13T13:42:43Z2023-01-13T13:42:43ZNoma to close: why it’s so hard to run a sustainable innovation-focused restaurant<p>For over a decade, <a href="https://noma.dk/">Noma in Copenhagen</a> has been one of the standard bearers of the high-end culinary world. This “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nordic_Cuisine">New Nordic</a>” restaurant made its reputation (and obtained its <a href="https://guide.michelin.com/en/capital-region/copenhagen/restaurant/noma">three Michelin stars</a> and position in <a href="https://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/noma">the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking</a>) by focusing on culinary innovation, with a frequently changing menu driven by continual work by its in-house culinary research and development (R&D) team. </p>
<p>On January 9 2023, Noma’s Danish chef and co-owner René Redzepi <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CnMN9eNPUwI/">announced an imminent and significant transition</a>: Noma would close as a restaurant in 2025 to focus on pop-ups and culinary innovation. Over a decade ago, El Bulli in Spain, one of the first innovation and R&D-led restaurants, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704094304575029580782188308">made a similar transition</a>.</p>
<p>Exploring the reasons behind the decision, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/dining/noma-closing-rene-redzepi.html">an article about the upcoming changes at Noma</a> in the New York Times explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The style of fine dining that Noma helped create and promote around the globe — wildly innovative, labour-intensive and vastly expensive — may be undergoing a sustainability crisis.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Sustainability” here means something broader than economics and profitability. It now also includes a business’s environmental impact and whether its people (staff, management and owners) work in physiologically and psychologically healthy environments. A sustainable business model in this sense is one which could persist indefinitely without losing money or depleting either the environment or its people. </p>
<p>In my book <a href="https://uncertaintymindset.org/">The Uncertainty Mindset: Innovation Insights From the Frontiers of Food</a>, I explore why it is hard for innovation-centric restaurants like Noma to have sustainable business models. The answer boils down to how continual innovation requires engaging with “not knowing”, which is inherently at odds with consistency and efficiency – this is true not only in high-end cuisine but in any industry.</p>
<h2>The high-end restaurant conundrum</h2>
<p>Guests usually see a restaurant as somewhere to go for a great experience because other people are cooking and taking care of hospitality. For a restaurant to do this and still be a viable business, it must function much like a factory. </p>
<p>A restaurant has to be consistent, which means it must reliably produce what guests want to buy because they would otherwise go elsewhere. It also has to be efficient, producing with a minimum of wasted resources. This is because <a href="https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/economists-notebook/analysis-commentary/bottom-line-impact-of-rising-costs-for-restaurants/">margins in the restaurant industry are thin</a>. </p>
<p>In high-end cuisine, the problem is compounded because overheads are high and the food is complex. Every dish usually has many components, and each component’s recipe often features multiple ingredients and techniques. Refining a complex dish so it becomes well-understood, well-described and reliable can take many cycles of cooking and troubleshooting.</p>
<p>Cooking also draws on deep stores of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is often the difference between cooking a recipe acceptably and cooking it transcendently. Anyone knows this who has tried to cook a perfect French omelette (creamy and on the cusp of being set inside but not liquid, yet completely uncoloured outside) for the first time. </p>
<p>Cooks only acquire such knowledge through extended training, and high-end cuisine is particularly demanding in terms of tacit knowledge. </p>
<h2>Innovation is the enemy of consistency and efficiency</h2>
<p>For high-end restaurants to become both efficient and consistent at producing complex dishes, the people who work in these institutions have to practise cooking the same dishes a lot. This is both to work out the kinks in recipes and to develop the tacit knowledge needed to cook them well. An efficient and consistent restaurant not only works better economically, it is also an easier place in which to work. The people who work there know what to do and how to do it fast and well.</p>
<p>This is why innovation is antithetical to consistency and efficiency. </p>
<p>Every new dish introduced means the restaurant has to figure out again how to be consistent and efficient. In many cases, even the kitchen’s organisation of roles and its network of suppliers may need to change to accommodate new dishes.</p>
<p>Innovation introduces uncertainty into how people work (and work together), the timings of processes, tacit knowledge and supply chains. This inevitably creates waste, failure, inconsistency and stress.</p>
<p>Innovating is even harder when consumers expect near perfection, as they do in high-end cuisine. For a high-end restaurant, this means even more resources (time, effort, money, product) must be spent refining new dishes before they can be allowed to go on to the menu. In practice, this often means there is a significant expense in creating, equipping and staffing a culinary R&D lab to support a relatively low-margin restaurant business.</p>
<p>Innovation makes the already tough business of high-end cuisine even tougher. Continual innovation may make a restaurant nearly impossible to sustain.</p>
<h2>Sustainable business models around innovation</h2>
<p>To be clear, it’s almost uniquely hard to build a sustainable restaurant business model based on continual innovation. </p>
<p>In cuisine, innovation is generally only protected by secrecy, tacit knowledge is of disproportionate importance, and innovations have a short lifespan. Whereas in other industries, innovation is protected by patents, explicit knowledge is more important for production, and innovations can be exploited for much longer. </p>
<p>In these sectors, business models built around innovation are more likely to make sense. This is the case in some parts of the pharmaceuticals, consumer hardware and entertainment (film, music, publishing) industries. </p>
<p>Back in the culinary world, Noma’s plan to focus entirely on innovation work and monetise without an attached full-time restaurant seems to have worked for other culinary R&D labs. <a href="https://modernistcuisine.com/">The Cooking Lab</a> (publisher of <a href="https://modernistcuisine.com/books/modernist-cuisine/">Modernist Cuisine</a> and other books and media) and <a href="https://www.chewinnovation.com/">Chew Innovation</a> (a consulting food product development company) are two examples.</p>
<p>High-end restaurants like Noma must be both consistent and efficient at producing high-quality food in order to be broadly sustainable. Unfortunately, innovation is unavoidably harmful to consistency and efficiency. While most business models built on innovation may work, a restaurant business model built on continual innovation will always be at odds with itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vaughn Tan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Continually innovating disrupts processes that make it difficult for restaurants that champion it to be consistent and efficient.Vaughn Tan, Assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1879052022-08-19T12:42:26Z2022-08-19T12:42:26ZWhat is listeria? A microbiologist explains the bacterium behind recent deadly food poisoning outbreaks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479719/original/file-20220817-21-a18luh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=132%2C0%2C3875%2C2951&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Investigators in Florida traced a listeria outbreak to ice cream.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/ice-cream-jar-with-4-flavors-strawberry-vanilla-royalty-free-image/1279372828?adppopup=true">Graiki/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bacteria do, and will, end up in food. Everyone eats – intentionally or unintentionally – <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.659">millions to billions</a> of live microbes every day. </p>
<p>Most are completely harmless, but some can cause serious illnesses in humans. Because of these potential pathogens, there is a long <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/in-depth/pregnancy-nutrition/art-20043844">list of foods to avoid</a>, including uncooked eggs, raw fish and unwashed fruits and vegetables, particularly for pregnant women. The foods themselves are not bad, but the same cannot be said for certain bacterial passengers, such as <em>Listeria monocytogenes</em>, or listeria for short. </p>
<p>This particular pathogen has found ways to indiscriminately get into our foods. While deli and dairy foods like cold cuts, cheese, milk and eggs are frequently culprits for causing listeriosis – the general name for listeria-caused infections – fresh vegetables and fruits have also been implicated.</p>
<p>The variety of foods responsible for <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/index.html">U.S. listeria outbreaks in the past decade</a> shows just how easily these bacteria get around. Listeria has turned up in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/eggs-12-19/index.html">hard-boiled eggs</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/enoki-mushrooms-03-20/index.html">enoki mushrooms</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/precooked-chicken-07-21/index.html">cooked chicken</a> and, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/packaged-salad-12-21-b/index.html">in 2021, packaged salad</a> – <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/packaged-salad-mix-12-21/index.html">twice</a>.</p>
<p>Even the frozen aisle is not spared from listeria contamination. Contaminated ice cream in Florida was behind this year’s listeria outbreak, with 25 reported cases spanning 11 states since January 2021, according to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/monocytogenes-06-22/details.html">an early August 2022 report</a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those who fell ill ranged in age from less than 1 to 92 years old, and 24 of the cases have involved hospitalizations.</p>
<p>How can such a tiny organism bypass extensive disinfection efforts and wreak such havoc? <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=G_tH2rUAAAAJ&hl=en">As a microbiologist</a> who has been working with listeria and trying to solve these mysteries, I’d like to share some insider secrets about this unique little pathogen and its strategies of survival inside and outside our bodies.</p>
<h2>Farm to table</h2>
<p>To prevent consumer exposure to listeria, the food industries follow <a href="https://www.fda.gov/files/food/published/Draft-Guidance-for-Industry--Control-of-Listeria-monocytogenes-in-Ready-To-Eat-Foods-%28PDF%29.pdf">stringent disinfection and surveillance guidelines</a> from the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Any detection of listeria triggers a recall of potentially contaminated food products. </p>
<p>Since 2017, there have been <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls">over 270 listeria-related food recalls</a>. These are incredibly costly and can sometimes lead to fears in consumers <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/29/581531318/panera-bread-recalls-cream-cheese-across-u-s-over-listeria-fears">as well as nationwide disruptions in food services</a>. However, the recalls represent one of the few tools that the food industry has to protect consumers from foodborne infections. </p>
<p>Not all listeria strains are created equal. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmm.2010.05.002">Genetic variations</a> in listeria make a big difference in whether the pathogen ends up being involved in multistate outbreaks or simply hitching a ride harmlessly through our digestive tract. Essentially, based on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jaoac/85.2.524">different methods used</a>, listeria can be subtyped into different lineages, with some associated with outbreaks more frequently than others.</p>
<p>Researchers are investigating ways to tell these listeria strains apart, distinguishing the less harmful ones from those that are particularly dangerous, or hypervirulent. Being able to accurately identify them can help policymakers assess risks and make economically feasible decisions to improve food safety.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of red-orange rod-shaped Listeria bacteria." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477025/original/file-20220801-70681-jygdr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477025/original/file-20220801-70681-jygdr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477025/original/file-20220801-70681-jygdr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477025/original/file-20220801-70681-jygdr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477025/original/file-20220801-70681-jygdr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477025/original/file-20220801-70681-jygdr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477025/original/file-20220801-70681-jygdr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Listeria is an intracellular pathogen. Inside the body, it can grow inside a cell and spread to neighboring cells.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/listeria-monocytogenes-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/685023881">Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Listeria is tough</h2>
<p>Listeria can live in any place where food is grown, packaged, stored, transported, prepared or served. Our research team has even found listeria in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens7030060">organic lettuce harvested from a backyard garden</a>. </p>
<p>Listeria can survive and grow in temperatures as cold as <a href="https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/Can-Listeria-grow-at-refrigerator-temperatures">24 degrees Fahrenheit</a> (-4.4 Celsius) because it has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10408390701856272">adapted to cold temperatures</a> and developed <a href="https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X-69.6.1473">tricks for overcoming cold stress</a>. Considering the average refrigerator maintains a temperature range of 35 F to 38 F (1.7 C to 3.3 C), even when the food is stored properly at refrigeration temperatures, a harmless few listeria can grow to dangerous levels of contamination over time.</p>
<p>Listeria is also extremely versatile in adapting to and surviving all kinds of disinfection processes. When it grows on surfaces, listeria protects itself with <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fpathogens6030041">a biofilm structure</a>, a kind of coating that forms a physical and chemical barrier and prevents disinfectants from reaching the bacteria within.</p>
<p>Surviving the harsh conditions outside our body is only the first part of the story. Before even beginning to cause infections, listeria needs to get to the intestines without getting caught and destroyed by the body’s defenses.</p>
<p>Traveling and surviving passage through a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffcimb.2014.00009">human digestive tract is not easy</a> for bacteria. Saliva enzymes can degrade bacterial cell walls. So can stomach acids and bile salts. Antibodies in our digestive tract can recognize and target bacteria for degradation. Moreover, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1084%2Fjem.20170495">resident gut microbes</a> are strong competitors for the limited amount of space and nutrients in our intestines.</p>
<p>After digestion, the body’s intestinal movement sends traffic one way – out of the body. In order to stick around and cause infections, bacteria have to attach themselves and hang on against the bowel movement while competing for nutrients. Successful pathogens can establish these survival and attachment tasks while undermining our immune defenses. </p>
<p>Listeria that manage to stick around in our intestines can trigger an immune response. In healthy people, that might manifest as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/symptoms.html">minor diarrhea or vomiting that goes away without medical attention</a>. </p>
<p>However, those with compromised immune systems or immune systems temporarily weakened as a result of medication or <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.575197">pregnancy</a> can be more susceptible to severe infections. In the absence of an effective immune system, listeria can invade other tissues and organs by creating an efficient niche for growth.</p>
<h2>Listeria in stealth mode</h2>
<p>Listeria is what we microbiologists call an intracellular pathogen. In an infected individual, listeria can grow inside a cell and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1083%2Fjcb.146.6.1333">spread to neighboring cells</a>. Hiding inside our cells this way, listeria avoids detection by antibodies or other immune defenses that are designed to detect and destroy threats that exist outside of our cells.</p>
<p>Once in stealth mode, listeria can move into and infect different organs. Wherever it goes, inflammation follows as the body’s immune system tries to go after the bacteria. The inflammation eventually results in collateral damage in nearby tissues. </p>
<p>In fact, deaths from listeria infections are often associated with the more invasive forms of the disease in which the microbes have breached the intestinal barriers and moved to other body parts. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/symptoms.html">Life-threatening illnesses</a> that can result from listeria include meningitis – inflammation around the brain and spinal cord that can occur when these microbes infect the brain – or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2017.12.032">endocarditis</a>, infection of the heart’s inner lining. And in pregnant individuals, if the pathogen reaches the placenta, it can spread to the fetus and cause stillbirth or miscarriage.</p>
<p>As such, invasive listeria cases often have an alarmingly high <a href="https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/get-facts-about-listeria#">hospitalization rate of more than 90% and a fatality rate that can reach 30%</a>. </p>
<p>The scary statistics argue for a proactive and effective infection control to protect vulnerable populations, such as elderly or pregnant individuals, from listeria exposure. </p>
<h2>Think, cook and eat</h2>
<p>If you have risk factors and want to take extra precautions, maybe turn that unpasteurized cider into a hot, mulled cider to kill the bacteria with boiling and simmering. Eat soft cheeses on foods that get cooked, such as pizzas or grilled sandwiches, instead of eating them cold, straight from the refrigerator. Essentially, use heat to bring out the delicious flavors and eliminate potential listeria contamination in your food. </p>
<p>Ultimately, it’s nearly impossible to live in a completely sterile environment, eating food devoid of all living microorganisms. So enjoy your favorites, but <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety">stay up to date with ongoing recalls</a> and follow the expiration guidelines, especially for ready-to-eat food.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Sun does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Listeria causes serious illness and food recalls nearly every year.Yvonne Sun, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868842022-07-27T20:23:54Z2022-07-27T20:23:54ZPreventing obesity starts in the grocery aisle with food packaging<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476372/original/file-20220727-1257-kamjyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C102%2C4651%2C3154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With so much competition, food marketers need to grab the attention of consumers so they buy their products, not another competitors. This is why product packaging is so important.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2018, Statistics Canada reported that <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-625-x/2019001/article/00005-eng.htm">nearly one in three Canadians were obese</a>. Similar figures have been <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/overweight-and-obesity">reported in Australia</a>, but more concerning is the United States, where over <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html">forty percent of the population is obese</a>. </p>
<p>Obesity is not the only diet-related illness to be concerned about — <a href="https://www.diabetes.ca/advocacy---policies/advocacy-reports/national-and-provincial-backgrounders/diabetes-in-canada">diabetes is just as prevalent</a>. When it comes to such diseases, diet and physical activity help reduce the chance of being diagnosed. In fact, when it comes to Type 2 diabetes, diet and physical activity <a href="https://foodpolicyforcanada.info.yorku.ca/backgrounder/problems/poor-diet/">can prevent 50 per cent</a> of it.</p>
<p>Food packaging plays an important role in diet-related illnesses. We live in <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-food-industry-conspiring-to-make-you-fat-81537">a food environment that prioritizes marketing</a>, sometimes to the detriment of our health. </p>
<p>Consider the average supermarket, where there can be <a href="https://www.icsid.org/uncategorized/how-many-products-are-in-a-typical-grocery-store/">upwards of 60,000 different products in a store</a>. With so much competition, food marketers need to grab the attention of consumers so they buy their products, not a competitor’s. This is why product packaging is so important. </p>
<p>Food marketing uses a variety of tactics, like using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/17473611011026037">bright, bold colours and eye-popping visuals</a>, to try and persuade consumers to buy certain products. They also change the size of food images shown on products — the size of the chip on Dorito’s packaging or the size of the bread on a jar of peanut butter, for example. </p>
<h2>Bigger is better</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21644">recent research</a> looked at how something seemingly innocuous, like the size of food images on product packaging, can impact how likely it is that someone buys a product. While the size of this image might appear to be harmless, our research found that it can increase the food’s appeal to consumers: the larger the image, the better tasting consumers believe the food will be, which increases the chance of them purchasing the product.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A row of Pringles cans on the shelf of a grocery store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The colour and size of food packaging can make a produce more or less appealing to consumers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reason for this is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102517">concept called mental imagery</a>, which suggests that the way people visualize a product in their minds can make them think a product is better, higher quality or, in our case, tastier. </p>
<p>This has implications when it comes to food choice. When thinking about what foods are most appealing, junk foods, such as chips, popcorn and candy, come to mind. These kinds of products often have large, exaggerated images of food on their packaging. Since the size of the food image on these products are bigger, it makes consumers psychologically salivate more, persuading them into buying and eating these unhealthier foods.</p>
<h2>Colour matters</h2>
<p>Ours isn’t the only research that has been done on health habits and food product packaging. Similar research has also found that <a href="https://aic-color.org/resources/Documents/jaic_v24_02.pdf">the colour of food packaging</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2019.11.001">the location of food images on a product</a> also impacts whether or not consumers are more likely to buy a product. </p>
<p>When it comes to colours, red significantly increases a food’s perceived taste, while green increases the food’s perceived healthiness. Food images that are located higher on the package suggest that the food is “light” and therefore “healthy,” making it more likely for a consumer to purchase the product.</p>
<p>Previous studies have also found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.031308.100304">junk food brand names are easily remembered by children</a>, and parents often listen to their children when making food choices. Also, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21601">use of traffic light signals on food labels</a> promotes healthier food choices by allowing people to identify the nutritional content directly on the food package. </p>
<p>Knowing and understanding how appearance impacts food desirability is crucial for marketers and has resulted in a special visual language among consumers and products. This allows, for example, people with diabetes and hypertension to quickly locate foods that are appropriate for their needs in a grocery store. However, it also makes some consumers vulnerable to marketing ploys when they aren’t aware of how advertisers are manipulating them.</p>
<h2>Healthy shopping strategies</h2>
<p>There are some strategies consumers can use when shopping to help maintain healthy habits. Instead of focusing on the images of food on packaging, we recommend that consumers focus more on the nutritional needs and requirements. </p>
<p>Consumers should read the entire nutritional label front and back to try to make the best informed decision possible and try not to be swayed by what the image on a package looks like.</p>
<p>Don’t let the size of the food image tempt you: some Pringles or gummy bears is fine as a little indulgence, but if you’re tempted by these food products every time you step into your local grocery, it can have serious consequences for your heath. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman reading the nutritional label of a grocery store product" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When shopping for healthy foods, read nutritional labels front and back to try to make the best informed decision you can.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food product packaging doesn’t just have implications for consumers, but for policymakers as well. Most governments, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2012-0386">including Canada’s</a>, focus on nutrition labels and how food marketers advertise to consumers of all ages, such as rules <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/mcmaster-child-obesity-research-1.3665038">limiting junk food ads during Saturday morning cartoons</a>. But regulation should start even more fundamentally with the packaging itself. </p>
<p>While it might seem extreme to regulate the size of a scoop of ice cream on a box of Chapman’s, food image size is especially relevant when it comes to junk food. If we want to reduce the prevalence of diet-related health issues, like obesity and diabetes, regulating the size of images, which is what we see first and foremost in the grocery aisle, on food products might just be what’s needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The size of food images on product packaging plays a key role in exacerbating diet-related illnesses and obesity.Eugene Y. Chan, Associate Professor of Marketing, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLiangyan Wang, Professor, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1842232022-06-13T20:36:17Z2022-06-13T20:36:17ZFood giants reap enormous profits during times of crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467817/original/file-20220608-21-88xxkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3986%2C2217&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food and agribusiness billionaires reportedly raised their collective wealth by 42 per cent in the last two years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent report by Oxfam International has found that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/may/23/food-and-energy-billionaires-453bn-richer-oxfam-davos-wealth-tax-soaring-prices">62 new “food billionaires” were created</a> during the pandemic. The report, released ahead of this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/profiting-pain">highlights the record profits made by industry titans</a>.</p>
<p>Food and agribusiness billionaires reportedly raised their collective wealth by 42 per cent in the past two years, all while global food prices soared by 33.6 per cent in 2021, and are expected to rise by another 23 per cent in 2022. </p>
<p>Cargill, the food company giant, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/apr/17/soaring-food-prices-push-more-cargill-family-members-on-to-world-richest-500-list">expected to report record profits this year</a>, surpassing even last year’s record-breaking US$5 billion. Indeed, three members of the Cargill family joined the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">Bloomberg Billionaires list</a> in mid-April.</p>
<p>Canadian food corporations are also posting strong growth. Loblaws <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canadian-shoppers-shift-to-discount-stores-no-name-brand-amid-high-inflation-loblaw-1.5887911">reported that its first-quarter earnings</a> rose almost 40 per cent compared to last year.</p>
<h2>Sky-rocketing food inflation</h2>
<p>While inflation is caused by several factors, one of the more pernicious can be traced back to the extreme levels of corporate concentration along the food supply chain. </p>
<p>The pandemic initially <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/coronavirus-global-food-supply.html">exposed cracks</a> in our supposedly efficient industrialized food system through <a href="https://www.fao.org/datalab/website/web/covid19">supply chain breakdowns</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/nearly-90-big-us-meat-plants-had-covid-19-cases-pandemics-first-year-data-2022-01-14/">worker shortages</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-00211-7">trade restrictions</a>. Now, we can add high food prices and growing inequality to the list.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fresh vegetables on a rack in a grocery store aisle" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food prices in Canada continue to rise in the face of labour shortages, the rising cost of goods and supply chain disruptions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food price inflation has grown much faster than general inflation for decades. Canada’s <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220316/dq220316a-eng.htm">general inflation rate is at its highest since 1991</a>, and the food inflation rate in the country <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-delicate-balance-between-grocery-store-profit-and-food-security-180013">has reached 7.4 per cent</a>.</p>
<p>According to this year’s <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Food%20Price%20Report%20-%20EN%202022.pdf">Canada Food Price report</a>, the average grocery bill increased by a whopping 70 per cent between 2000 and 2020, and median incomes have not kept pace. </p>
<p>In the midst of this, companies have experienced record profits. This indicates that they have the market power to insulate themselves from these shocks by <a href="https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications/time-magazine-us-food-prices-are-up-are-the-food-corporations-to-blame-for-taking-advantage">passing the risk along to the consumer</a>.</p>
<h2>Concentrated food supply</h2>
<p>Canada is <a href="https://foodpolicyforcanada.info.yorku.ca/backgrounder/problems/corporate-concentration/">home to one of the most concentrated food systems in the world</a>: Cargill and JBS Foods slaughter 95 per cent of Canadian cattle, while Weston Bakeries and Canada Bread account for 80 per cent of the bread market. Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco all hold roughly 80 per cent of grocery market sales.</p>
<p>Consumers are not the only ones suffering the consequences. Retailers have continued to raise food prices, while <a href="https://www.nfu.ca/grocery-prices-are-rising-and-farmers-share-declining-as-corporate-processors-and-retailers-take-more-and-more">farmer profits have remained stagnant or declined</a> for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cargill logo visible on the outside of a factory building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cargill foods is one of two companies responsible for the slaughter of 95 per cent of Canadian cattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Mareen / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Corporate concentration is intimately linked to the industrialization of food systems. <a href="https://www.foodsystemprimer.org/food-production/industrialization-of-agriculture/">Agricultural industrialization favours mechanization and specialization</a>, both aimed at increasing efficiency. </p>
<p>Economies of scale — gains that are realized as a result of increased scale — and government policies aimed at increasing production have resulted in a <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=43824">drastic decline in the number of farms</a> in Canada and the U.S. between the mid-20th century and today. </p>
<p>This shift has led to a concentration in business competition and along supply chains, facilitated by lax government oversight. Companies were also motivated to merge with and acquire others as a strategy to deliver shareholder value.</p>
<h2>‘Greedflation’</h2>
<p>While many recognize the negative results of our industrialized food systems – high greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and the promotion of highly processed foods, to name a few – they are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/industrial-agriculture">often positioned as providing plentiful, affordable food</a> for growing populations.</p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/jul/14/food-monopoly-meals-profits-data-investigation">recent flurry</a> <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-its-not-just-inflation-food-prices-are-rising-because-too-few-players/">of articles</a> showing that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001242">Big Food</a> might be contributing to food price hikes questions the validity of this claim.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/business/economy/price-gouging-inflation.html">recent <em>New York Times</em> article</a> on “greedflation” explores the connection between corporate concentration more generally and higher prices. Greedflation occurs when large corporations jack up their prices during times of extreme strife — like during a worldwide pandemic.</p>
<p>The article notes that, although corporate concentration has existed for decades without corresponding inflation, the unique set of circumstances borne out of the pandemic has changed things.</p>
<p>Supply shortages, combined with increased worker bargaining power, have driven corporations to switch from squeezing suppliers to squeezing consumers. Both approaches demonstrate the perils of concentrated corporate power. </p>
<h2>More diverse food production</h2>
<p>Higher food prices, partly as a result of corporate concentration, have furthered the case for supporting more diverse, local food production, processing and markets. With any luck, this mounting evidence will translate to investments in alternative food systems. </p>
<p>During the pandemic, these <a href="https://croataninstitute.org/2020/08/01/regenerative-agriculture-and-covid-19-capital-needs/">alternative food systems demonstrated their ability</a> to adapt to crisis in a way that the longer, more distant and concentrated supply chains of industrialized markets could not. </p>
<p>Community-supported agriculture programs, food hubs and online direct distribution platforms between farmers and consumers <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1325">remained nimble during unpredictable times</a>. </p>
<p>If market concentration facilitates the ability for companies to raise prices for their benefit, it logically follows that smaller-scale, decentralized markets are simply not structured to not enable such tactics. In other words, these smaller markets won’t be able to profit off of crisis the way the industrialized markets have been.</p>
<p>To prevent large corporations from exploiting crises like the pandemic, Ukraine war and climate change for their own benefit, we need our governments to invest in smaller-scale alternatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phoebe Stephens receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and is a former employee of Oxfam International. </span></em></p>High food prices are exposing yet another risk of our hyper-concentrated global food system and strengthening the case for more diversified and decentralized alternatives.Phoebe Stephens, Postdoctoral Fellow, Global Development Studies, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1810182022-05-08T12:22:58Z2022-05-08T12:22:58ZThe future of tipping should be driven by Canadians, not businesses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461368/original/file-20220504-23-ww3zeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=201%2C613%2C6367%2C3822&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tipping reshapes the relationship between workers and their managers, and workers and consumers. In doing so, it has wide-ranging effects on workers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tipping has long been a source of <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=PJfTYcB48uIC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">significant controversy</a>, spilling over from time to time into the <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/its-time-to-abolish-tipping-once-and-for-all">pages of Canadian media</a>. Canadians’ views on tipping remain divided, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-the-tipping-point-its-time-to-include-tips-in-menu-prices-as-restaurants-reopen-from-covid-lockdowns-164017">a recent survey</a> by researchers from Dalhousie University has found.</p>
<p>One reason why tipping garners so much interest is that it <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=368727">reshapes the relationship</a> between workers and their managers, and workers and consumers. In doing so, it has wide-ranging effects on workers. </p>
<p>On the one hand, tipping can boost workers’ income and give workers a <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/book/3138">greater sense of control over some facets of their work</a>. On the other, more problematic, hand it often comes with a range of negative outcomes that are not always apparent to consumers. </p>
<p>These include <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EDI-04-2019-0127/full/html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss_journalLatest">sexual harassment</a>, pressure to engage in <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=368727">degrading and demeaning behaviours</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15378020.2016.1215760">inequality</a> among different groups of workers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00338.x">racial discrimination</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.413">unpredictable incomes</a>. </p>
<p>Tipping <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F10564926221088729">might also have a range of societal impacts</a>, including exacerbating class distinctions and legitimizing other employment practices like <a href="https://points.datasociety.net/racing-for-tips-4816da5b5096">classifying workers as independent contractors</a> that can be harmful to workers. Clearly, tipping is neither a neutral or trivial activity.</p>
<h2>A shifting landscape</h2>
<p>Tipping <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/gig-economy-workforce-rockets-to-more-than-one-in-ten-of-canadians-a-further-third-are-open-to-joining-reveals-new-study-812441559.html">underpins much of the rapidly growing contemporary gig economy</a>, in which 13 per cent of Canadians are reported to have worked in 2021. </p>
<p>Tipping is spreading to more and more parts of the hospitality industry, including <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCHM-12-2019-0981/full/html">cafes and limited-service restaurants</a>. Soon, it might even spread to <a href="https://time.com/5499027/flight-attendants-to-keep-tips-frontier/">airlines</a>, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/the-100000-a-year-waitress-isnt-a-myth-some-hard-truths-about-tipping-in-canada">liquor stores</a> and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3539922/customers-fear-tip-shaming-as-gratuity-expectations-grow/">pet grooming businesses</a>.</p>
<p>These changes are taking place before our eyes without any serious policy debate or direction. When tipping does receive policy attention, it is often limited to <a href="https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021LBR0022-001048">tweaking or eliminating different minimum wages for tipped workers</a>, and adapting laws around <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/employees-tips-other-gratuities">tip pooling</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman sitting at an outdoor restaurant table using a cell phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461361/original/file-20220504-19-ra6avh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461361/original/file-20220504-19-ra6avh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461361/original/file-20220504-19-ra6avh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461361/original/file-20220504-19-ra6avh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461361/original/file-20220504-19-ra6avh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461361/original/file-20220504-19-ra6avh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461361/original/file-20220504-19-ra6avh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More and more businesses have chosen to amplify tipping by prompting customers to tip via payment portals or apps.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While these are important topics, these efforts fail to tackle the complex issues and trade-offs associated with tipping in a comprehensive manner. They represent a missed opportunity to start a conversation we need to have as a society. Instead, it is businesses that are often in the driver’s seat.</p>
<p>While some businesses, including <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/business/local-business/no-more-tipping-at-montreal-cafe-larrys-heres-how-and-why">Larry’s in Montréal</a> and <a href="https://theprovince.com/news/b.c./servers-now-accepting-tips-again-at-canadas-first-no-tipping-restaurant-smoke-n-water">Smoke ‘N Water in Parksville, B.C.</a>, have tried to eliminate tipping, more commonly they have amplified it by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1094670519900553">prompting customers to tip via payment portals or apps</a>. Businesses have many reasons to do this, notably the opportunity to cut costs by shifting some of the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=368727">responsibility for workers’ compensations onto consumers</a>. </p>
<p>Once tipping starts to become more common in a particular industry,
strong <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487014001056">norms tend to form around it</a> that are hard to break. If this pattern holds in industries where tipping is spreading in Canada, millions more Canadian workers could see their working lives significantly altered. </p>
<h2>It’s time for a serious conversation</h2>
<p>In light of these trends and our current knowledge of the impacts of tipping, we should pause and ask ourselves: is this really what we want the future of work to look like in Canada? </p>
<p>As a business and sustainability professor, I argue that it is time for Canadians, their representatives and policymakers to have a serious conversation about the future of compensation in Canada and what role, if any, tipping ought to play in it.</p>
<p>This conversation should include a thorough consideration of pros and cons of tipping and its alternatives, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/08876040810881722">service charges and service-inclusive pricing</a>, and the supporting practices needed to successfully transition from one approach to another. </p>
<p>It should also provide opportunities for Canadian workers to learn and deliberate together by accessing expert insights, research and stakeholder perspectives, like those of <a href="https://not9to5.org/about-us/">Not 9 To 5</a> and the <a href="https://workersolidarity.ca/">Worker Solidarity Network</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A barista standing behind a counter with a tip jar on it. A customer is putting money in the jar." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461365/original/file-20220504-25-zf0pih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461365/original/file-20220504-25-zf0pih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461365/original/file-20220504-25-zf0pih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461365/original/file-20220504-25-zf0pih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461365/original/file-20220504-25-zf0pih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461365/original/file-20220504-25-zf0pih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461365/original/file-20220504-25-zf0pih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadians, their representatives and policymakers need to have a serious conversation the future of compensation in Canada and whether tipping should play a role in it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We could take inspiration from the recent work of the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/future-work-ontario">Ontario Workforce Recovery Advisory Committee</a>, which leveraged extensive stakeholder consultations and research when drafting its report on the future of work in Ontario. We could also draw on the growing number of <a href="https://participedia.net/method/4258">citizens’ assemblies</a> that are tackling issues like <a href="https://www.fsrao.ca/newsroom/fsra-receives-residents-reference-panels-final-report-automotive-insurance-ontario">auto insurance</a> and <a href="https://www.commissioncanada.ca/">democratic expression</a>.</p>
<h2>The future of tipping</h2>
<p>Canadians may ultimately express a desire for the elimination of tipping, at least in some sectors, as was the case <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535704001027">in some U.S. states in the past</a>. This could be coupled with policies to give workers some of the benefits tipping can have, namely higher wages and a greater sense of control by giving workers more <a href="https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newtmm_81.htm">autonomy over how they do their jobs</a>. </p>
<p>Alternatively, Canadians may want to keep the practice of tipping, but implement clear rules about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3541">techniques used to solicit tips through apps and platforms</a>, higher wages for workers and transparency about how tips are distributed and whether any tipped minimum wages apply to workers.</p>
<p>Rather than tipping being largely determined by businesses as they tinker with payment portals, it should be defined by Canadians who, though they may experience tipping on a regular basis, have not been given the chance to properly reflect on it. </p>
<p>This will become all the more important as the pandemic draws our attention to the importance of creating an economy that offers <a href="https://ppforum.ca/publications/the-future-is-now-creating-decent-work-post-pandemic/">decent and quality work for all of us</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Pek receives funding from the University of Victoria's President's Chair award. </span></em></p>The future of tipping should be defined by Canadians, not businesses seeking to shift responsibility for worker compensation onto consumers.Simon Pek, Assistant Professor, Gustavson School of Business, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803802022-04-12T13:12:53Z2022-04-12T13:12:53ZUkraine produced a lot of grain – can farmers elsewhere replace the crops lost to war?<p>Ukraine and Russia produce a substantial amount of grain and other food for export. Ukraine alone produces <a href="http://www.amis-outlook.org/fileadmin/user_upload/amis/docs/Market_monitor/AMIS_Market_Monitor_current.pdf">a whopping 6%</a> of all food calories traded in the international market. At least it used to, before it was invaded by the world’s largest nuclear power.</p>
<p>Russia, meanwhile, is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, providing more than 17% of all wheat sold across national borders. At least it used to, before it was struck with some of the most severe international sanctions ever inflicted. Any way you slice it, there’s a lot of bread this year that was supposed to be sourced from Ukrainian or Russian wheat that definitely won’t be. So naturally the question arises: if not from the Black Sea, from where will come our daily bread?</p>
<p>When it comes to cereals like wheat, corn, rice and barley, the big players talk about millions of metric tonnes, or MMTs. A single MMT of wheat contains about <a href="https://www.traditionaloven.com/culinary-arts/flours/whole-wheat-flour/convert-kilogram-to-calories-kilocalories.html">3.4 trillion food calories</a>, which is enough to feed every person in Europe for about two days, or the entire population of Africa for about a day and a half – although, of course, people would still need vitamins and protein.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart of major wheat exports by country" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455522/original/file-20220331-15-2fuwhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ukraine and Russia are two of the world’s largest wheat exporters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1499319421600518147">FAO / Our World in Data</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ukraine produced about <a href="https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Grain%20and%20Feed%20Update_Kyiv_Ukraine_10-15-2021.pdf">80 MMT of grain</a> (a category that includes wheat, corn and barley) in 2021, and is expected to harvest less than half of that this year. A shortfall of 40 MMT is enough missing calories that a country like the UK could only make it up by having everyone stop eating for three years. That’s the thing about tonnes of grain: a million here and a million there and pretty soon you’ve got a real issue on your plate.</p>
<p>The total world production of cereals is about 2,200 MMT per year, which is quite a bit more than is needed to feed the caloric needs of every person on Earth. Those 2.2 trillion kilos of cereals would be over 7 quadrillion calories if they went straight into human mouths, which is 20% more than the 5.8 quadrillion <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/estimated-calorie-needs-day-age-gender-and-physical-activity-level">calories</a> that the <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/">nearly 8 billion humans</a> need to survive the year.</p>
<p>However, many of those cereals, including more than half the tonnage grown in Ukraine last year, were never intended to be used for direct human consumption. Much of the grain grown is intended for animals, alcohol, fuel, or other uses. Most grain that is grown never ends up on international markets at all, and is instead planted, harvested, and consumed all in the same country.</p>
<h2>Not all grain’s the same</h2>
<p>When thinking about replacing the lost grain, we should be clear about when that grain was supposed to be harvested and what humanity intended to do with it. Ukraine had expected two major harvests: a large load of wheat starting in July, and an even larger load of corn starting in October. The corn of the autumn was mostly intended to feed animals over the winter, meaning that it wasn’t intended to affect food in supermarkets until 2023. There is actually quite a bit of time for farmers to adjust to the projected loss of Ukrainian corn, including simply planting more corn elsewhere, since autumn harvests are often planted in May. </p>
<p>Wheat is more problematic, because the July harvest comes from March and February planting. The wheat exports were intended primarily for <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/wheat/reporter/ukr">North Africa and South Asia</a>, with Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Morocco each expecting over a million tonnes of Ukrainian wheat this summer.</p>
<p>Almost none of that wheat was ever intended to be exported to any place in Europe or North America, though its predicted shortfalls to other continents have already started to be noticed in <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e6a28dd9-ecea-4d67-b6b5-a50301b731b2">wheat prices</a> across the globe. The international cereals market remains stubbornly international, and there is no such thing as a problem that belongs completely to someone else. People in France or Italy were never expecting to have any Ukrainian wheat shipped to them, but they are now competing against Egyptians and Moroccans who are now suddenly looking for new sources of bread.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there are new sources of bread to be found. India’s wheat production has expanded dramatically over the past few years, with favourable weather and improved farming practices meaning it expects 107 MMT in <a href="https://www.world-grain.com/articles/15111-india-expecting-another-wheat-bumper-crop">this year’s harvest</a>, up from just 88 MMT five years ago.</p>
<p>Still, India is a big place and most of that wheat is intended for domestic consumption, not foreign exports. Just 10 million tonnes of wheat from India’s harvest is going to be available to feed people in other countries, with the other 97 MMT for the plates of some of India’s own 1.3 billion people. A bit shy of the 16.7 MMT of wheat that Ukraine was expected to ship out this summer.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.thefencepost.com/news/dry-conditions-continue-affecting-global-wheat-production/">drought-affected</a> 2021 wheat year may be <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/russia-ukraine-war-impact-indias-grain-exporters-are-gearing-up-to-fill-the-huge-gaps-in-global-stocks-especially-wheat/articleshow/90464830.cms">improved on in 2022</a>, but supply remains tight and whether any increases in planting will be translated to increased production will depend on the weather.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hana Trollman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ukraine and Russia account for around 12% of the global market in food calories.Hana Trollman, Lecturer in Food Industry Management, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1798092022-03-28T12:36:22Z2022-03-28T12:36:22ZSoaring crude prices make the cost of pretty much everything else go up too because we almost literally eat oil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454417/original/file-20220325-21-bbs2ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=168%2C25%2C5439%2C3707&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hopefully, we aren't actually what we eat.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/man-drinking-gasoline-picture-id182459958?k=20&m=182459958&s=612x612&w=0&h=9SD6-sBRvJQSgzo0ra_AWt0FZEuzM9TEHnUfTiKYTQY=">ozgurdonmaz/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The price of oil has been spiking in recent weeks <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/business/economy/oil-price.html">in response to concerns</a> that the war in Ukraine will significantly reduce supply. But what happens in oil markets never stays in oil markets. </p>
<p>The price of U.S. crude oil <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/06/us-crude-oil-jumps-to-125-a-barrel-a-13-year-high-on-possible-western-ban-of-russian-oil.html">jumped to a 13-year high</a> of US$130 on March 6, 2022. It has come down but <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CL1:COM?sref=Hjm5biAW">has been trading above $110 since March 17</a>. That’s over 60% higher than it was in mid-December, before fears of a Russian invasion began to mount. </p>
<p>Of course, this has pushed up the cost of gasoline, which hit an <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGW">average of $4.32 per gallon in the U.S. on March 14</a>. But it’s less well understood how rising energy prices leak into the prices consumers pay for toys, electronics, food and almost every other product you could think of. </p>
<p>Energy is becoming one of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60833361">main causes of inflation</a>, by which I mean a sustained, generalized increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy. The latest data shows prices are rising at an <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">annualized pace of 7.9%</a>, the highest in 40 years.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=GyTN5PYAAAAJ">my economics classes</a>, I like to joke to my students that we eat petroleum. Students have a hard time imagining drinking crude oil or gasoline, but in fact it’s both figuratively and almost literally true – and I’m not even referring to how humans ingest about a <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20201208090301-obmrm">credit card’s worth of oil-based plastic</a> every week. </p>
<p>Let me explain.</p>
<p><iframe id="7CX08" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/7CX08/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Planes, packages and polyester</h2>
<p>Oil prices affect the prices of other goods and services in a few significant ways. </p>
<p>The most obvious is that <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/gasoline/use-of-gasoline.php">petroleum powers the vast majority</a> of cars, planes and other vehicles that move stuff around. About <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=41&t=6">71% of the 6.6 billion barrels of petroleum the U.S. consumed in 2020</a> was used for various types of fuels, such as gas, diesel and jet fuel. </p>
<p>This pushes up <a href="https://totalreliancelogistics.com/how-changing-fuel-costs-impact-shipping-rates/">transportation costs and makes shipping</a> everything from refrigerator components to everyday items like toothpaste more expensive. Businesses can choose to absorb the cost – for example, if their market is highly competitive – <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/09/the-importance-of-competition-for-the-american-economy/">but usually pass it on to customers</a>.</p>
<p>But oil is also a key ingredient in much of the stuff people buy, both in the packaging and in the products themselves, especially food. That’s where most of the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=41&t=6">other 29% of the oil Americans use comes in</a>.</p>
<p>Petrochemicals derived from petroleum are used to manufacture clothes, computers and more. For example, the quantity of oil-based polyester in clothing <a href="https://cfda.com/resources/materials/detail/polyester">has doubled since 2000</a>. Over half of all <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/amynguyen/2021/07/11/time-to-go-cold-turkey--new-report-explores-fashions-harmful-addiction-to-fossil-fuel-based-fabrics-and-greenwashing/?sh=5860c7a4146e">fibers produced around the world are</a> now made from petroleum, requiring over 1% of all oil consumed.</p>
<p>In addition, the <a href="https://www.exxonmobil.com/en/whiteoil/industry-solutions/pharmaceutical-and-cosmetics">cosmetic industry is heavily dependent on petroleum</a> since items such as hand cream, shampoo and most makeup are made out of petrochemicals. And like with many products, all those creams and beauty liquids are put in single-use <a href="https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/the-cosmetics-industrys-plastic-packaging-problem">plastic containers</a> made from oil.</p>
<p>Similarly, the <a href="https://www.ecobirdy.com/blogs/news/plastic-toys">vast majority of toys</a> produced today are made out of plastic.</p>
<h2>Crude in our cookies</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A green tractor pulls a fertilizer attachment in a green field containing red winter wheat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454419/original/file-20220325-25-1dfutk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fertilizer is the biggest use of oil in industrial farming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AlaPlanting/38b933236c574e3a891132367f096a50/photo?Query=field%20fertilizer%20tractor&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/John David Mercer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The food industry is especially sensitive to the price of energy, <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25302/Valuing_Plastic_ES.pdf">more so than any other sector</a> because <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs141p2_023113.pdf">petroleum is such a key component</a> of its supply chain at every step of the way, from planting and harvesting through processing and packaging. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the biggest usage of petroleum in industrial farming is not transportation or fueling machinery but rather the <a href="https://sustainability.emory.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/InfoSheet-Energy26FoodProduction.pdf">use of fertilizers</a>. <a href="https://www.resilience.org/stories/2005-04-01/why-our-food-so-dependent-oil">Vast amounts of oil and natural gas</a> go into fertilizers and pesticides that are used to produce and protect grains, vegetables and fruits. </p>
<p>That’s one of the reasons <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/end-cheap-oil">it takes 283 gallons of oil</a> to raise one 1,250-pound steer. And it’s why even a loaf of bread <a href="http://lcafood.dk/lca_conf/contrib/g_reinhardt.pdf">requires an unusually high amount of energy</a>.</p>
<p>Oil is also an ingredient in the food we consume. The main food product that comes from petroleum is known as <a href="https://www.petro-online.com/news/fuel-for-thought/13/breaking-news/what-foods-contain-petroleum/37415">mineral oil</a>. It’s commonly used to make foods last longer because petroleum doesn’t go rancid. Packaged baked goods like <a href="https://bakerpedia.com/ingredients/mineral-oil/">cookies and pizza</a> often contain mineral oil as a way of preserving their shelf life. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/food-health-news/food-dyes-science">Petrochemicals are also used</a> to make food dyes, which can be found in <a href="https://jwww.doi.org/10.1177/0009922814530803">cereals and candy</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/paraffin-wax">Paraffin wax</a>, a colorless or white wax made from petroleum, is used in the <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-paraffin-wax-1807043">production of some chocolates and sprayed onto fruits</a> to slow down spoilage and give them a glossy finish. It also helps chocolates stay solid at room temperature. </p>
<p>And plastic is a vital part of food packaging because it is relatively cheap, <a href="https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/plastics/">durable and lightweight, it provides protection</a> and is sanitary. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Red strawberries are packed in clear plastic packages and stacked on a shelf" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454420/original/file-20220325-19-195yhec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454420/original/file-20220325-19-195yhec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454420/original/file-20220325-19-195yhec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454420/original/file-20220325-19-195yhec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454420/original/file-20220325-19-195yhec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454420/original/file-20220325-19-195yhec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454420/original/file-20220325-19-195yhec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fruit and other foods commonly come in plastic containers made from oil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/strawberry-on-supermarket-shelf-picture-id186854067?k=20&m=186854067&s=612x612&w=0&h=4FHOZfN8puc8YYsgM9gdnx54M24JlRF1g7oVefAADwk=">nycshooter/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Oil inflation and the Fed</h2>
<p>The importance of oil to the U.S. economy has been a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Eating-Oil-Energy-Use-In-Food-Production/Green/p/book/9780367167646">big concern</a> since the oil crisis of 1973, when prices spiked, prompting calls to conserve energy. </p>
<p>Since then, the amount of oil consumed for every dollar of economic output <a href="https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/oil-intensity-curiously-steady-decline-oil-gdp">has declined about 40%</a>. In 1973, for example, it took just under one barrel of oil to produce $1,000 worth of economic output. Today, it takes less than half a barrel. That’s the good news. </p>
<p>The bad is that, because the U.S. economy <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP">is now 18 times bigger than it was in 1973</a>, it requires a lot more oil to function. </p>
<p>That’s why the surging price of oil is <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60833361">now the main driver</a> of inflation – and why the Federal Reserve is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-21/powell-says-fed-ready-to-hike-faster-go-restrictive-if-needed">preparing for some big increases</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-fed-cant-stop-prices-from-going-up-anytime-soon-but-may-have-more-luck-over-the-long-term-179339">interest rates to fight it</a>. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronika Dolar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Oil is used throughout the US economy. It goes into packaging, toys, clothing and especially the food we eat.Veronika Dolar, Assistant Professor of Economics, SUNY Old WestburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1748602022-02-23T13:36:32Z2022-02-23T13:36:32ZCOVID-19 pandemic poses unique challenges for students who are homeless<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447329/original/file-20220218-27-r243na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C6349%2C4239&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Before the pandemic about 1.28 million children were experiencing homelessness.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/elementary-schoolboy-on-class-royalty-free-image/1269252662?adppopup=true">Johnce/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before the pandemic hit in March 2020, Faith – a single mother with two children, one in third grade and one in fifth grade – worked at a sports stadium in Houston. Her focus at the time was “paying for a room and trying to pay for child care,” she stated during an interview.</p>
<p>But after the pandemic began, the stadium canceled games and Faith found herself out of work. Not long afterward, she and her children were evicted.</p>
<p>“When they’re cutting hours and … work’s getting shut down … nobody making no money,” Faith, a young African American mother who did not finish high school, said during an interview held at a large and secure family shelter for the homeless. Faith – that name is a pseudonym to protect her privacy – spoke with my research team for a study designed to better understand student homelessness during the pandemic.</p>
<p>Like many children across the nation, Faith’s children began virtual schooling in March 2020 but experienced technical problems, such as slow and spotty internet.</p>
<p>“I mean, you got to be in the right spot, right time and then the signal went bad anyway,” Faith explained of her children’s challenges with finding reliable internet service.</p>
<p>Faith also struggled to keep her children engaged. For instance, when they were supposed to be paying attention in their online class, they would instead be watching TikTok videos.</p>
<p>She wondered how working mothers could be expected to sit down with their children all day. Despite the challenges of virtual learning, Faith said, she preferred online learning because she wanted her children “to be healthy” – that is, away from the risks of contracting COVID-19.</p>
<p>However, Faith felt pressured to send her children back to in-person school in Houston’s public school system in fall 2021, which made her “very nervous.” “We don’t have an <a href="https://www.khou.com/article/news/education/houston-isd-virtual-learning-or-in-person-for-2021-2022-school-year/285-e76f77f2-34b6-426a-ac6a-0eaec19665ec">option to do virtual</a>,” she said.</p>
<p>Faith’s children are just two of the roughly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211064305">7,000 students</a> in the Houston Independent School District – the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_215.30.asp">eighth-largest public school district</a> in the nation – who are experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were <a href="https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Student-Homelessness-in-America-2021.pdf">1.28 million students</a> experiencing homelessness nationwide as of the 2019-2020 school year, federal data shows.</p>
<h2>A hard-to-see population</h2>
<p>Student homelessness is defined by <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title42/chapter119/subchapter6/partB&edition=prelim">the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act</a> as lacking a “fixed, regular, and adequate” place to sleep at night. Homelessness doesn’t always mean being out on the street. Rather, being homeless can <a href="https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Student-Homelessness-in-America-2021.pdf">take on different forms</a>, such as “doubling up,” or staying with others because of loss of housing or economic necessity, as do about 78% of students who are homeless. Another 11% rely on shelters, 7% use motels, and 4% are in unsheltered places, like cars and parks.</p>
<p>Students from families who are homeless tend to <a href="https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/14/keeping-uprooted-students-in-school">move around a lot and frequently change schools</a>, which disrupts their relationships with friends and teachers and can hurt their progress in school. Students experiencing homelessness tend to have lower <a href="https://herc.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs3001/files/inline-files/HERC%20-%20Complexity%20in%20Student%20Homelessness%20brief.pdf">attendance</a>,
<a href="https://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=21840">test scores</a> and <a href="https://educationleadshome.org/2019/02/12/education-leads-home-releases-homeless-student-state-snapshots-2/">graduation rates</a> than other low-income classmates who aren’t homeless.</p>
<p>These disparities remain despite the fact that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11256-017-0422-0">federal law</a> is meant to ensure that students experiencing homelessness have the same access to a “<a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title42/chapter119/subchapter6/partB&edition=prelim">free, appropriate public</a>” education as everyone else.</p>
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<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has <a href="https://edtrust.org/the-equity-line/understanding-students-and-their-families-who-are-experiencing-homelessness-or-housing-insecurity-during-a-pandemic/">made it harder to identify children who are homeless</a>.</p>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://herc.rice.edu/">research partnership</a> between the Houston Education Research Consortium and the Houston Independent School District, my colleagues <a href="https://www.smu.edu/simmons/About-Us/Directory/Education-Policy-Leadership/Richards">Meredith Richards</a>, an education policy professor, and postdoctoral fellow <a href="https://www.smu.edu/Simmons/About-Us/Directory/Education-Policy-Leadership/Roberts">J. Kessa Roberts</a> and I are examining how the pandemic has affected students experiencing homelessness and the schools and various organizations that support them.</p>
<p>Below are four broad areas on which educators, school leaders and others can focus to help students and families experiencing homelessness.</p>
<h2>1. Figure out which students are homeless</h2>
<p>Identifying students who are homeless can be a challenge because often families don’t reveal that they are homeless – because of stigma, fear or other factors – and educators aren’t always aware of the signs of homelessness. The pandemic <a href="https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/lost-masked-shuffle-pandemic-shields-real-number-homeless">made it that much harder</a> because many students were attending school virtually.</p>
<p>When a school district fails to identify students who are experiencing homelessness, the students do not get the benefits to which they are entitled <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2011.583176">under federal law</a>. These include the right to stay in the same school even if they move, to request school transportation and to access other resources, such as school uniforms or field trip fee waivers.</p>
<p>While schools typically collect housing information at the beginning of the year, schools can ask housing-related questions <a href="https://annenberg.brown.edu/sites/default/files/EdResearch_for_Recovery_Brief_5.pdf">throughout the year</a> as well.</p>
<h2>2. Collaborate and share data</h2>
<p>Schools and districts can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654311415120">collaborate</a> with shelters and various organizations to make sure that students who experience homelessness get the resources to which they are entitled by federal law.</p>
<p>When shelters and schools <a href="https://research.steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/ks191/STH/Research_Alliance_Homelessness_in_Elementary_Schools_Brief_final.pdf">agree to share data</a>, school districts are able to be notified more promptly when students enter a shelter and in turn can hook students up with school supplies, tutoring or other services.</p>
<p>Rather than wait for families to notify schools of their needs, schools can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211064305">proactively reach out to families</a> to share <a href="https://annenberg.brown.edu/sites/default/files/EdResearch_for_Recovery_Brief_5.pdf">positive news</a> about their children, or <a href="https://www.schoolhouseconnection.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Preparing-for-School-Reopening-and-Recovery.pdf">send supplies</a>. Strong, trusting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915613547">relationships between families and schools</a> can help overcome whatever hesitancy families may have to ask for help.</p>
<h2>3. Make sure kids stay connected when necessary</h2>
<p>If schools, classrooms or certain students are temporarily remote, schools can ensure students have <a href="https://annenberg.brown.edu/sites/default/files/EdResearch_for_Recovery_Brief_5.pdf">digital devices and Wi-Fi</a> to connect to class. </p>
<p>They can also work with shelters, libraries and other organizations to facilitate computer labs and academic support access for families experiencing homelessness. </p>
<h2>4. Recognize and respond to mental health needs</h2>
<p>Feelings of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10796120305435?journalCode=cjcp20">social isolation</a>, common in homelessness, can be made worse by school closures, quarantines or family death. Many people, like Faith, lost their jobs because of COVID-19 – and were then <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/23/texas-evictions-rent-relief/">evicted</a>.</p>
<p>When helping families who have experienced these kinds of challenges, schools can offer services that focus on their <a href="https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-rockets-nea-guide/social-emotional-learning-during-covid-19-strategies-and-more">social and emotional needs</a>.</p>
<p>Educators can also connect families with mental health care and <a href="https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/blog.smu.edu/dist/8/489/files/2021/10/mental-health-resources-1.pdf">other resources</a>, such as apps, websites and phone numbers to call to get additional services, as needed.</p>
<p>As families experiencing homelessness search for a stable place to stay, schools and districts can play an important role in alleviating some of the challenges that such families face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra E. Pavlakis has received funding to support her research on student homelessness in Houston from the Spencer Foundation, Moody Foundation, Sam Taylor Fellowship, and internal university research council grants. Beyond her role as an Associate Professor at Southern Methodist University, she is an external researcher for the Houston Educational Research Consortium at Rice University.</span></em></p>When it comes to helping students who are homeless during the pandemic, identifying who they are is crucial, says a researcher studying the issue in one of the largest US school districts.Alexandra E. Pavlakis, Associate Professor of Education Policy & Leadership, Southern Methodist UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1649142021-08-24T12:18:02Z2021-08-24T12:18:02ZStudents from struggling economic backgrounds sent home with food for the weekend have improved test scores, study finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416352/original/file-20210816-28-1b908yp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=114%2C0%2C4380%2C2673&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the United States, at least 6 million children live in a household where at least one person is food insecure. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/child-is-handed-a-free-meal-prepared-by-the-cetronia-news-photo/1158414510?adppopup=true">Anna-Rose Gassot/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>When food banks work with schools to send children home with a backpack full of food over the weekend, they do better on reading and math tests, I found in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102040">recent study</a>. These effects are strongest for younger and low-performing students.</p>
<p>In the peer-reviewed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102040">study</a> published in December 2020, my co-authors – <a href="https://paulcollege.unh.edu/person/karen-conway">Karen Conway</a> and <a href="https://paulcollege.unh.edu/person/robert-mohr">Robert Mohr</a> – and <a href="https://www.lycoming.edu/profile/faculty/kurtzMichael.aspx">I</a> explored how weekend feeding programs, also known as “backpack” programs, affected end-of-grade tests in reading and math for third, fourth and fifth graders in North Carolina. These types of programs began independently in 1995 in a single school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Since then, Feeding America – a national network of food banks – has created its <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/hunger-relief-programs/backpack-program">BackPack Program</a> to help students “get the nutritious and easy-to-prepare food they need to get enough to eat on the weekends.” The program now <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/hunger-relief-programs/backpack-program">serves more than 450,000 students annually</a>. </p>
<p>Each Friday, students enrolled in the program are given a bag of mostly nonperishable food at school to help nourish them through the weekend. The packs typically consist of grains, fruits and vegetables, some sort of protein and milk. </p>
<p>We used BackPack Program data from a Feeding America food bank in North Carolina and student data from the state. This allowed us to compare how economically disadvantaged students – those most likely to enroll in the program – performed on math and reading tests before and after the program was adopted at their school.</p>
<p>We then compared this with the performance of all other students at the same school and with that of economically disadvantaged students at schools that had a similar percentage of economically disadvantaged students but nevertheless did not participate in the BackPack Program. </p>
<p>Our analysis shows economically disadvantaged students at schools that adopt a BackPack Program improve their reading and math scores by an amount similar to that of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21759">students at schools</a> that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.12.003">adopted a school breakfast program</a>.</p>
<p>Adoption of a BackPack Program appears to shrink the gap in test scores between economically disadvantaged and advantaged students by about 15%. We also show the program is more effective for the youngest students in our study – third graders – and for students with the lowest test scores. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Weekend feeding programs fill a gap in many economically disadvantaged students’ nutritional needs between school lunch on Friday and school breakfast on Monday. In the United States, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2504067">6 million</a> children live in a household where at least one child is food insecure. Approximately <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2504067">540,000</a> of those live in households that report very low food security – that is, where children are not eating or not eating enough because there was not enough money for food.</p>
<p>Local food banks operated by Feeding America work with schools and community members to identify the most needy students and make sure they have enough food for the weekend.</p>
<p>The food bank is able to provide these food packs at a cost of approximately US$5 per student per week. This suggests the program is a cost-effective way to decrease hunger and improve academic outcomes.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>There are many different kinds of weekend feeding programs with different goals, funding and community support. They may have different criteria for who can participate. The food packs may be distributed differently or contain different amounts or types of food. Some programs <a href="https://outofthegardenproject.org/programs/operation-backpack/">target the entire family</a> rather than a single student. Some organizations may actively seek out partnership with certain schools. Others may wait for motivated administrators or community members to initiate the program. It is not yet known how the effect of weekend feeding programs may be different under these varied circumstances or in different areas of the country.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>My co-authors and I have begun work on understanding the factors that lead a particular school to adopt a BackPack Program in the first place. We think that understanding how the program spreads will help researchers better understand the effect of the program itself.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Kurtz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When kids have enough food to eat over the weekend, they do better in reading and math, a December 2020 study finds.Michael Kurtz, Associate Professor of Economics, Lycoming CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1665212021-08-20T15:28:07Z2021-08-20T15:28:07ZNando’s chicken shortage: how the pandemic has made supply and demand tougher to predict<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417223/original/file-20210820-21-hzemij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=88%2C55%2C3007%2C2014&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/londonunited-kingdomdecember-26-2016-chicken-peri-1624518565">Shutterstock/easyknotcoco</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Peri-peri chicken fans were disappointed and frustrated when Nando’s announced the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58249337">temporary closure</a> of nearly 50 restaurants. A chicken shortage has been blamed, and while reactions to the closures were <a href="https://www.capitalxtra.com/news/which-nandos-shut-closed-brexit-chicken-shortage-run-out-reactions/">satirised on social media</a>, the problem is a serious challenge for the company. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1427915683686408194"}"></div></p>
<p>Hungry customers will no doubt be asking whether the supply could have been better managed. Similar questions were more widely raised at the beginning of the pandemic when <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-why-people-are-panic-buying-loo-roll-and-how-to-stop-it-133115">supermarkets ran out</a>
of toilet roll and flour. </p>
<p>Some blamed poor planning by retailers, but spikes of demand like this had not been seen before. And the pandemic continues to disrupt established supply chains.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/21/global-shortage-in-computer-chips-reaches-crisis-point">shortage of microchips</a> for example is partly due to increased demand for appliances such as phones and games consoles, and a <a href="https://time.com/5866156/coronavirus-surge-asia-lessons/">resurgence of coronavirus cases</a> in Asia (where most microchips are made). The situation is so serious that Toyota is being forced to temporarily cut <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/business/toyota-production-slowdown-chip-shortage.html">vehicle production by 40%</a>.</p>
<p>Pandemics aside, patterns in demand for goods generally show fluctuations from day to day and from week to week. Some of these are explainable and predictable, for example because of known periods of high demand, like Bank Holiday weekends. </p>
<p>Other changes defy explanation or prediction and are described in statistical forecasting models as “noise”. And although the nature of the next “noise disturbance” is not known, its impact can be measured and taken into account when setting stock levels. But even this careful approach breaks down when there is a sudden spike in demand, unlike anything that has previously occurred. </p>
<p>The current shortages of chicken at Nando’s are due to disruptions in supply, rather than demand, which could not necessarily have been expected. </p>
<p>From a forecasting perspective, sudden changes in supply are similar to sudden changes in demand. Inventory control systems usually base their stock calculations on a regular lead time (the length of time from placing an order to when the product arrives and is ready for the customer). </p>
<p>If there are occasional minor variations in the lead time, the calculations can be adjusted accordingly. But again, such an approach breaks down if there is a sudden major problem unlike any others that have gone before. </p>
<p>In this situation, we should have some sympathy for Nando’s. It would be incredibly wasteful of them to carry large stocks of raw chicken in anticipation of a possible major disruption. </p>
<h2>Chicken out</h2>
<p>If they were to do this in normal times, a significant proportion of meat would be unused and go off. Clearly, this is not a viable solution. </p>
<p>Instead, the problem of major disruptions calls for a different approach to forecasting, known as scenario planning. The problem at Nando’s seems to have been caused by labour shortages at their suppliers. And while the timing of labour shortages could not have been anticipated, their occurrence – at some point – could have been foreseen. </p>
<p>In a scenario planning exercise, managers imagine major causes of disruption that could happen in the future. This sort of exercise will never be perfect, and some events will remain uncovered, but this should not deter progress being made by thinking through potential supply chain problems and the company’s response. </p>
<p>For example, if an organisation is reliant on a single supplier for a product, then they may consider introducing a second supplier, who will also receive regular orders and can flex to respond to higher order volumes if there are problems at the first supplier. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A serving of chips on a board." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417237/original/file-20210820-19-16yeeir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417237/original/file-20210820-19-16yeeir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417237/original/file-20210820-19-16yeeir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417237/original/file-20210820-19-16yeeir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417237/original/file-20210820-19-16yeeir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417237/original/file-20210820-19-16yeeir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417237/original/file-20210820-19-16yeeir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When the chips (and the chicken) are down.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tasty-french-fries-on-cutting-board-273398612">Shutterstock/Africa Studio</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This can also help to address responses to unexpected spikes in demand. And if a problem affects all suppliers, then plans can be put in place to order larger quantities of substitute products. </p>
<p>As a general rule though, the demand forecasting methods embedded in supply chain software should work well in normal times and can be used with confidence as the basis for stock replenishment planning. To anticipate extraordinary times, forecasting needs to shift from a system-based to a human-based activity. </p>
<p>Managers should attempt to foresee the major causes of shocks to their supply chains and put in place policies that will mitigate their effect. This will be beneficial not only to restaurant chains in developed economies, but also to humanitarian supply chains in which food, clothing and medicines are desperately needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Boylan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Shortages of chicken at Nando’s are due to disruptions in supply, rather than demand.John Boylan, Professor of Business Analytics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1640172021-07-11T12:28:39Z2021-07-11T12:28:39ZAt the tipping point: It’s time to include tips in menu prices as restaurants reopen from COVID lockdowns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410228/original/file-20210707-25-1sc4sr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5609%2C3742&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tipping, a popular cultural practice in Canada, can have hidden consequences for food service workers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tipping is a cultural practice strongly supported in Canada, with most patrons feeling good about their experiences. However, gratuities can have hidden consequences for those working in food service.</p>
<p>With staff recruitment a problem as the easing of pandemic guidelines are allowing restaurants to re-open, our research suggests it may be time for the industry to think seriously about how to manage tipping differently. And incorporating tips as part of the price of a meal should be an option. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Tipping%20Study%20(June%2019%202021)%20EN.pdf">report</a> released a few weeks ago on the future of tipping was a pulse check of patrons’ perceptions of food service tipping and their anticipated behavioural changes as we exit the pandemic. </p>
<p>While our survey plainly asks how people are feeling about tipping during the pandemic, prior research provides evidence of how tipping contributes to detrimental working conditions for restaurant staff.</p>
<p>Some are suggesting that the sector needs a <a href="https://troymedia.com/business/restaurants-face-a-great-reset-thanks-to-covid-19/">“great reset”</a>. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted Canada’s food service industry. With restrictions, limited hours, take-out or delivery-only options, revenues have dropped significantly. Many businesses have taken on substantial loans in order to stay afloat. </p>
<p>In a May report by <a href="https://www.restaurantscanada.org/industry-news/raising-our-voice-restaurants-canada-calls-for-sector-specific-survival-measures-at-federal-finance-committee-meeting/">Restaurants Canada</a>, 10,000 food service businesses have permanently closed. As vaccination counts increase and provinces begin to relax restrictions, resuming our previously normal behaviours may in fact become a problem. </p>
<h2>A pro-social behaviour</h2>
<p>Our report investigated tipping as a pro-social behaviour, in which giving money results in positive feelings.</p>
<p>Though 71 per cent surveyed did not anticipate changing their tipping habits, 20 per cent are planning on tipping more and are happy to do so. Additionally, 60 per cent of respondents contribute the same tip percentages in all restaurants, but 40 per cent tip more in their favourite restaurant. </p>
<p>In the short term, this is good news for servers in restaurants. Patrons may have the financial security to tip more as personal savings rates have increased dramatically over the pandemic, according to <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3610011201&pickMembers%5B0%5D=2.1&cubeTimeFrame.startMonth=01&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2018&cubeTimeFrame.endMonth=01&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2021&referencePeriods=20180101%2C20210101">Statistics Canada</a>. But this may not last. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Masked and gloved waitress stands before two seated restaurant patrons" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410224/original/file-20210707-15-1vkt79x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C116%2C3114%2C1959&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410224/original/file-20210707-15-1vkt79x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410224/original/file-20210707-15-1vkt79x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410224/original/file-20210707-15-1vkt79x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410224/original/file-20210707-15-1vkt79x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410224/original/file-20210707-15-1vkt79x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410224/original/file-20210707-15-1vkt79x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new study from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab examined attitudes and perceptions of tipping habits during the COVID-19 pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond the customers’ ability to tip, tipping also has a <a href="https://troymedia.com/business/the-dark-side-of-tipping-your-server/#.YNX6yBNKh24">darker side</a> to it.</p>
<h2>Cultural expectation</h2>
<p>There is evidence that tipping is a strong cultural expectation in Canada, to which patrons willingly conform — and some are even motivated to exceed expectations.</p>
<p>However, there are issues that are not evident when patrons are paying the bill. Tipping has been documented to <a href="https://youtu.be/kOk2C4n4eMQ">play a contributing factor</a> in income instability, high employee turnover rates, discrimination — and even sexual harassment. </p>
<p>Food service typically deals with a 70 per cent turnover rate, which has likely increased due to the pandemic. Tip-dependent incomes have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. About 80,000 workers are still technically employed, but have no hours according to <a href="https://www.restaurantscanada.org/industry-news/raising-our-voice-restaurants-canada-calls-for-sector-specific-survival-measures-at-federal-finance-committee-meeting/">Restaurants Canada</a>. </p>
<p>Studies from tipping behaviour researchers have shown that there are not only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0010880403260105">racial</a> and gender prejudices about tipping amounts, but tipping creates a power dynamic in how patrons and servers treat each other and perceptions of service quality. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/sexual-harassment-is-pervasive-in-the-restaurant-industry-heres-what-needs-to-change">Harvard Business Report</a> publication cites 90 per cent of women and 70 per cent of men report experiences of sexual harassment as food service workers, with most going unreported to managers due to the culture of “the customer is always right” or it’s just “part of the job.”</p>
<p>Additionally, the food service sector is behind all others in terms of recovery. As of May, Statistics Canada revealed there are still over <a href="http://www.restaurantscanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/infographic_RC_Final.pdf">300,000 jobs</a> to fill in the sector. This means a new, inexperienced population are likely to fill food service jobs, unaware of the challenges facing them.</p>
<p>As patrons, we are largely unaware of the negative consequences, and tipping remains a pleasurable experience.</p>
<h2>Feeling the ‘warm glow’</h2>
<p>Termed a “warm glow” by researchers <a href="https://dunn.psych.ubc.ca/">Elizabeth Dunn</a> of the University of British Columbia, <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/psychology/about/people/profiles/laknin.html">Lara Aknin</a> of Simon Fraser University and <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=326229">Michael Norton</a> of Harvard Business School, the effect we feel from tipping fulfils a basic human need of feeling in control, seeing the immediate effect of your decisions, and feeling a social connection through the exchange. </p>
<p>Respondents prefer to follow their own tipping formula, though some do not like included tips or service charges. Most surveyed feel like their tips make a difference and that tipping makes the job worthwhile or contributes to motivation. Tipping yields positive feelings that justify current and future behaviour for the patron. </p>
<p>Even so, more than one third of those surveyed indicate they do not support tipping in food service and would like to see it prohibited or regulated.</p>
<p>Restaurants Canada reports that nearly 50 per cent of Canadians know someone in food service and 22 per cent choose food service as their first job. With so many people experiencing tipping firsthand or through people they know, it is surprising that the support for tipping is still so high despite <a href="https://troymedia.com/business/the-dark-side-of-tipping-your-server/#.YNX6yBNKh24">previous research</a> indicating high support for tipping alternatives. </p>
<h2>What’s the true cost?</h2>
<p>The true cost of the bill currently includes other social burdens that are not evident at the time of the tipping experience. Increasing tips, while with good intentions, will only prolong dealing with the issues of income instability, employment security, discrimination in all its forms and sexual harassment. </p>
<p>If we want to address these issues, we need to acknowledge the less visible impacts of our actions. By encouraging our restaurants and delivery services to move away from tipping, we are doing more in the long run to make sure that our restaurants and their staff have a sustainable, long term future that will survive the next large scale disruption.</p>
<p>Because menu prices would go up by incorporating tips, such a change would require a policy shift coupled with support from industry. However, our data shows we still have a long way to go. </p>
<p>The pandemic has proven we can get through challenges together and we can still feel that “warm glow” by knowing that when we pay the bill, everyone benefits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164017/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tipping has often-overlooked consequences for food service workers. The industry should turn its attention to underlying issues if it wants to ensure a sustainable future.Sylvain Charlebois, Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityPoppy Nicolette Riddle, Research associate, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1511932021-02-08T13:37:55Z2021-02-08T13:37:55ZCorporate concentration in the US food system makes food more expensive and less accessible for many Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381811/original/file-20210201-23-sw9ipn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C2500%2C1654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Volunteers prepare boxes at the Greater Boston Food Bank on Oct. 1, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/volunteers-quality-check-and-prepare-boxes-to-load-for-news-photo/1229827185?adppopup=true">Iaritza Menjivar, The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Agribusiness executives and government policymakers often praise the U.S. food system for producing <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/meat-industry-responds-the-meat-racket-msna270286">abundant and affordable food</a>. In fact, however, food costs are rising, and shoppers in many parts of the U.S. have limited access to fresh, healthy products. </p>
<p>This isn’t just an academic argument. Even before the current pandemic, millions of people in the U.S. went hungry. In 2019 the U.S. Department of Agriculture <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics/#householdtype">estimated</a> that <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics/">over 35 million people were “food insecure</a>,” meaning they did not have reliable access to affordable, nutritious food. Now <a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-hunger-coronavirus-pandemic-4c7f1705c6d8ef5bac241e6cc8e331bb">food banks</a> are struggling to feed people who have lost jobs and income thanks to COVID-19. </p>
<p>As rural sociologists, we study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V_pXnRUAAAAJ&hl=en">changes in food systems</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X8JjxZEAAAAJ&hl=en">sustainability</a>. We’ve closely followed corporate consolidation of food production, processing and distribution in the U.S. over the past 40 years. In our view, this process is making food less available or affordable for many Americans. </p>
<h2>Fewer, larger companies</h2>
<p>Consolidation has placed key decisions about our nation’s food system in the hands of a few large companies, giving them <a href="http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/Concentration_FullReport.pdf">outsized influence</a> to lobby policymakers, direct food and industry research and influence media coverage. These corporations also have enormous power to make decisions about what food is produced how, where and by whom, and who gets to eat it. We’ve tracked this trend <a href="https://www.globalagriculture.org/transformation-of-our-food-systems/book/updates/howard-hendrickson.html">across the globe</a>.</p>
<p>It began in the 1980s with mergers and acquisitions that left a few large firms <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/concentration-and-power-in-the-food-system-9781472581112/">dominating nearly every step of the food chain</a>. Among the largest are retailer <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com">Walmart</a>, food processor <a href="https://www.nestle.com/aboutus/overview">Nestlé</a> and seed/chemical firm <a href="https://www.bayer.com/en/crop-science/crop-science-division">Bayer</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphic showing consolidation in the global seed industry" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382364/original/file-20210203-17-1lokhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Between 1996 and 2013 Monsanto acquired more than 70 seed companies, before the firm was itself acquired by competing seed/chemical firm Bayer in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Philip Howard</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some corporate leaders have abused their power – for example, by allying with their few competitors to fix prices. In 2020 Christopher Lischewski, the former president and CEO of Bumblebee Foods, was convicted of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/business/bumble-bee-tuna-price-fixing.html">conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna</a>. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison and fined US$100,000. </p>
<p>In the same year, chicken processor <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/pilgrim-s-pride-reaches-plea-agreement-with-justice-department-on-chicken-price-fixing-allegations-11602649655">Pilgrim’s Pride</a> pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges and was fined $110.5 million. Meatpacking company <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/jbs-settlement-of-pork-price-fixing-suit-is-worth-24-5-million">JBS</a> settled a $24.5 million pork price-fixing lawsuit, and farmers won a class action settlement against peanut-shelling companies <a href="https://thecounter.org/price-fixing-peanut-farmers-lawsuit-georgia-antitrust-adm/">Olam and Birdsong</a>. </p>
<p>Industry consolidation is hard to track. Many subsidiary firms often are <a href="https://philhoward.net/2020/09/24/organic-processing-industry-structure-2020/">controlled by one parent corporation</a> and engage in “contract packing,” in which a single processing plant produces identical foods that are then sold under dozens of different brands – including labels that compete directly against each other.</p>
<p>Recalls ordered in response to food-borne disease outbreaks have revealed the broad scope of contracting relationships. Shutdowns at meatpacking plants due to COVID-19 infections among workers have shown how much of the U.S. food supply flows through <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/13-us-meat-plants-are-down-25percent-of-pork-and-10percent-of-beef/ar-BB1396Ys">a small number of facilities</a>.</p>
<p>With consolidation, large supermarket chains have closed many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10106049.2010.510583">urban</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2016.1145006">rural</a> stores. This process has left numerous communities with limited food selections and high prices – especially neighborhoods with many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.005">low-income</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302113">Black or Latino</a> households.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y0dCgGGdSCU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In 2006, the Community Grocery Store in the small town of Walsh, Colorado, avoided going out of business by selling stock to residents. The store is still in business in 2021.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Widespread hunger</h2>
<p>As unemployment has risen during the pandemic, so has the number of hungry Americans. <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us">Feeding America</a>, a nationwide network of food banks, estimates that <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/research/coronavirus-hunger-research">up to 50 million people</a> – including 17 million children – may currently be experiencing food insecurity. Nationwide, demand at food banks <a href="https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2020/12/10/unprecedented-need-san-antonio-food-bank-has-seen-30-increase-in-demand-since-onset-of-covid-19-pandemic/">grew by over 48%</a> during the first half of 2020. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, disruptions in food supply chains forced farmers to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-farmers-are-dumping-milk-down-the-drain-and-letting-produce-rot-in-fields-136567">dump milk down the drain</a>, leave produce rotting in fields and euthanize livestock that could not be processed at slaughterhouses. We <a href="https://farmactionalliance.org/concentrationreport/">estimate</a> that between March and May of 2020, farmers disposed of somewhere between 300,000 and 800,000 hogs and 2 million chickens – more than 30,000 tons of meat. </p>
<p>What role does concentration play in this situation? Research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jby026">retail concentration</a> correlates with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.20058">higher prices for consumers</a>. It also shows that when food systems have fewer production and processing sites, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-015-0292-2">disruptions can have major impacts on supply</a>. </p>
<p>Consolidation makes it easier for any industry to maintain high prices. With few players, companies simply match each other’s price increases rather than competing with them. Concentration in the U.S. food system has raised the costs of everything from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200530152228/http:/www.zwickcenter.uconn.edu/documents/issuepapers/ip6.pdf">breakfast cereal</a> and <a href="https://www.ceoafterlife.com/marketing/why-price-fixing-continues/">coffee</a> to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/atr/case-document/file/486606/download">beer</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphs showing concentration in U.S. food markets" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374610/original/file-20201213-18-par9e7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The combined share of sales for the top four firms (CR4) for selected U.S. commodities, food processing/manufacturing and distribution/retail channels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://farmactionalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FFAAConcentrationUS.pdf">Family Farm Action Alliance</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the pandemic roiled the nation’s food system through 2020, consumer food costs <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings.aspx">rose by 3.4%</a>, compared to 0.4% in 2018 and 0.9% in 2019. We expect retail prices to remain high because they are “<a href="https://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/crs/R41224.pdf">sticky</a>,” with a tendency to increase rapidly but to decline more slowly and only partially.</p>
<p>We also believe there could be further supply disruptions. A few months into the pandemic, meat shelves in some U.S. stores sat empty, while some of the nation’s largest processors were <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-booker-open-investigation-into-meatpackers-manipulation-of-covid-19-crisis-to-raise-prices-and-exploit-workers">exporting record amounts of meat to China</a>. U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., cited this imbalance as evidence of the need to crack down on what they called “<a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-booker-release-information-from-their-investigation-into-giant-meatpackers-exploiting-workers-and-consumers-during-covid-19">monopolistic practices</a>” by Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS and Smithfield, which dominate the U.S. meatpacking industry. </p>
<p>Tyson Foods <a href="https://thefeed.blog/2020/07/21/sharing-our-commitment-to-team-member-safety-with-elected-officials-leaders/">responded</a> that a large portion of its exports were “cuts of meat or portions of the animal that are not desired by” Americans. Store shelves are no longer empty for most cuts of meat, but processing plants remain <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/12/29/beef-market-still-feeling-the-effects-of-covid-19/">overbooked</a>, with many scheduling well into 2021.</p>
<h2>Toward a more equitable food system</h2>
<p>In our view, a resilient food system that feeds everyone can be achieved only through a more <a href="http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/Concentration_FullReport.pdf">equitable distribution of power</a>. This in turn will require action in areas ranging from contract law and antitrust policy to workers’ rights and economic development. Farmers, workers, elected officials and communities will have to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10092-y">work together</a> to fashion alternatives and change policies.</p>
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<p>The goal should be to produce more locally sourced food with shorter and less-centralized supply chains. Detroit offers an example. Over the past <a href="https://tostadamagazine.com/2018/02/28/history-in-photos-detroits-farm-a-lot-program-set-the-stage-for-urban-gardening-movement/">50 years</a>, food producers there have established <a href="https://visitdetroit.com/urban-farming-detroit/">more than 1,900 urban farms and gardens</a>. A planned <a href="https://detroitpeoplesfoodcoop.com/about-us/">community-owned food co-op</a> will serve the city’s North End, whose residents are predominantly low- and moderate-income and African American. </p>
<p>The federal government can help by <a href="https://www.rma.usda.gov/en/Policy-and-Procedure/Insurance-Plans/Whole-Farm-Revenue-Protection">adapting farm support programs</a> to target farms and businesses that <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants">serve local and regional markets</a>. State and federal incentives can build community- or cooperative-owned farms and processing and distribution businesses. Ventures like these could provide economic development opportunities while <a href="https://planning.baltimorecity.gov/sites/default/files/Baltimore%20City%20Food%20Resilience.pdf">making the food system more resilient</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In our view, the best solutions will come from listening to and working with the people most affected: sustainable farmers, farm and food service workers, entrepreneurs and cooperators – and ultimately, the people whom they feed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip H. Howard is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, and a member of the Rural Sociological Society. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Agriculture. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Hendrickson is a member of the Rural Sociological Society, Agriculture Food and Human Values Society, and serves on the North Central Region SARE Administrative Council. She has received funding from USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA's Sustainable Agriculture and Research Program and various foundations. </span></em></p>Food production in the US is heavily concentrated in the hands of a small number of large agribusiness companies. That’s been good for shareholders, but not for consumers.Philip H. Howard, Associate Professor of Community Sustainability, Michigan State UniversityMary Hendrickson, Associate Professor of Rural Sociology, University of Missouri-ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1488712020-12-15T18:48:03Z2020-12-15T18:48:03ZDiet resolutions: 6 things to know about eating less meat and more plant-based foods<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374325/original/file-20201210-14-1gyuzvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=99%2C77%2C7249%2C4814&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plant-based alternative foods have grown in popularity, but it's important to read the labels to know if they're healthy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people are making <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/282779/nearly-one-four-cut-back-eating-meat.aspx">changes to their diets to eat healthier or in a more environmentally friendly manner</a>. They might choose to eat less meat, less sugar or even adopt an entirely vegan diet. A growing number, however, are choosing a <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-a-plant-based-diet-and-why-should-you-try-it-2018092614760">plant-based diet</a> that focuses on foods that come from plants, but may still include animal products, such as meat or cheese.</p>
<p>American biochemist Thomas Colin Campbell <a href="https://nutritionstudies.org/history-of-the-term-whole-food-plant-based/">coined the term “plant-based” in the 1980s</a> to better explain his research on diet and nutrition. The term surged in popularity in 2016 when Campbell’s book <a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/nutrition-advice-from-the-china-study/"><em>The China Study</em></a> was reprinted and alternative meat products such as <a href="https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/one-year-on-how-beyond-meats-ipo-changed-plant-based-meat-forever/">Beyond Burger</a> and <a href="https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/how-impossible-foods-are-disrupting-the-meat-industry">Impossible Burger</a> were launched.</p>
<p>Since then, plant-based foods have taken the world by storm. They are everywhere: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-tgi-fridays-chains-sell-plant-based-meat-2019-5">fast-food chains</a>, restaurant menus, grocery stores, <a href="https://netbasequid.com/blog/plant-based-food-analytics/">social media</a>, food blogs and on your plate. The global plant-based food market is predicted to reach a market valuation of <a href="https://univdatosmarketinsights.medium.com/plant-based-food-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2a0c4dd7867">US$38.4 billion by 2025</a>. In the United States alone, the number of plant-based products available increased <a href="https://www.gfi.org/marketresearch">29 per cent between 2017 and 2019</a>.</p>
<p>As a research assistant at the Centre for Culinary Innovation, I work with industry to develop new food products. Although the work of the centre is not limited to plant-based foods, our team focuses on researching, understanding, experimenting and creating new ones.</p>
<p>The rapid growth of plant-based food is due to several factors. The most common reasons people <a href="https://prowly-uploads.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/landing_page_image/image/265983/7215af9e9e6ba9b1279d555f919bb57a.pdf">in Europe</a>, <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/study-consumers-try-plant-based-meat-because-theyre-curious/571615/">the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10454446.2019.1566806">Canada</a> give for eating plant-based food are the health benefits, curiosity to try new food, environmental concerns and animal welfare.</p>
<p>If you are thinking about switching to a plant-based diet, here are six things you should know about plant-based food.</p>
<h2>1. Understand what plant-based means</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://d2evkimvhatqav.cloudfront.net/documents/pbfa_nsf_certified_pb_definition_only.pdf">Plant Based Foods Association</a>, a plant-based product consists of ingredients derived from plants, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds or legumes. </p>
<p>The final product directly replaces an animal product. By this definition, a cheese made from plant sources can be called plant-based, but flour or bread cannot. If the final product only partially replaces an animal product, then it should be labelled as a blend.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Packages of plant-based meat products in a freezer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374321/original/file-20201210-15-aaap9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374321/original/file-20201210-15-aaap9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374321/original/file-20201210-15-aaap9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374321/original/file-20201210-15-aaap9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374321/original/file-20201210-15-aaap9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374321/original/file-20201210-15-aaap9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374321/original/file-20201210-15-aaap9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grocery stores are carrying an increasing number of plant-based protein substitutes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. A plant-based diet may not be vegan or vegetarian</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-a-plant-based-diet-and-why-should-you-try-it-2018092614760">The terms vegan and plant-based have long been used interchangeably</a>. But following a plant-based diet does not necessarily mean that you are vegan or vegetarian. It means that you are consciously choosing to eat more from plants, but you may still be eating meat, fish, eggs or other animal products.</p>
<p>In fact, plant-based food manufacturers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/how-meat-eaters-not-vegans-are-driving-the-plant-based-foods-boom-according-to-industry-experts/articleshow/78238518.cms">are not targeting vegans and vegetarians</a> since they are only a small percentage of the population. Their main targets are meat eaters and flexitarians — people who eat mostly plant-based diets, but still eat meat.</p>
<h2>3. Plant-based food is not a synonym for healthy</h2>
<p>Usually, a diet containing a higher proportion of plant-based food is automatically associated with <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/plant-based-eating-makes-consumers-feel-healthier-study-says/542175/">being healthy</a>. However, it might not always be the case.</p>
<p>A plant-based diet is healthy when it is mainly composed of whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes and nuts. In fact, such a diet <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662288/">has been shown to decrease the risk of chronic diseases</a> like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.</p>
<p>Nutritionists remain concerned about <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/impossible-and-beyond-how-healthy-are-these-meatless-burgers-2019081517448">heavily processed meat substitutes that contain high levels of saturated fats and sodium</a>. These ingredients — preservatives, flavouring and fillers — enhance the taste, shelf life and texture. </p>
<p>Although they are considered natural, they are not necessary for a healthy diet. They may be environmentally friendly, but they may not be healthy, especially in large amounts.</p>
<h2>4. Plant-based food is changing the way we eat</h2>
<p>Plant-based food is not going away anytime soon. In fact, what we are seeing now is a global increase of plant-based products. </p>
<p>What started with soy milk in the 1990s, and continued with almond milk in the 2000s and burgers in 2010s, has expanded to different types of plant-based products: pork, chicken, yogurt, ice cream, seafood, fish, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/life/food/plant-based-eggs-are-coming-to-canadian-freezer-sections">eggs</a>, cheese, sausage, jerky and more.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a package of vegan eggs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374323/original/file-20201210-14-un6pxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374323/original/file-20201210-14-un6pxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374323/original/file-20201210-14-un6pxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374323/original/file-20201210-14-un6pxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374323/original/file-20201210-14-un6pxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374323/original/file-20201210-14-un6pxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374323/original/file-20201210-14-un6pxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plant-based egg alternatives have been developed to appeal to people who like the look and mouthfeel of scrambled eggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Gen X and baby boomers may be more resistant to change their diets, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2018/03/23/millennials-move-away-from-meat/">millennials</a> and <a href="https://thebeet.com/gen-zers-want-to-eat-more-vegan-or-plant-based-foods-new-survey-finds/">Gen Z</a> — who are more likely to consider the food source, animal welfare issues and environmental impacts when making their purchasing decisions — are embracing plant-based food and will continue to do so. </p>
<p>Millennials did not invent this type of eating, but they are re-inventing it and spurring a broader change in attitudes and consumption of plant-based food. Gen Z is growing up with plant-based eating as a norm.</p>
<h2>5. Plant-based food is as ‘good’ as its ingredients</h2>
<p>What goes unnoticed by many consumers is how these products are made. Replacing animal food products is not an easy task, quite the opposite, it is a very complex one. </p>
<p>It takes years to research and develop plant-based food products. And it has only been possible because of the ingredients available, such as plant proteins, oils, flavourings and binders. The better they are, the better the final product will be. Not only in the sense of texture, appearance, flavour and mouthfeel, but also health.</p>
<p>The next wave of plant-based products will likely be healthier as better ingredients and processes (like 3D printing) will be available. If we look at Beyond Burger, for example, <a href="https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2020/11/16/Beyond-Meat-to-unveil-two-new-burgers-in-early-2021-removes-mung-bean-protein-promises-enhanced-meaty-flavor">the new formulation is healthier than the previous one</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LJYWM-5taIE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This 3D printer can produce about six kilograms of plant-based steak per hour.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>6. Plant-based is good for the planet, but be careful</h2>
<p>One of the main reasons consumers switch to a plant-based diet is because of sustainability and environmental concerns. Indeed, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49238749">eating plant-based reduces the impacts of climate change, saves water and minimizes agricultural land use</a>.</p>
<p>But be aware that many <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/business/the-new-makers-of-plant-based-meat-big-meat-companies.html">plant-based brands</a> are a part of a larger operation. A specific brand may be sustainable and environment friendly, but the company that owns it may not be.</p>
<p>It is important that food companies be transparent. Consumers have the right to know where the products they buy come from and how they are made so they can make informed decisions and hold companies and brands accountable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mariana Lamas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Plant-based diets can be healthy but ingredients matter. Heavily processed meat substitutes can be high in saturated fats and sodium.Mariana Lamas, Research assistant, Centre for Culinary Innovation, Northern Alberta Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.