The Food Movement Minute is a top story news analysis for busy foodies. I chew up the top industry and consumer publications each day and spit out only the news that matters most in a quick and entertaining read. I have a very discerning palate.
Today’s topics: Food and the Presidential Campaign, Food Deserts, Sugar, ‘Free-From’ Claims
———-
Food and the Presidential Campaign
The Story
From access to quality food options, to government subsidies and workers’ rights, food is increasingly becoming a political issue, and a newly formed group wants our 2016 presidential hopefuls to bring the subject into the debate and lay out their plan for how to fix our food system. (They want you to get involved too. Sign a petition here.)
The Details
Burning bras? How about burning stalks of GMO corn instead. Launched this week, the Plate of the Union Campaign is a coordinated effort among some big-wig food and agriculture groups (Union of Concerned Scientists, Food Policy Action and HEAL Food Alliance to name a few) to influence candidates running for president. According to surveys the campaign conducted of American voters, top concerns expressed about our food system include: equal access to healthy and affordable food, junk food marketing to children, and the disconnect between the kinds of foods the federal government encourages Americans to eat (fruits, vegetables) and those it promotes through vast agricultural subsidy systems (corn, soy).
Why it Matters
Claire Benjamin DiMattina, Executive Director of one of the leading groups behind the campaign wants candidates to publicly acknowledge the large-scale set of problems facing our food system. To create policy change over the next four to eight years, “It is really important for the next president to say: The food system is broken.”
———-
Food Deserts
The Story
A big box store like Walmart might seem like the perfect solution to a community food desert. Unfortunately, new research suggests plugging food access holes with big box stores may not lead to healthier habits.
The Details
Poor people making a lot of poor choices. A recent study published online in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, finds that Americans’ junk food calories increasingly come from big box stores rather than traditional grocers. Although big box retailers sell healthy options, they also sell plenty of junk and an analysis of consumer purchases showed food desert consumers are increasingly choosing the later. This is definitely not the press Walmart intended when it recently announced it had beaten a goal it set five years ago to open at least 275 stores in food deserts by 2016.
Why it Matters
“Access is not a silver bullet,” says Allison Hagey, associate director of PolicyLink, a public policy organization. “You need to have access in order to have healthy food, but telling someone ‘kale’ without telling them what to do with it is really hard.” Kale.
————
Sugar
The Story
In recent years, sugar has replaced fat and sodium as public enemy number one in America’s fight against obesity and diabetes. However, not all consumers are ready to accept the realities of the alternative ingredients manufactures are providing.
The Details
Ingredient and food manufactures are scrambling to find alternative, low or no-calorie sweeteners, yet the taste, ingredient performance and chemical-sounding names of other sweetener options are failing to meet many consumers’ expectations. The front runner to replace sugar is stevia (whose bitter aftertaste is constantly being improved), and extracts from coconut and sweet potato are gaining momentum. Blends of sweetener alternatives also look like a potential way to marry the calorie and taste demands of consumers who are looking for lower-calorie options but are unwilling to make major tradeoffs when it comes to taste. One of the biggest challenges to consumer adoption of some alternative sweeteners is chemical sounding names (regardless of synthetic or natural origins), which runs counter to current clean ingredient trends. Juan Pellecer, group leader at International Food Network, believes not many sweeteners sound more natural or clean than sugar, and for this reason, there will always be a place for sugar, just perhaps at lower levels that what is currently accepted.
Why it Matters
If it looks, talks and walks like a duck, then it must be a duck, right? When it comes to sugar, it seems that is still the case. As long as consumers are unwilling to evolve their taste and consistency expectations, they will have to accept the other attributes (i.e. calories) that are part of the sugar packet as well.
———-
Factoid of the Day
‘Gluten-free’ claims are well and good, but ‘free-from’ (foods free of the top eight allergens) claims may be the emerging opportunity. Freedom Food’s CEO, Michael Bracka, states that cereals claiming ‘gluten-free’ are growing at 6-7% while the ‘free-from’ category is growing at 40-45% (he’s secured his ‘free-from’ products in over 7000 stores in 50 states in the past two years). The Centers for Disease Control report a 265% increase in the rates of hospitalization related to food allergic reactions in a ten year period.
Image by Mike Mozart