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Food + Beverage Industry
profits over people, boardrooms over beans
Food: Like Big Tobacco, some of the food industry deceives us for profit. I don't believe money is the root of all the problems in the world. Instead, I see how we've prioritized profits over health, responsible ethics, truthful education, and stable eco-systems. Through massive, toxic industrialized food production, we're increasing a rapidly destructive wave towards a dark future. Yet, smart alternatives are working. Right now.
Beverage: In 2022, energy drink sales generated $14 billion (12.2 billion euros) in the US, a 46% increase from 2013. Coffee consumption hit $11.3 billion (9.8 billion euros) in 2022 worldwide. This isn't about drinking a cold beer at a ballgame; it's about decision-makers who create falsehoods and twisted marketing tactics, and then knowingly sell potentially life-threatening and addictive products. Heads up: while mono-crop GMO corn is subsidized by taxes, high fructose corn syrup is killing us. What's wrong with these pictures?
ON THIS PAGE:
Fa(s)t Food Nation / The Hospitality Biz / Farm to Airplane? / The Queen of Vegan Cheese / Food Industry Politics / Crave-Ability + Bliss Points / What is Neuromarketing? / Meet Advocates Who Speak Truth to Power / Obesity + Corporate Greed / Plant-Based Meat Fact Sheet / How to Read Food Labels Without Being Tricked / Conflicts of Interest in Internal Medicine Meat Studies
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Fa(s)t Food Nation
(enough is enough)
I reckon we're all tired of hearing about fast food's horrific impact on global health. Yet, fast food continues to create profits, jobs, and (subsidized!) low-cost food, while kids develop type-2 diabetes before puberty, and hospitals prescribe "standard procedures" for heart attacks.
The Hospitality Biz
(fuel for fun + addiction)
Coming from the hospitality industry, I love going out and having supper with a friend. This is one of life's greatest pleasures. Yet, at what cost? It's too easy to become addicted to a local happy hour with cool music, a fun vibe, five dollar margaritas, free chips and salsa, and sexy bartenders.
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Farm to Airplane?
(heavy carbon footprints)
On average, our food has travelled about 1500 miles (2415 km). Large scale, long distance food distribution and storage methods adversely contribute to our carbon footprint via an over consumption of fossil fuels. With our huge appetites, farm to fork food distribution works.
If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it.
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The Queen of Vegan Cheese
Food animals and the planet are grateful that faux-vegan products are having a major impact. Me, too. That said, WPF advocates generally avoid processed foods. On special occasions, I'll make a WPF pizza but will use faux-vegan cheese. Most brands give me the runs (TMI? sorry)... except for Miyoko's Creamery products due to their healthier ingredients. Bonus: they're delish. Meet Miyoko Schinner, a badass chef, animal advocate, educator, philanthropist, and food pioneer.
Food Industry Politics
Money talks as people of all ages are getting sick and dying from fiber-poor, nutrient-deficient, disease-causing "food" products. Items such as breakfast cereals are substances... not food. So, how do we protect young citizens, when sugar-breakfast ads target vulnerable kids? This is tricky. And quite political.
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Crave-Ability + Bliss Points
(brace yourself... this perversion is real)
The first time I heard about the crave-ability factor was through a presentation by John Robbins. He talked about his family's ice cream corporation and their food laboratories, which focused on creating the perfect sugar-salt-fat combination so that consumers crave it (ie addicted). There's a new term, bliss point, which is used in a similar way. Of all the concepts I've learned on my decades-long journey of food education, I must say that these are the ones I find the most shameful and repulsive. This deserves a loud and furious WTF?!
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What is Neuromarketing?
I learned about marketing manipulation while working at my family's printing/advertising business. It's the art of crafting words and images that sell. Neuromarketing is "a commercial marketing communication field that applies neuropsychology to market research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective responses to stimuli." (Wikipedia)
The first time I learned about actual brain tampering was at an American Marketing Association networking luncheon in 2009. A respected speaker explained how new brain research is used to contrive human behavior. While watching well-intentioned professionals absorb the implications of this info, I felt sick. As a writer, I'm also aware that creating words and images that pop can be rather positive. It's complicated.