5@5: Food giants take on Beyond Meat | Oregon to ban plastic straws in restaurants

The food giants are coming for Beyond Meat

Investors love Beyond Meat, but big players such as Conagra are planning new product launches for this year that will likely steal away sales from the pioneering company. The rise of “lessetarians” could, according to one analyst, cause “the same rapid growth that milk substitutes experienced over the past several years” within the alternative meat industry. Read more at The Wall Street Journal …

Oregon votes to ban restaurants from offering plastic straws

Oregon recently introduced legislation that “will ban restaurants from automatically offering single-use plastic straws under a measure passed by lawmakers, making it the second state to enact restrictions on plastic straws.” While the law was approved by the Senate, the chamber still must approve a technical change before the measure is signed by the governor. Read more at Las Vegas Review-Journal …

Kelp has been touted as the new kale, but it has been slow to catch on

Kelp has just begun fulfilling its promise to become the “next great food craze” after years of industry speculation. However, there is still no established market on dealers’ end for buying the seaweed in bulk, in addition to a lack of large-scale processing facilities in some areas, and manufacturers are still confused as to how to best present the product to consumers. Read more at NPR …

Four farms have received more than $1 million each in Trump trade war bailout payments, Treasury data show

While trade war bailout payments are supposed to be capped at $125,000, a federal spending database shows that four individual U.S. farms have collected around 16 times that payment limit. However, because farm bailout spending doesn’t have to be approved by Congress, there is little it can do to get involved in terms of how these large sums of money are being appropriated and allocated to farmers under the Trump administration. Read more at New Food Economy … 

Climate change is intensifying food shocks

Increasingly common climate change-related disruptions in food production, AKA food shocks, can have far-reaching effects. In fact, if multiple were to happen at the same time, it is likely that trade systems on a global scale would be severely disrupted. Farmer-level solutions include “regenerative farming, rotational and mob grazing, reducing tillage, agroforestry and soil improvements." Read more at Civil Eats …