5@5: More food companies cut jobs | Instacart sued by DC Attorney General

Food companies make more job cuts

Food companies, particular those in the manufacturing and foodservice sectors, continue to restructure and make job cuts due to coronavirus-related closures. The U.S. government recently confirmed that the country's economy saw its sharpest contraction in at least 73 years during the second quarter. Read more at The Food Institute…

Instacart sued by DC Attorney General over allegedly deceiving customers, failing to pay taxes

Instacart is being sued by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine because for allegedly misleading its customers with service fees that looked like a tip for the shopper and for not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in District sales tax. The D.C. Attorney General's office also sued DoorDash in November 2019 over a controversial tipping policy, but this lawsuit has yet to be resolved. Read more at CNN...

Australian food tech develops cell-cultured exotic animal meats

Some animals, while delicious by all accounts, would easly become extinct if humans began eating their meat. Enter Sydney-based startup Vow, which is applying cellular agriculture technology to not-so-common animal protein sources including kangaroos and zebras. The rare factor here could be a draw for the significant amount of consumers hesitant to purchase lab-grown meat. Read more at Green Queen…

China does facial recognition for farm animals

New technology from China allows farmers to monitor each of their animals' eating habits and detect signs of illness early on in a more efficient manner than the current method (ear tags). However, China's widespread embrace of facial recognition technology has historically led to some unsavory outcomes, including the surveillance of ethnic minorities. Read more at The Washington Post…

How plant-based meat can help heal our soil while feeding more people than ever

The explosive alternative protein market could have an outsize positive effect on soil that is largely depleted of its original organic carbon content. Plant-based meat, egg and dairy products, if widely adopted, would support reforestation and diverse crop systems as well as reduce farmers' dependence on herbicides, pesticides and fungicides. Read more at The Good Food Institute…