5@5: Plant-based meat lowers cardiovascular risk factors | Food prices slow to decline

Plant-based meat lowers some cardiovascular risk factors compared with red meat, study finds

Researchers at Stanford Medicine have concluded that forgoing red meat in favor of plant-based alternatives can lower some cardiovascular risk factors. New meat alternatives have faced backlash for using processed ingredients, but this study shows that even when that is the case it is often the smarter decision for those at risk for heart disease. Read more at Stanford.…

Pandemic grocery prices shot up like a rocket and fell like a feather, even after supplies recovered

Nielsen data shows that shoppers are still paying elevated prices at the supermarket despite major supply chain challenges having dissipated over the past few months. Experts say retailers are hoping to recover from the pandemic's initial economic impact by increasing margins. Read more at NBC…

Getting COVID gets you fired when you're a food worker on a visa

Two U.S. farmworkers were recently fired and had their visas taken from them after they went to the hospital due to COVID-19 symptoms. Many of these workers live and work in close quarters with each other, and leaving isn't an option unless one wants to risk deportation. Read more at Bloomberg…

How toilet paper and avocados help explain the grocery store of the future

In the short term COVID-19 will cause huge shifts in the ways grocery stores handle experiential versus transactional shopper experiences. What this could look like is a sustained high level of e-commerce activity with regard to functional products such as toilet paper, while the new in-store shopping model would spotlight specialized services (butchers, bakers) and give consumers the option of collecting their packaged goods already bagged from the back of the house. Read more at Fast Company…

Are racial attitudes really changing? Some black activists are skeptical

Black activists know better than to expect much change out of the recent swell of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and pledges on behalf of corporations to be more inclusive. Some of them argue that what is most needed moving forward are simple investments in Black communities; these include job opportunities, grocery stores and Black-owned local businesses. Read more at The New York Times…