Hey there,
Welcome back to Before the Cutting Board, your weekly roundup of food + supply chain hot topics to help keep you up to speed on what’s going down with your food.
If you’re new to Before The Cutting Board, here’s how it works: The “This Week” section focuses on news and current events, while the “Food Fights” section usually explores some of the interesting debates flying around the food news world.
A huge thank you to everyone who has shown love and shared this newsletter! Please continue to share and spread the word!
Without further ado, let’s dig in.
-This Week-
White House Announces Food Insecurity Conference with a $2.5M Budget
Earlier this month, the White House announced that President Biden will convene a White House conference in September that will focus on food insecurity and nutrition. The last White House conference that gave airtime to food access and nutrition was over 50 years ago during the Nixon administration in 1969. In statements announcing the conference, the Biden-Harris administration said that the goal of the conference is to set a food policy agenda and spur action among both private and public actors around addressing hunger. The event has been allocated a $2.5M budget from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Formula Shortage Intensifies
Awareness is growing about the escalating baby formula shortage that is placing parents across the US in a state of precarity. Here are a few recent articles to keep you up to speed:
This Washington Post article breaking down how the shortage reached the point where retailers have been forced to ration and limit formula purchases
This New York Times piece covering how the shortage is impacting families and why baby formula producers are struggling to ramp up production enough to close the gap
This New York Magazine brief discussing how online private sellers have been gouging prices in the wake of low retailer inventories
This article from The American Prospect pointing out how consolidated the baby formula supply chain has become. Four companies control 89% of the entire US market.
The thread below from Helena Bottemiller Evich is charting out a complete timeline of the - from the initial formula supply chain challenges to the foodborne illness outbreak at formula production facilities and the FDA’s delayed reaction.
Honorable Mentions: Why the best prices on summer produce could be at your neighborhood farmers’ market from WBEZ-Chicago, California is moving toward food assistance for all populations - including undocumented immigrants from The Counter, Trump officials and meat industry blocked life-saving Covid controls, investigation finds from The Guardian, How Windfall Profits Have Supercharged Food Inflation on Forbes
-Food Fights-
No food fights this week, to be resumed next week!
That’s it for this week. If you enjoyed reading this, please forward to a friend. Even if you didn’t enjoy reading it, still tell your friends - misery loves company :)