ETN-250: WooHoo 🎂
Hello
That thing about the longest journey starting with a single step? It is so true. Here I am sitting down to write the 250th Eat This Newsletter all because back in April 2015 it seemed like a good idea to share more widely some of the stuff that diverted me. Issues 1 and 2, alas, seem lost to the mists of time, but all the others are here, at least in abbreviated form. The first 93 I foolishly lost the long version to Big Capital, but 94 and on are archived at Buttondown.
The podcast itself is slightly ahead at 290 episodes, with number 291 due on 2 September. Normal biweekly service will be resumed thereafter, till the next break.
I hope you’ll stay with me and spread the word.
WHO Says Baby Food in the US Is Not Good.
With all the talk about the importance of good nutrition in the first 1000 days of life, you might think the world’s richest country would have infant sustenance nailed down with a wide range of affordable, nourishing foods. Not so. A recent study looked at 651 products for infants from 6 to 36 months from the top 10 grocery chains in the US and compared them with the World Health Organisation’s guidance on nutrition and promotion.
Of the 651 products examined, 60% failed to meet the nutritional requirements of the NPPM [WHO guidelines], and 0% met the promotional requirements. Almost 100% of products had at least 1 claim on-pack that was prohibited under the NPPM, with some products displaying up to 11 prohibited claims. Snack-size packages had the lowest compliance with nutrient requirements.
Ouch!
The details matter too, especially if you are feeding an infant. Snacks and finger foods, for example, made up a fifth of the sample and failed to comply with the greatest number of WHO guidelines. They had “low levels of protein and high levels of energy, sodium, and sugar and frequently contained added free sugars and sweeteners”. Pouches were worse. Almost half the products examined were pouches, and almost a third of them contained more sugar than recommended.
[N]o commercially produced infant and toddler food products available for purchase from the top 10 grocery store retailers in the United States met international standards for nutrition and product promotion.
Will manufacturers do anything if they aren’t forced to? Will parents force them to? (There’s an app for that, created at the academic home of the paper’s lead author.)
Oranges Grow Green
I’m not too sure why this story surfaced among my feeds now, dating as it does from 2017, but I immediately dug into it because I’ve been interested in the place for more than 40 years. It’s about Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica.
In 1997, Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs, the two ecologists who helped to launch Guanacaste, made a deal with Del Oro, a company that produced orange juice on the northern border of the park. In exchange for bringing some of Del Oro’s forested land into the park, they agreed to let the company dump orange waste onto degraded land already in the park. It did, some 12,000 tons of peel and pulp which quickly turned into rich, black loam after “passing through this gross stage in between of kind of sludgy stuff filled with fly larvae,” according to one of the researchers.
The experiment was brought to an untimely end by a rival fruit company that sued Del Oro for defiling a national park. The judge concurred, despite the agreement, and that was that until 16 years later, when researchers went back to see what had happened. They found an amazing transformation, with the area all but indistinguishable from the rich forest around. And that could be replicated elsewhere, according to Timothy Treuer, the lead researcher:
“We live in a paradoxical world where nutrient starved degraded lands and nutrient-rich waste streams occur simultaneously. Resolving that paradox means profits for private industry, more resources for conservation areas, and potentially gigatonnes of climate change-causing gases getting sucked out of the atmosphere.”
There are already hints that the process might work in other places with other wastes, for example coffee pulp on old coffee fields. The beauty of this approach is that it costs very little, compared to recovering valuable material from food waste and processing it in other ways, to just dump it where it can let nature take its course.
Fats, Greases and Oils in Demand
Here’s a turn-up for the books. The US is now importing China’s actual, literal garbage. Two graphs tell the story, both from the USDA Economic Research Service.
First, the amount of biodiesel being produced in the US has grown more than 2½ times since 2016. Much of that growth has been driven by converting “animal fats (edible and inedible tallow, lard, and poultry fats) and greases, including used cooking oil” rather than vegetable oils.
Secondly, imports of those raw materials have swollen. (Duh!) Used cooking oil is the main feedstock for biodiesel, imports doubled from 2022 to 2023, and China is now the leading source for the US.
I guess the Chinese don’t need it for their own biodiesel, what with all the electric cars they are making.
Sardines and Pizza
Some articles need no commentary from me.
For tinned fish lovers, Modern Farmer tells the story of Island Creek Oysters in Duxford, Massachusetts, and their efforts to establish a sardine cannery in Maine.
And tinned fish haters will be pleased to know that Eater magazine does not mention anchovies even once in its attempt to understand the evolution of New York pizza.
Take care
P.S. If you’re more than usually interested in Guanacaste, as I am, here’s an update.
My deepest congratulations, Jeremy!