Defending the beef!

Taco Bell is defending their beef in every possible way with their recent ads stating "Thank you for suing us", but now they are taking it to television. After multiple allegations claiming that the "beef" filling in Taco Bell's food is not "beefy" enough to be considered beef, they are turning to advertisements of all kinds to fight back against their lawsuit. They are even using media sources such as Twitter and Facebook to defend themselves and bring back the customers that they may have lost when the accusations were made public. On Facebook they are offering their fans free beef tacos as a token of their appreciation for their fans' support. Although the many different lawsuits Taco Bell has faced in the past including the E. coli breakout and rat infestation concerns, they have only been slightly detrimental to their sales. Taco Bell continues to serve millions of people per week. I guess their "12 percent signature recipie" is just too good to pass up.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41834155/ns/business-consumer_news/

-Ann

"Eat fresh" surpasses "I'm lovin' it!"

Watch out McDonald's!! Surprisingly, Subway has more restaurants across the world than McDonald's. At the end of last year, Subway came in at 33,749 restaurants worldwide while McDonald's fell short with 32,737. Although Subway has more restaurants and locations globally, McDonald's still rakes in the most revenue with a recorded $24 billion in that last fiscal period. Subway, however, had a reported $15.2 billion in the same fiscal period. Thanks to McCafe items and various other highly addicting items, customers cannot get enough of the burger joint. As their sales continue to rise every year, it seems that there is no stopping Ronald McDonald, despite Jared Fogle's weight loss thanks to the Subway fresh meals...

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41959045/ns/business-consumer_news/
-Ann

Are Working Mothers Making KIds Fat?

I found this article on CNN.com and I thought it was an interesting analysis of the situation. At first glance, this looks like it could be a sexist joke about how women don't need watches because there is a clock on the stove, and that's where they should be, but it's not. In fact, it is full of comments from working mothers that say that this study is total bunk. The real argument here is that working mothers might need to pay more attention to the food being served in the household and how much the kids eat that food. Apparently the BMI of children for third grade "was approximately a 1-pound gain for every six months the child's mother worked. The weight gain was cumulative and the link became stronger as the children matured into fifth- and sixth-grade in the analysis of 900 children." I don't think that this article is stating that mothers should quit their jobs and cook; I think it's stating that mothers are in charge of most households, and the economic situations have made children's eating habits secondary. The reason this focuses on women instead of men is because there are not enough stay at home fathers to have accurate statistics. This has to do with the economic situation and food, and I feel this article is important because people, mothers in particular, are losing track of their kid’s health because of work. With seventy percent of mothers working outside the home, this statistic will definitely be on the rise.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/04/children.bmi.moms/index.html

-Post by Will

Fight Rising Prices!

Every time we go to the grocery store, we leave with more items than what was on our list, leaving us with higher bills. How can we prevent from spending a fortune on food alone?? Check out this article that gives 22 ways to fight the rising food prices. The list includes "putting on the blinders" by keeping a particular list of ONLY the things you need, not the things you want, and also eating before you leave for the store. We all know how tempting the Saturday samples at Publix, Krogers, and Target can be- we want everything in sight. There are some really interesting tips on the list that you probably never knew. Enjoy!

Ann

Food Stamps Galore!

To get through the economic struggle across the nation, more and more people are relying on food stamps to buy groceries. The high unemployment rate and budget cuts are forcing many families into an economic crisis of their own. Instead of worrying if they can afford to get groceries for Monday morning breakfast, they use their food stamps. I found this article that has a great chart showing what percentage of the population in each state relies on food stamps. Georgia has a shockingly high percentage... Check it out!!

-Ann

How Fuel Prices Effect Food Prices

Westhoff gives eight rules of thumb on food prices. The first rule of thumb is increasing biofuel production raises food prices. When food crops such as corn are planted for biofuel, this reduces the available food, which in turn causes food prices to increase. Unless corn production can be raised to replace those diverted for biofuel, demand in biofuel would certainly raise food prices because less food is produced. In the US and Europe, government policies demand that a certain proportion of petrol to consist of biofuel. And to boost biofuel production, government subsidies are given to farmers to encourage more planting for biofuel. In the height of the food crisis in 2008, US government subsidies are one of the reasons blamed for the increase in food prices.
The second rule of thumb is food prices tend to follow crude oil prices. This relationship is well known because oil is the lifeblood of the world’s economy. Without oil, the world’s economy would collapse overnight. High energy prices have a direct impact on farm production costs. About one-third of the farm production costs involves the purchase of fertilizers and pesticides, both of which require oil to produce. Other farm production costs involving oil would be the cost of running farm machinery and equipment. Food are often grown far from cities, so high costs of transportation (which require fuel) are incurred to bring food to the urban folks. Half of the world population today of nearly 7 billion live within cities.
http://christopherteh.com/blog/2011/02/18/food_economics/

Interesting to see how certain huge aspects and necessities of the economy effect each other... Just shows how everything works by transitive property. If this then this, which causes this...

post by ella

Today there are nearly 1 billion hungry people around the globe. yet in only 50 years, our growing global population will require an estimated 100 percent more food than we produce today. unfortunately, we will certainly not have 100 percent more high-quality land available to grow twice the amount of grain or two times more livestock. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that added farmland will help produce only 20 percent of the additional food our planet will need in 2050, and 10 percent will come from increased cropping intensity. Accordingly, the FAO concludes that 70 percent of the world’s additional food needs can be produced only with new and existing agricultural technologies. The consequences of failing to use these science-based technologies and innovations will be disastrous. Food producers in industrialized and developing nations alike require technology to ensure a sustainable supply of safe, nutritious and affordable grains and animal protein to satisfy a rapidly growing demand. For this reason, and many others, we all share in the responsibility to ensure that new agricultural technologies — as well as those proven safe and effective over decades — continue to be available.


www.rennut.com/.../Food-Economics-and-Consumer-Choice-White-Paper.pd

post by ella