Technology

Eating Green

• Unemployed workers defect and debate their next moves, leaving restaurant owners to contend with a labor shortage April 12, 2021
  Restaurants across the U.S. are desperate to hire as outdoor dining season begins, indoor dining restrictions lift, and vaccination rates trend upwards. But despite the hospitality industry losing nearly one-third of its jobs during the pandemic, workers aren’t coming back. In many cases, they’re not even applying. In Philadelphia, Sofia Deleon managed to keep the […]
  Alexandra Jones
• Amazon appears to defeat unionization vote in Alabama April 9, 2021
  Amazon appeared to defeat a union drive at a Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse on Friday on the second day of vote counting, the latest development in a monthslong unionization effort that has drawn national attention.  The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which would have bargained on behalf of the warehouse workers had they voted […]
  H. Claire Brown
• The city that pinned its renewal on a self-chilling beverage can wants its money back April 8, 2021
  This article was produced in partnership with The Business Journal, based in Youngstown, Ohio, which was a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network in 2019-2020. The city of Youngstown, Ohio, is cracking down on a company that touts itself as the maker of the world’s first self-chilling beverage can, saying it hasn’t lived up to its […]
  Dan O'Brien, The Business Journal / ProPublica
• There’s been a groundswell of investor funding in plant-based proteins. It hasn’t led to decreased meat consumption. April 8, 2021
  In mid-March, alternative-protein-promoting nonprofit Good Food Institute (GFI) released data showing that investment in the alt-meat market surged in 2020, hitting a record high of $3.1 billion. Companies focused on plant meats, eggs, and dairy (as opposed to fermentation and cell-based-meat ventures) accounted for the lion’s share of that windfall, taking in three times the […]
  Lela Nargi
• Op-ed: We now know Trump’s EPA interfered with science on the destructive herbicide dicamba. It’s time for Biden’s EPA to act. April 6, 2021
  On March 10, Michal Freedhoff—a newly appointed senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—sent an alarming internal memo to staff. Writing in her capacity as acting head of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), she told colleagues that senior agency leadership and White House staff had sometimes interfered with OSCPP’s scientific […]
  Bill Freese
• “Our way of life is threatened”: Indigenous tribes sue EPA over Trump-era rollback of water protections April 6, 2021
  Two Indigenous tribes are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a Trump-era rule that rolled back protections on waterways crucial to their farming and cultural practices. The Jemez Pueblo and Laguna Pueblo tribes, which are located in what is now New Mexico, filed a lawsuit in late March calling on a federal court to […]
  Jessica Fu
• Meet the immigrant women on hunger strike for pandemic relief April 6, 2021
  UPDATE: On Monday, April 6, the hunger strikers headed to Albany to continue their pressure campaign. Three immigrant women huddle on lawn chairs surrounding space heaters in the middle of Thompson Street across from Washington Square Park. It’s been weeks since any of them have eaten and a year since they’ve been able to work […]
  Paul Frangipane
• Billionaire NFL owner quietly buying up thousands of acres of Illinois farmland April 5, 2021
  This story was co-published by CU-CitizenAccess. Illinois billionaire Shahid Khan is known for building the automotive parts company Flex ‘N Gate, based in Urbana, IL, into a global manufacturer with 69 facilities around the world. He also is known as the owner of the National Football League team Jacksonville Jaguars and the UK’s Fulham F.C. […]
  Marissa Plescia and Dylan Tiger
• Chain restaurants are required to disclose calorie counts on menus. In the age of DoorDash, that’s not happening. April 1, 2021
  Third-party delivery apps like UberEats and DoorDash have boomed during the pandemic, in some cases seeing revenue more than double. But while the platforms may promise convenience and safety for users, their popularity has also created an information gap: Federal regulations require chain restaurants—defined as those with more than 20 locations—to disclose calorie counts on […]
  Jessica Fu
• New UN report details the best ways to prevent deforestation in Latin America. What’s that got to do with U.S. food needs? April 1, 2021
  On March 25, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a new report on the state of forests in Latin America and the Caribbean. Titled Forest Governance by Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, the report shows that forests managed by these groups are twice as likely to avoid deforestation as similarly accessible forests managed […]
  Lela Nargi