Today, it’s all about soil, how food delivery has changed the country, a new initiative out of Philadelphia to promote healthy foods, the food transport problem, lot’s on the metaverse from standards to home remodeling, a chat with Wesley Rhodes of Kroger, and we ask why not add a healthy food tax?
Today, it’s all about soil, how food delivery has changed the country, a new initiative out of Philadelphia to promote healthy foods, the food transport problem, lot’s on the metaverse from standards to home remodeling, a chat with Wesley Rhodes of Kroger, and we ask why not add a healthy food tax?
Welcome to the Lempert Report LIVE. Today, it's all about soil, how food delivery has changed the country, a new initiative out of Philadelphia that promotes healthy foods, the food transport problem, lots and lots and lots on the metaverse from standards to home remodeling a chat with Wesley roads of Kroger. And we ask why not add a healthy food tax let's get started. Sally, tell me about this soil shortage that we have.
Sally:Still we're hearing from a new report that the impact of soil degradation could total in$23 trillion in losses of food. Um, by 2050 now, just to put into perspective, I thought this was a really interesting, uh, quote and way of describing how important is Reza Afshar, Chief Scientist at the regenerative agriculture research farm at the Rodale Institute told CNBC that soil is the habitat for over a quarter of the planet's biodiversity. Each gram of soil contains millions of cells of bacteria and fungi that play a very important role in all ecosystem services. So this soil is a major part of sustaining life and they've identified 10 soil threats in this global report. And the number one is soil erosion, which is taking place everywhere.
Phil:Yeah. And, and also it's so important to realize, that soil is a key factor in mitigating climate change. Soil contains more than three times the amount of carbon in the Earth's atmosphere and four times as much in all living plants and animals combined. Also the scientist from Rodale, let's not forget that Rodale, really started the whole organic farming movement in this country and they're still at it and, and good for them. There's a new report, from the Brookings Institute that talks about data that reveals the geography of digital access in food in the us. One third of all US adults have used delivery apps to order from a restaurant or store in the past year. We know that it continues to go up. So what they did is they took Amazon fresh whole foods, Instacart, Uber eats, and Walmart data. Each of these companies, each of these organizations worked with them to really map it out so we could get a handle of what percentage of the US is covered by these delivery services. And top line 93% of America's population has access to rapidly delivered fresh groceries or prepared foods through at least one of the four platforms. Number one area is the New York Metro area. Number two is Los Angeles, long beach. Three, Chicago Naperville. Four, Dallas Fort worth, and Five is Houston. The list goes on, but when I read this, you know, what they really want to do is they really wanna talk about how food access for those people in food deserts can be improved, and this shows that it can be improved. But an idea came to me, what they point out is that even with all this access, even with the fact that a lot of people who are on snap have mobile devices, there's still about 17 million of people that do not. And what came to me and I'd love your opinion of this is if, if I was Amazon, I would go into these areas and I would put a food kiosk, you know, but something that somebody couldn't steal, you know, a touch screen. So it would allow people in these food deserts that don't have access to be able to order from Amazon, Amazon fresh whole foods. And they would instantly have another 17 million customers. What do you think?
Sally:I think that's a great idea. You know, they have these Amazon delivery stations now, you know, we've got one right down the street at a convenience store. So this definitely seems like something that, that could happen. It's really amazing to me what we can do with technology. And you know, what we were talking about last week, about how Uber is helping get food aid to these really hard t o get areas in the Ukraine. So if we can do that, then these 17 million people that are here in the US that don't have access, it seems like we c an figure out a way to get them food as well. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, they'll make money at the same time. So this is not a difficult decision.
Phil:Philadelphia has something called The Reinvestment Fund, it's based in Philadelphia. They've just announced 22.6 million in financial assistant awards to 134 projects through their 2021 round of America's healthy food financing initiative, targeted small grants program. This is part of the government. This is part of Tom Vilsack's platform to get smaller companies involved of the 134 companies, people that got money, 45% serve rural communities, 81% are owned or led by people of color women and or native people of the awardee. Sixty-nine percent are grocery retail projects, 31% offer alternative retail models, including mobile markets, CSAs and food boxes. So Sally, tell us what some of the award winners were.
Sally:I love this, Phil, that's, you know, it's not only getting food to underserved communities, but it is lifting up these companies that are owned by minorities. One of them is the local farm cooperative, which is in Selma, Alabama, Manuel's food market, a neighborhood grocery in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Nawoody Denoni community general store in San Carlos, Arizona. And Northeast grocers is a black led neighborhood coalition that is helping people in this area get food. So these are real, this is a really cool program.
Phil:Yeah, I think it's great. And, they had over 500 different applications for it and, getting 134 of these companies often running it's, it's wonderful. So, good for our AG Secretary. Vilsack is terrific and continued success with him at our helm. Nature food, the publication, published research that shows the food miles, the distance between the place where food has grown to our plates has a much higher carbon footprint than was previously estimated. The carbon cost is actually around 19% of all food related transportation emissions. That's four times what they originally thought it would be. And if we combine the US, France, Germany, and Japan, and crunch those numbers, that that represents 12% of the world's population, but about 50% of the emissions associated with food transport. So we really have a significant problem as it relates to it. And what, what this study says is, Sally, what you and I have been talking about for 20 years, that if you eat local, if you eat what's in season, bottom line, is those numbers drop significantly. Trying to buy, you know, strawberries in January that are imported from another country that really adds to the problem. So maybe finally we can get people to eat local and what's in season. And also by the way, what's in season means it's got better flavor, it's got more nutrients and it's less expensive. So all of that, and now we have proof that it's much better for the environment as well. So what, you know, what recommendations are they making that we really need to pay attention to?
Sally:Yeah, so they are talking about eating locally and eating seasonally. Exactly what you're saying. We have to think about those higher emissions for fruits and vegetables are largely because they require refrigeration as there are high cost to this. I however, feel like just trying to message to consumers, eat locally, eat seasonal foods. Isn't gonna cut it. And, you know, I don't know about you, Phil. I mean, I do know that living in California, that you have access to local fruits and vegetables that do come at a lower cost, but here in Tennessee, where I am, if we go to the farmer's market and buy from local farmers, it's really expensive. And your average person can't afford to do that. You know? So I really feel like the retailers have gotta get involved in providing and promoting these seasonal local products for people.
Phil:Absolutely. And this research also points out that right now, your home state of Georgia, is cantaloupe, peaches and zucchini, but in Oregon, it's rhubarb, ondives and apples. So I think this time of year is much better to be in Georgia than in Oregon. They also said that if the entire population of the planet ate locally, the carbon emissions would drop by about a third of a giga ton. That's significant, incredible.
Sally:That's incredible.
Phil:And, I noticed that you pulled from tasting table.com a list of meat alternatives, because what they really are saying is if you wanna make a big difference, you want to move to more plant-based. We've heard that over and over again. Transportation associated with fruits and vegetables add up to around 36% of the total food mile emissions, that's over a billion, tons of carbon dioxide, nearly doubling the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from their production. Meat production emits around 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, but transportation costs a little over a hundred million tons. So as we're going into the summer, barbecue time burger time, what should people think of as alternatives?
Sally:Yes, well, we've been hearing a lot about mushrooms lately. A big trend and mushrooms are a great ingredient to, make up for, you know, you can supplement supplement ground beef with mushrooms so that you're not eating as much beef. Lentils are a great source for this. We can look at seitan, and tofu. Also, always beans are great. Again, I'm gonna call out the food retailers and those retail dietitians that we love working with, you know, to really help consumers learn how to use these substitutes so that they can cut down on their meat.
Phil:Absolutely. And, the Good Food Institute reports that now there's over 800 brands globally, that focus largely on creating plant-based alternatives to meet dairy and eggs. Some good news on the horizon. We talked about this a couple months ago that if in fact the metaverse was gonna be as successful as people are proclaiming, there needed to be standards. And now, basically there's something called the metaverse standards forum, which is open to any organization, no costs. And they're gonna focus on pragmatic action based projects, such as implementation, prototyping, hackathons, plugfests, and open source tooling to accelerate the testing and adoption of metaverse standards while also developing consistent terminology and deployment guidelines. I think this is a huge step forward, but the problem is that apple is not part of it yet. Hopefully they'll come in, Niantic and Roblox, which are games and virtual worlds. They're not in either. So three of the largest companies are not part of this and that has me a little concerned, hopefully they're gonna come in, but again, we don't w anna get into the situation that we saw with VHS and beta, for example, that there's standards over here for one and t here's standards over here with a different manufacturer, because that's gonna slow things down. And there's one retailer. And even though we talk a lot about food, we talk about all retail. There's one retailer who decided to go, you know, full blast into the metaverse. Tell us about that.
Sally:Lowe's has decided to jump into the metaverse and I'm very excited about this. And going back to what you were just talking about, talking about the businesses that were on the list, one of them that I noticed was wayfair. And so that also makes me think about what Lowe's is doing right now. These home goods companies, this is very, very important and innovative. Lowe's is going to be in the metaverse creating a world where people can go in that are working on designing things for their home, things for your yard, whatever you're doing to update, um, you can actually go into the metaverse and design your space and get a feel for it. And it seems like a really great idea.
Phil:Yeah, I think so. And I haven't gotten in there yet and played around with it, but I will. It's gonna include lighting, patio furniture, area rugs, kitchen, and bath accessories decor. I mean, it's gonna be everything, digital representation of different home products, furniture. There's no cost to this. And I see two really huge benefits. One is we spoke a couple weeks ago about the problem that Target has with having too many TVs. Well, if we can, if we can take the data from people going into the metaverse and see what they're building in their homes, a certain lamp, a certain refrigerator, and so on, this is gonna help them plan their purchasing a lot better. So there's that huge benefit that they're going to get out of this as well as the benefit for us. And also when you go in, you can then take the furniture or anything else that's there, copy it and put it in your own virtual world. So let's say, you know, you're in a gaming thing or you've got a n Oculus and you're using one of the rooms. Well, you c ould bring your own furniture if you want, and custom m ake that whole experience. What research is saying is that by 2026, a quarter of consumers, 25% of us will spend at least one hour per day in the metaverse that's according to Gartner. Morgan Stanley estimates that the total addressable market for advertising and eCommerce opportunities in the metaverse would be worth 8.3 billion. And here's why L owe's is involved 697 billion of that in home and home r elated spending. So in my mind, there's no question that we're g onna see much more, coming o ut of the metaverse and more and more companies, you know, getting involved, they should.
Sally:Absolutely. And it will be great to see the food world get involved. You know, I think about all of these, the popularity of home goods and home design, it's in television shows that we watch. It's on TikTok, you know, and the same is true for food. And so, you know, as technology is allowing us to do these types of things, you know, as we're watching a TikTok video about a food or a dish that we really like, wouldn't it be cool if we could click into the metaverse into a space where we can get those products, we can practice cooking that product somehow there's, there seems like some really great possibilities here.
Phil:Yeah, absolutely. And coming up in a few minutes, we're gonna show, part of my interview with Wesley Rhodes, from Kroger, who basically invited me over for an Italian dinner in the metaverse that he was gonna choose all the ingredients and gonna have dinner with Leslie in the, in the metaverse The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a 4 year$800,000 grant back in 2006 to Dr Susan Evans and Dr Peter Clarke at the University of Southern California to figure out how to help those who go to food pantries consume more fruits and vegetables. They developed a tool called“Quick! Help for Meals,” a computer system provided to food pantries that used message tailoring to create customized booklets of recipes and food-use tips, individually designed for each household's needs and preferences. While successful, by the time the initial grant ended, the practice of distributing printed information was being replaced more frequently by digital options. While several food pantries and banks supply supplemental resources to clients, many in collaboration with Extension programs at Land-grant Universities, Evans and Clarke set out to develop a more tech-savvy approach: putting healthy recipes in the palm of clients’ hands through their smart device. Research shows that 76% of adults whose income is less than$30,000 per year own a smartphone, and for many, that smartphone is their access to the internet. Evans and Clarke decided to develop a mobile app that allows users to select the ingredients they have available and create a virtual cookbook of healthy recipes. The idea became reality with a five-year,$1.3 million AFRI award from NIFA in 2012. Working with pantry clients, chefs and a culinary school, the team developed VeggieBook, an app with more than 250 vegetable-based recipes, along with nearly 80 Secrets to Better Eating– general tips about more nutritious eating and strategies for budget-wise food shopping. Innovation with a purpose that is measurable and will make a difference. Thank you both. Sally, what's hot and job opportunities this week?
Sally:Here's something exciting for those wanting to get into the food tech space, the proportion of food manufacturers hiring for machine learning relating positions rose in may year on year. Data shows from Global Data monitors companies in their job postings. They found that 20.9% are recruiting for at least one job that focuses on researching building and designing self-running artificial intelligence systems to automate predictive models. The latest figure was higher than the 11.1% of food manufacturers hiring for machine learning related jobs a year ago, and an increase compared to the figure of 18.4% in April. So this is one of the topics that Global Data, which is Just Food's parent company has identified to be a pretty important disrupted force facing business in the coming years. So companies that excel and invest in these areas now are thought to be better prepared for future businesses. The AI college credential is coveted in the contemporary marketplace and the job market supply does not come close to matching demand resulting in six figure salaries for skilled young people. Now, I looked up some of those colleges that have really great AI programs and it's Cal tech and Carnegie Mellon, Cornell. But these programs are popping up in all kinds of colleges across the country.
Phil:Yeah. And it's great advice for anybody in high school or college to get one of those degrees, because as you point out six figures outta college, not bad, not bad. I think when I graduated college, it was four figures.
Sally:Yup, same.
Phil:I spoke with Wesley Rhodes, as I mentioned, the Chief Innovation Officer at Kroger who invited me over for dinner in the metaverse. For the complete interview, just log on to SupermarketGuru.com and click on Exploring the Retail Metaverse. Here's what he had to say. So what I'm hearing about the personalization is my experience is gonna be different than your experience based on what I'm cooking for dinner tonight, or what the products are that I wanna look at. What about the other health attributes? So for example, what we know is there's people who, you know, uh, don't have as good eyesight as other people in the metaverse. Am I gonna be able to configure my supermarket to be bigger? Uh, so I can read the words better, or if I'm colorblind, you know, be able to change those colors, to make it more palatable for me,
Wesley:Certainly the technology's there to do it. We make larger fonts, smaller fonts. We can eliminate colors, you know, like no red, give me something else in its in its place. So technologically, that's not hard to do so if I have a profile that says I'm, I don't see these colors, it's easy to substitute them with the colors that I want instead of that color. So I know, uh, this color is really represented in another so that, uh, I understand exactly what I'm seeing and, uh, what, how large do I want these things? You bet
Phil:On today’s Bullseye we ask the question once again– can food taxes and subsidies help us eat healthier– this time with the help of researchers from the University of Connecticut and the University of Illinois who were recruited by The World Health Organization. There are precedents that have been successful– taxes on tobacco and alcohol for example. Around the globe there are other success stories– as in Mexico where there is a 1 peso per liter tax on sugar-sweetened drinks– and over 3 years we have seen the results– the probability of being a non-consumer of soft drinks has increased by 4.7 percent, probability of being a medium or high consumer of these beverages decreased by 6.8 percentage points and 6.1 percent respectively. So what did the researchers find? In the first paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association they reviewed 54 articles of which 15 studies were included in their meta-analysis. The result? Fruit and vegetable subsidies like doubling the value when using SNAP benefits were associated with just a moderate increase in fruit and vegetable sales. In the second paper, also published in JAMA they focused on the outcome of taxes on sugar sweetened beverages. They reviewed 86 studies from around the world with a meta-analysis of 62 of them and found that indeed these taxes increased prices and reduced sales for these drinks. More than 45 countries and several local jurisdictions they report have implemented sugar-sweetened beverage taxes with the intention to improve nutrition and population health. The researchers also found that these taxes have prompted many of the brands producing these drinks to reformulate and reduce their sugar content. They also point out that the study does have limitations and further studies should be conducted to understand the association with diet and health outcomes as well as assessing the variability of the consumer populations by demography to improve policy reach and effectiveness. Taxes work. Thanks for joining us. And don't forget, visit SupermarketGuru.com for our archives. If you missed anything on today's episode, as well as any of our episodes, that are, you know, over the past 7, 8, 9 months. Check it o ut a t SupermarketGuru. com and we w ill meet here again, same time, same place next w eek.