Welcome to The Lempert Report LIVE
Welcome to The Lempert Report LIVE
Welcome to the Lempert Report Live. On today’s broadcast the effect of California’s rain will affect food prices nationally, a new ban in Italy, fast food drive thrus get smarter, the fight over food labels, the FTC goes after weight loss and on the Bullseye, another breakfast cereal misses the mark. Let’s get started. So, Sally here in California, it's been raining forever since December. And New reports are telling us that our crops are getting decimated. There's been at least 12 atmospheric rivers, here in California, and we've gotta say that with the exception of strawberries, all the crops are really getting damaged. What we're seeing is a lot of crop land underwater closer to a hundred thousand acres. There's leafy greens that are being destroyed. Up in Salinas Valley a big agriculture area, 10 thousands of acres have been flooded there. And also the floods have delayed the planting of the crops themselves. So we are probably gonna have more shortages taking place than ever before. So, food prices as high as they are, they're gonna get worse.
Sally:Yes, there are some unprecedented weather conditions happening in California right now, and it is wreaking havoc for farmers and agriculture there. California is our leading provider in the United States for fruits and vegetables, and as you mentioned, those leafy greens, those are not salvageable because of food safety issues. The farmers cannot get into plant, so they are delaying, they're predicting, a month on. They're delaying planting. So, that will mean that harvesting will come later and there will be scarcity when it comes to these products, driving those prices up..
Phil:And there's also certain crops that are only grown in California like almonds. So we're gonna have some serious problems. And because of the water, the farmers can't even get into the fields. They can't run their tractors through there and so on. It's really gonna be an absolute mess.. Let's head over to Europe. And Italy has come up with a new bill to ban laboratory produced meats and other synthetic foods. The reason that they want to do it is the importance of Italy's food traditions. and farmers are, elated that the government is doing this.
Sally:yes, there's, there's a big push to protect the traditional food and the farmers and the agriculture industry in Italy. it's very interesting because animal welfare and environmental activists are not completely on b o ard w ith this. but what we're hearing is that, they would like to completely ban the production of synthetic lab meats, and that would also include any synthetic milks as well.
Phil:Yeah, it's, it's interesting and the whole, the whole thing to me looks like a PR stunt, if you would. that Italy is gonna separate itself from the eu in, in banning this. However, if the EU does agree to it not the b an, but, but allowing these foods in, they can override Italy. So I think we're gonna have a couple years of, major fighting going on between Italy and the eu, but nothing new there. They have always been fighting< laugh>. what's interesting to me is that Wingstop has become the latest fast food restaurant that's starting to use AI bots to take customers orders. McDonald's already has Taco Bell, Chipotle, Popeyes, and Dominoes. Basically, they're using it for drive-through services, for taking orders over the phone. And there's two reasons. number one is certainly these bots are making less mistakes than human beings do, but a lot of people, even with those signs out fron t tha t they're offering 12 bucks an hour just don't wanna work in the fast food environment,
Sally:Right? And you, and not only do they make less mistakes, but also bots don't need breaks and don't need time off. So, so that is, that is something that is a benefit to fast food business owners. Uh, what I do wonder is it will there be, will there be a segment of consumers that get frustrated with having to deal with bots with everything that they, they do? AI seems to be seems to be popping up in a lot of areas of our lives. And I wonder if there will be a segment of comp of consumers that are looking for the human connection. So that will be interesting to see if there are some businesses that position and market themselves that way.
Phil:Yeah, that's a, that's an excellent point. Uh, the other thing that I'm concerned about is, I mean, my first job was at a McDonald's. a lot of people's first jobs are in fast food. There's not a lot of places where you can work when you're 15 or 16 or 17 years old and just make, a little bit of money as you go through college or, or whatever else if those jobs disappear. what happens to this whole population? And I forget th at t here was a McDonald's commercial a few years ago that talked about the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who had their first job at McDonald's. And, if we take that away, how are these people gonna make money? Not everybody can mow lawns. Uh, s o we, we've gotta look at that a lot on labeling this week. what we're seeing is a new study o ut o f the uk that was just published in Frontiers a nd Nutrition. 405 participants were tested on adding healthy labels to online purchases. And then they had three buckets. One was, to be actively recording your choices. Second is pre-commitment, third is social comparison. And what they found is those people who were in that first group actively record their choices about healthier foods. Well guess what? their consumption of healthier foods went up and the other group that offered a discount th eir t heirs didn't go up nearly as much. So wh en, if you relate to information versus discount, looks like the information wins. And the third category wh ere i t w as about what your peers were buying really had very little influence at all.
Sally:Yes, this is a very interesting study and and a little bit it, it's a little bit not surprising that self-monitoring was what encouraged people the most to buy those healthy products. We have seen research for years now about food journaling and recording what you eat and following that and how effective that is in eating healthier. There are apps out there now that we use to help track our fitness to track what we eat. people use them to quit smoking or to cut down on their alcohol. So this is something that our culture has sort of h a has been turned o nto as a method to track their their, their streak as you would, o ur their healthy streak and to feel motivated by that.
Phil:Yeah, and as we're talking about labels there's also a European commission that is proposing limits on environmental labeling. There's a lot of schemes out there now whether it's for air miles, whether it's, social injustice. there's over 230 different environmental labels. And what they're finding is that they're not very accurate and they're not helpful. And almost a third of people are saying, we don't believe what t hese labels say. So in this case, I think that the good news is that the government i s at least in, in Europe, is gonna set in and really regulate what t hese sustainable labels can be. We don't have that here. We have a lot of interest from retailers wanting to get more into sustainability both on labeling as well as, demanding from the products that they buy, what those sustainability practices are. But it all comes down to the fact that maybe we can't believe the information.
Sally:Yes, these, the amount of these labels have, has really taken a lot of meaning out of the ones that actually do have meaning to us. So it is important for there to be some sort of understanding that consumers can have of, not only what they mean, but also who is, who is certifying this label. Is it a third party? Is this a self-certification? where is that coming from? I believe consumers need to know that.
Phil:Absolutely. And, and I think that you bring up a really good point that there's a lot of phony labels out there that, that companies are self certifying themselves. That might not be true. again, from the eu, they're looking at pesticide use, carbon sinks, non c irculatory of fossil energy use a nd food production, off s eason production, biodiversity positive impacts on nature a nd ecosystems, GMOs and animal welfare. So maybe we go from 232 of these labels down to a meaningful half a dozen, and then people start believing them.
Sally:Mm-hmm.<affirmative>.
Phil:So the FTC has decided to get into the business of social media, and I think this is great news. what they're finding is, a, a tremendous amount of false claims as it relates to d e disease prevention, especially they saw that during c ovid weight loss products, multi-level marketing. so the F T C h as ordered meta Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, and Twitch to, give them information, every kind of information possible, including their ad revenue, the number of ad views, other performance metrics, including categories of products and services that are more prone to deception, such as those intended to treat, prevent, or cure substance use disorders and tout income opportunities. The reason for this is, last year consumers reported losing over 1.2 billion in fraud that started on social media. that's the number one place that this is happening. So when we, when we take a look at all these social media initiatives, all these hearings that are taking place in Congress with these social media companies, maybe we're finally gonna see, something come of it.
Sally:Yes. it i s good that t hey're, t hat some, that some action is being taken. those eight social media companies that they are looking at are meta, Instagram, YouTube T ikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, and Twitch. And, you know they are t hat some of these companies are preying on vulnerable people with ads that claim to have disease prevention and weight loss. We see this in the multi-level marketing world a lot because they have so many different representatives out there for these, these multi-level marketing products. I believe we talked about one on the show last year that claim to cure cancer. And so we have to be we have to be very discerning about, what, what is being advertised to people because th ere, because there are a lot of people that are being scammed,
Phil:And I think that if they start with weight loss, multi-level marketing, disease prevention, it's a good solid start that I think everybody can agree to. And then it's quite possible that it'll expand and have some kind of checks and balances on everything that gets posted, which would be, great news for us all. Thanks Sally. On Lost in the Supermarket I spoke with Brad Sive who has created a new digital community that will change the way consumers learn about recipes and how to cook them correctly. For the full episode just log on to SupermarketGuru.com and click on the Lost in the Supermarket tile. Here’s what Brad had to say: So when we look at Public Market in particular, what do you hope the takeaways are gonna be for those people who log on?
Brad:Yeah, I think the, the first thing that we wanna build is a place where, you know people are interested in food pecan and enjoy culture enjoy human stories spend time and build a relationship with us. That's what we want to take away from. And it, we also want it to be something different than they're currently seeing right now in the digital landscape. and so it's, it's really about deep high q uality storytelling but then also inviting them to tell their stories. So I think there's multiple different things t hat we're d oing with public market. One is telling the stories of, of, of chefs out there t he stories can't be told or aren't being told c uz they're really interested in running a business or, just telling the, s ome stories of our community b ecause I know there's a lot of people out there that have interesting stories and we'd like to tell those as well.
Phil:On today’s Bullseye– another breakfast cereal brand misses the mark– for the 4th time! In 2020 Kellogg’s launched Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie cereal, in 2021 Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies cereal, last year it was Little Debbie Nutty Buddy cereal and to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Little Debbie’s Swiss Rolls– you got it– Kellogg’s Little Debbie Swiss Rolls cereal. I’m not sure if they are going after the baby boomer nostalgia or kids– maybe both, but as the World Obesity Federation prediction says that by 2035 51% of the world’s population will be overweight or obese unless we change the foods we eat. Here in the US in 2023 the World Health Organization says 19.7% of adolescents and children are already obese and 2/3rds of adults are overweight or obese according to the Harvard Chan School of Public Health– so I have to question do we really need another sweetened and sweet tasting cereal? We know that consuming a diet that is high in added sugars whether in beverages, candy, baked goods or breakfast cereals is a contributing factor in weight gain and chronic health conditions including obesity, heart disease and diabetes according to the National Institutes of Health. What we also know is sugar has a pleasant taste that triggers brain reward circuitries and then stimulates the consumption of foods that are rich in sugars from the 2020 research“The Gut-Brain Axis Mediates Sugar Preference. My take– the more sugars we eat, the more sugars we want to eat– and do. I couldn’t find the new Little Debbie Swiss Rolls cereal for a look at the nutritional’s and ingredients, but the front of pack shows 170 calories and 17 grams of total sugars(before the milk) per 1 and¼cup serving. I did find Little Debbie Nutty Buddy cereal. So, to get a sense for that cereal- the good news is that whole wheat flour is first ingredient, the not so good news is that the second is sugar. Add¾cup of skim milk and a 1 and 1/3 cup which is a little less than 1 and a half ounces of cereal will set you back 26 grams of added and naturally occurring sugars. It does contain some vitamins and minerals as do most breakfast cereals along with natural and artificial flavors and colors. And how realistic is a one-and-a-half-ounce portion of breakfast cereal anyway? The UK publication Which conducted an experiment with more than 120 people to see just how much cereal they poured into a bowl. In the case of Bran Flakes, Cheerios, Cornflakes and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes the recommended serving size was 30 grams– about 1.1 ounces. Here’s what the average size that they poured– Bran Flakes 70 grams, Cheerios 49 grams, Corn Flakes 58 grams and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes 53 grams. To be fair– here in the US the average serving size is greater– typically 42 grams or 1.48 ounces- As most Americans purchase a least one box of cereal per shopping trip– that amounts to 2.7 billion boxes by the way, that means the average American consumes 14 pounds of cereal each year. I urge breakfast cereal companies and their brand managers to reconsider the facts– there are cereals out there that taste great and are not loaded in sugars or taste sweet– and are better for us. IF in fact we really want to change the way people eat, let’s stop being so opportunistic and open that dusty nutrition book. Sally, any comments this week? I'm sure I feel that John Pandol has one for us.
Sally:John does have something for us today, and it's regarding our California flooding story. Uh, he says, as honeybees don't like cold, wet, windy, or cloudy weather, any crop in central California that is pollenizer dependent will be off. That means stone fruits and cherries for summer almonds and pistachios in the fall and some earlier citrus seven to 10 months from now.
Phil:John makes a great point that we didn't even talk about the honeybees and we know we have a honeybee disaster on our hands anyways, so this weather isn't contributing in a positive way to us. John, again, thanks for joining us. he Leper Report is all about inspiring ideas, making our industry think and challenging each other. Let's think about being the shopper and how we can bring our supermarkets and our restaurants closer to meet their needs. I hope you'll come back to join us and John on next week's installment of The Leper Report Live. When we'll focus on the biggest and the best insights and the things that really matter, be sure to visit supermarket guru.com for the latest marketing analysis issues and trends. And don't forget to join us right back here next Monday at 2:30 PM Eastern for more.