Produce company takes coronavirus safety steps | Kenya's farmers face new competition amid the pandemic | Beyond Meat bringing its sausage patties to 5K stores
Bridges Organic Produce partner Rico Farms has put improved safety measures in place to protect its employees from COVID-19. The company provides onsite testing, adjusted cafeteria and work schedules that promote social distancing, vehicle sanitizers and educational outreach.
Kenyans laid off from jobs during the pandemic have turned to farming, and that trend along with good weather has led to bumper harvests of crops including tomatoes and bananas. The bounty of produce has driven down prices and some farmers say they don't expect to make ends meet this year.
Beyond Meat will begin selling its frozen breakfast sausage patties at 5,000 additional stores by the end of the month, more than doubling availability of the product amid increasing demand for plant-based meat alternatives. The patties, made to taste like pork, will be sold at grocers including Kroger, Walmart and Publix.
Farmers in Beijing have been learning to grow "BM380" fruit corn, a sweet, thin-skinned variety of corn that can be eaten raw like fruit. The crop is in high demand and has become much more profitable than field corn.
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Specialty food sales were on the rise in both restaurant and retail channels between 2017 and 2019, before the pandemic changed the way consumers shopped for food, according to a report by Mintel for the Specialty Food Association. When restaurants were forced to shutter dining rooms, spending trends shifted to retail channels as shoppers stocked up on center-store staples, plant-based meats and snacks.
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Projects underway at the Clemson University Edisto Research and Education Center are aimed at helping farmers in South Carolina cut their water use. In one project, researchers are creating software that will use GPS technology for precision irrigation.
A second round of federal funding for farmers hurt by the pandemic will total $14 billion and include almost 100 more specialty crops than were covered by the first round, according to the USDA. Signups for the program started Monday and will run through Dec. 11.
The FDA will start taking comments Wednesday on proposed new rules that would increase traceability on leafy greens, tomatoes and fresh-cut produce. According to a draft of the proposed rule, all parties along the supply chain would need to be able to submit traceability data electronically.
Companies such as Amazon and Google have focused on customers and created alternatives to vertical hierarchy, or what Steve Denning calls "21st century management" in this detailed analysis. "It is seeing the organization not as a machine, and more like a garden, an interactive ecology in which things were happening like a garden," he writes.
Emotions are a natural part of your life, so try to rely on empathy and respect in decision-making rather than anger, fear or panic, writes Kate Nasser. "As you develop your skill of balancing emotion and critical thinking, you will be the model for your employees to do the same," she writes.
