Each day at 5 p.m. we collect the five top food and supplement headlines of the day, making it easy for you to catch up on today's most important natural products industry news.

November 29, 2016

2 Min Read
5@5: Soda taxes spread | Monsanto-Bayer merger could ease | Cadbury move not Fairtrade

As soda taxes gain wider acceptance, your bottle may be next

This month, voters in San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, Calif., as well as Boulder, Colo., stunned the industry by approving ballot measures in favor of soda taxes. Cook County, Ill., followed a few days later, bringing a soft-drink tax to Chicago and surrounding areas. They are joining Berkeley, Calif., which passed a tax two years ago, and Philadelphia, which passed one in June, bringing to seven the number of American communities with soda taxes.

With that public momentum, a soda tax may be coming to a city near you. Read more at the New York Times ...

 

Cadbury accused of fudge as it pulls out of Fairtrade

When Cadbury’s announced seven years ago that its leading brand, Dairy Milk, would be made from Fairtrade cocoa it was hailed as a milestone and a return to the ideals of its Quaker founders.

But now the company is facing criticism after pulling out of Fairtrade chocolate in favour of its own “sustainability programme”. Read more at the Telegraph ...

 

Food and ag science will shape our future

What if I told you a scientist had recently discovered a way to remove up to 98% of the allergens in peanuts without affecting the flavor, thereby diminishing a severe health threat to some 2.8 million Americans who suffer from peanut allergies?

Or that a small family business is working on a project that could quench the thirst of billions of people around the world with technology that’s capable of taking water from any source and making it safe to drink?

If that sounds a little like science fiction to you, you wouldn’t be alone. But both examples exist today as part of the hundreds of scientific breakthroughs made by USDA and USDA-supported scientists since the start of the Obama Administration. Tom Vilsack breaks it down on Medium ...

 

Trump’s attorney general could smooth way for Monsanto-Bayer merger, says report

Jeff Sessions, a Republican Alabama senator and Trump's nominee for attorney general, could boost the odds of a Monsanto-Bayer merger earning congressional approval, according to Investopedia. Read more at Modern Farmer ...

 

Who invented agriculture first? It sure wasn't humans

You may think of ants as picnic pilferers. After all, who hasn't had to ward off ants stealing crumbs from picnic tables or hoarding tiny pieces of food from kitchens? But a new study shows that they're in fact hard working farmers. Or at least one species of ants is. It lives in Fiji and has been farming plants for some 3 million years. Read more at NPR ...

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