5@5: Trader Joe's renames ethnic-sounding food products | UFCW, Democratic senators call to reinstate grocery worker hazard pay

Petition urges Trader Joe's to change ethnic food labels

Trader Joe's is in the process of renaming its racially-charged food labels and expects to have them off shelves soon. The move was spurred by a petition signed by roughly 3,000 people stating that products with "Trader Ming's" and "Trader José" perpetuate harmful racial stereotypes. Read more at AP News…

UFCW, Democratic senators call on retailers to reinstate hazard pay for grocery workers

Because the nation's leading retailers are largely ending their hazard or hero pay programs for employees, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union partnered with Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown to send a letter to the top 15 grocery chains in America to continue increased pay for frontline workers. In the U.S. 93 grocery workers have died of COVID-19 so far, and 12,405 have been infected or exposed to the virus. Read more at Supermarket News…

Amazon soy and beef exports 'linked to deforestation'

A new study effectively links property-level illegal deforestation with exports of soy and beef from the Amazon region. Many consumers don't realize that the vast majority of animals used to produce meat and dairy are fed soy-based diets, and because the majority of soy is sourced from countries with high deforestation rates this means that meat and dairy products are directly linked to this kind of environmental destruction. Read more at BBC…

Poorest Americans drink a lot more sugary drinks than the richest–which is why soda taxes could help reduce gaping health inequalities

There is a double-digit life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest Americans, and soda taxes are one effective way to start closing it. Studies show that soda consumption falls as income rises, and sugary beverages are linked to weight gain and a whole host of other long-term health problems. Read more at The Conversation…

From bioprinting lab-grown meat in Russia to Beyond Meat in the US, KFC is embracing the future of food

Kentucky Fried Chicken is partnering with Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions to produce lab-grown chicken cells in addition to expanding its Beyond Fried Chicken pilots to Southern California. KFC's Russian project expects to have a trial version of lab-grown chicken nuggets available as soon as this fall. Read more at Tech Crunch…