Congress handed family farmers $23.5B in disaster relief. Then it left the room

How an aid package meant to help America's "family farmers"—a term that conflates million-acre commodity crop producers with 10-acre vegetable growers—will be distributed depends largely on federal agencies, which has small-scale farmers and their advocates worried. The hope is that USDA will defy expectations and give small-scale produce producers, dairy farmers and ranchers who sell into local markets the direct payments, loan programs and credit plans they need to survive, but nothing is certain. Read more at The Counter…

COVID-19 has US cheese and milk industries on the brink

The U.S. dairy industry was already on the decline when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which swiftly halved consumer demand for dairy products. This is largely because of the sudden collapse of restaurant and food service operations. Some dairy farmers have been posting photos and videos of themselves dumping whole milk onto the ground because there's simply nowhere for it to go. Read more at Quartz...

Yeast and baking powder top America's shopping lists

American consumers are leaning hard into baking projects amid strict stay-at-home orders, Nielsen data shows. Shelf-stable foods in general are still in high demand, but some products that spiked sharply in terms of sales at the beginning of March are on the decline as panic-buying subsides. Read more at NPR…

Chicago retailer Mariano's launches virtual events for customers

Local Chicago grocery store Mariano's has begun hosting cooking classes, wine tastings, mixology sessions, live music and more on its new online platform. Mariano's Meet Ups, as it is called, will post grocery lists beforehand and allow consumers to engage with experts while learning how to prepare food and drinks. Read more at Supermarket News…

How to identify the next winners in climate tech

There are two components that climate change-mitigating companies possess: Products and services that cut greenhouse gas emissions and are superior to fossil fuel incumbents. In the same way that kerosene replaced unsustainable (and cruel) whale oil, the new wave of technology and business models must focus on effectively replacing fossil fuels and greenhouse gas-emitting industries. Read more at Medium…