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.

New Hope Network staff

September 20, 2021

3 Min Read
united nations climate summit logo

The companies polluting the planet have spent millions to make you think carpooling and recycling will save us

It's official, personal lifestyle changes aren't going to mitigate the climate crisis. This might come as a surprise because of the decades of gaslighting-level marketing from fossil-fuel companies that encouraged shoppers to carpool, save energy and recycle instead of focusing on engendering government action that would regulate environmentally damaging sectors. Take the plastic crisis, for instance: "That was an intentional, well-funded effort to convince us all that the responsibility for pollution was on us, on individuals, on litterbugs, rather than the companies that were flooding the world with single-use packaging," John Hocevar, a marine biologist who leads Greenpeace's oceans campaigns, told Insider

The UN is holding a summit on building a sustainable future for food and ag. Why are so many people upset about it?

The United Nations is hosting a first-of-its-kind summit on Sept. 23 that aims to design “bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 sustainable development goals" ranging from ending poverty and hunger to transitioning to clean energy and responsible consumption. Seems pretty straightforward, right? So why has the summit been met with so much criticism and even protests consisting of thousands of angry people? Farmers, producers and food activists are saying that they have extensive, boots-on-the-ground knowledge and experience, and should have been included in the UN’s dialogue, as opposed to controversial corporate and financial participants. The Counter reports.

VERSO Capital, the investor behind world's trendiest food tech companies, aims to remove animals from food system

The venture division of the company VERSO Capital has led investments in some of the trendiest businesses in the food tech and alternative protein sectors—including Impossible Foods, This Isn’t Meat, Eat Just, Nitro Beverage and TurtleTree—and has deployed a total of $375 million to-date. This Forbes profile of the firm attributes its success to a thorough due diligence process and also because it typically funds between 10-50% of any allocation itself and is fully aligned with its LPs, including a hybrid of UHNW individuals, family offices, private banks, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, as it doesn't charge them management fees.

Class-action lawsuit alleges Molson Coors falsely promotes hard seltzer's health benefits

A class-action lawsuit was recently filed in federal court against Molson Coors Beverage Co. for allegedly misleading consumers with its campaign about hard seltzer Vizzy’s health benefits. The plaintiff argues that the beverage company fortified its hard seltzer product with “an insignificant amount of vitamin C, and then blanketed the labels and advertising with statements affirmatively promoting antioxidant vitamin C from a ‘superfruit,’” according to the federal complaint. Learn more at Wine Business.

Portland's Ben & Esther's wants to make vegan Jewish delis ubiquitous

While there are vegan delis out there, as well as Jewish delis that offer vegan options, a 100% vegan Jewish deli is still a rarity. However, that very concept is finding success on the West Coast. Justin King, a longtime plant-based eater, opened Ben & Esther's as a traditional Jewish deli but soon realized that he didn't want his business to exist in conflict with his personal believes. Eater writes that he then began switching out animal-based menu items for vegan alternatives (including carrot lox!). The shift was a hit, and King is now opening a new shop and bakery on Northeast Alberta in Portland, followed by a deli in San Diego.

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