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.

October 16, 2018

2 Min Read
5@5: Instacart valued at $7 billion |  Hurricane Michael costs region $1.3 billion in crops
Instacart

Instacart’s new $7 billion valuation is a bet on the future of grocery delivery—not a wager against Amazon

Amazon’s expansion of its Whole Foods delivery service is daunting, but there may still be room for Instacart in the increasingly relevant grocery delivery market. Instacart has already partnered with roughly 300 grocery stores, and although many consumers might argue that the service is a luxury, the online grocery shopping experience is only going to become more mainstream in the coming years as the technology becomes safer and more efficient.. Read more at Recode ...

 

Agricultural damage from Hurricane Michael forecast to top $1.3 billion, led by cotton and pecans

Don’t be surprised if pecan pie isn’t on the menu this Thanksgiving—roughly $600 million worth of pecans, in addition to $300 million in cotton, was lost after Hurricane Michael ravaged the southeast region. While the losses in agriculture vary from state to state, it may take a few years for the region as a whole to regain its footing and farmland. Read more at CNBC 

 

Will Breadbots rule the grocery world?

Bread-making is a nuanced, time-consuming task that often involves bakers rising in the pre-dawn hours to produce fresh loaves for the day. Up until now, that is. The Breadbot, a product of the Walla Walla, Washington-based Wilkinson Bread Company, is about to hit retail stores as the first-ever start-to-finish robotic bread-maker. The machine will cut costs for consumers as well as allow grocers to get a better return on their bread sales. Read more at CDA Press  …

 

Trouble brewing: Climate change to cause ‘dramatic’ beer shortages

Extreme weather due to climate change affects our crop yields more and more each year, and barley is no exception. What this means is that beer-lovers will have to make do with drastically less of the beloved beverage in the future; consumption will be cut an estimated 16 percent globally should carbon emissions continue to ravage the planet at the current rate. Read more at The Guardian …

 

Moving location of fruit and vegetables can lead to 15 percent sales increase

A recent study analyzing of consumer fruit and vegetable purchases within a real shop has led researchers to discover that the placement of produce has a considerable effect on its appeal to shoppers from all demographics. With no additional advertising used, when the produce was moved closer to the store’s entrance fruit and vegetable sales increased by roughly 15 percent. Read more at EurekAlert …

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