Target’s small-format stores are its biggest weapon against Amazon and Walmart

Target currently operates around 100 of its small-footprint stores in college campuses and urban neighborhoods, and they are reportedly the its most productive outposts. The biggest benefit of the small-format store strategy is that it allows the company to tailor “each location to the needs of its specific area." Read more at Inc. …

Pampers smart diaper to launch this fall

Pampers recently announced it will be rolling out a new line of smart diapers that tracks a child’s urine and sleep patterns. The line, called Lumi, alerts parents via a smartphone app when a diaper is dry, wet and very wet, but some experts are concerned that the app is yet another way for anxious parents “to find any deviations from reliable norms a cause for concern." Read more at CNN …

Fewer people are shopping at farmers’ markets on food stamps

Farmers’ markets in the California region have seen a “dramatic decline in shoppers paying with food stamps” in recent months according to one social scientist’s research project. However, one market in San Francisco is getting it right—the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market attracts the bulk of EBT (electronic benefit transfer) shoppers in the area because of its Market Match program, which “provides EBT shoppers with an extra $5 each time they shop” and offers customers longer-than-typical shopping hours. Read more at The Guardian …

Your bagged salad is full of frogs

A new study published by a University of Illinois postdoctoral researcher found reports of at least 40 incidents of vertebrates (live, dead or in pieces) in fresh, bagged or canned produce. Notably, researchers discovered that consumers were more likely to find the so-called “Known Salad Vertebrates” in conventionally grown produce rather than organic varieties. Read more at Vice …

The hype and the hope surrounding lab-grown meat

Bringing lab-grown meat to market would be an undeniable game-changer for our agricultural system, but the field is still driven by venture capital and the technology for widespread cell-based meat production is lacking. The companies at the forefront of the movement have big plans, but to date cell-based meat only exists in the form of prohibitively expensive prototypes. Read more at New Food Economy …