SkipTheDishes is building 38 dark stores across the country to support its online food delivery strategy
We recently learned that SkipTheDishes is building 38 dark stores across the country to support its e-commerce renewal. Its strategy includes selling food online like any grocery store. Company CEO Kevin Edwards claims the online food market will be worth $120 billion in a few years. That number is a little ambitious, but many observers…
But the way we communicate risks through food labelling needs to change
Health Canada is reportedly likely to treat gene-edited crops differently than genetically-modified crops, or GMOs. That would be the right move. That means the oversight provided by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency would look very much like what we see for conventionally-bred crops. This issue is obviously far removed from consumers, but it will certainly…
Shoplifting has been on the rise in Canadian supermarkets in recent months. And that ultimately costs us all. Concrete data on theft in grocery stores is difficult to get since incidents are typically underreported. Managers tend to take matters into their own hands. But with the increasing number of reports of theft, and security guards…
Involving billionaires in the food aid business may lead to a paradigm shift in helping the less fortunate
A recent Twitter conversation between United Nations World Food Program (WFP) executive director David Beasley and one of the world’s richest people, Elon Musk, turned a lot of heads. Beasley invited Musk to give two per cent of his wealth to help WFP save 42 million people from almost certain starvation and death in the…
The alleged dangers will be news to countless families who have grown up on raw milk
There’s a legal way to consume raw milk in Canada: buy it in the United States and bring it home. Of the 13 states bordering Canada, 12 have legal raw milk. More than 40 have it legal in some form, yet the U.S. has not had a death from raw milk in more than two…
The Crown corporation is controlled by three people, all with dairy connections
The Canadian Dairy Commission announced recently that farmers will get an unprecedented 8.4 per cent more for their milk and better than 12 per cent more for butter starting in February. For consumers, this certainly isn’t great news. Milk, butter and yogurt prices will likely skyrocket in the new year. It’s the highest increase since…
Given our heightened consciousness about food systems, workers have more political capital than ever
Workers across the food supply chain are expressing concerns about their livelihood. Last weekend, workers at the online grocery retailer Instacart went on strike for better conditions and higher wages. Instacart is a symbol of the new gig economy in food – you use a phone app to have someone else pick up your groceries…
The real threat to cow-based products might be an appetite for choice in a highly regulated market
With the explosion of plant-based milk alternatives flooding the market, can cow milk co-exist? Canada’s dairy industry will struggle to survive the competition unless it reconnects with its consumers. Until now, milk wars have been international. Canada’s dairy market is highly regulated through its contentious supply management system. Quotas and high tariffs are used to…
Immunity problem affects nearly a third of calves worldwide
A University of Alberta dairy researcher is picking up where scientists left off 40 years ago, trying to solve an ongoing problem with calf health. Up to 30 per cent of dairy calves worldwide don’t get enough vital antibodies before birth to ward off the risk of diarrhea caused by E. coli and other bacteria.…
More than 35.5M tonnes of food is thrown out yearly in Canada and rescuing food is getting more attention
Many people claim the term’ food waste’ should never be used and there’s some truth to that. Food is precious and is always of value to someone, somewhere. Associating food with the term ‘waste’ can only imply that food can become worthless. We can compost it, use it to produce biofuels and, of course, repurpose…