Bloomberg News
Covers agriculture and food for Bloomberg News; Author of Endless Appetites
PROFILE
Alan Bjerga
Guest
FROM Alan Bjerga
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Will California benefit from Trump’s $12 billion farm aid package? President Trump says America’s trading partners have ripped us off for too long, so he raised tariffs on a range of imports. But China and others are retaliating, raising tariffs on American agricultural products, like soybeans, wheat, and dairy. That’s causing heartburn for farmers. Rural America is an important base of support for Republicans and Trump. So on Tuesday, the administration announced a $12 billion emergency aid package for American farmers.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
'Orwellian' new labels for genetically modified foods The U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled new labels for genetically modified foods, but they don’t actually say “GMO” or “genetically modified.” Instead, the labels say “BE” for bioengineered and look like smiley faces. Opponents of GMOs are calling these smiley face labels misleading and Orwellian.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
What happens when the State Department isn’t equipped for high level diplomacy? The president is on his way back from two weeks in Asia. No deals were inked. One reason for that: A lack of advance work by State Department diplomats. The department has been short staffed, and according to many experts, that’s lead to a crisis for U.S. leadership in the world. We look at that and how the USDA is faring under the trump administration.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
How the American Egg Board tried to crush eggless vegan mayo Incriminating emails. A campaign to discredit a rival. Jokes about putting a hit out on a CEO. We’re not talking about a dirty politician or the ruthless head of a Fortune 500 company, but the American Egg Board and its attempt to crush Just Mayo, an eggless vegan mayonnaise brand. A new report from the USDA, which oversees the Egg Board, found the Board overstepped federal rules with its campaign to destroy Just Mayo.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
A new bill requires GMO labeling How closely do you look at the labels of the foods that you eat? Soon, you’ll have even more information to consider in the supermarket aisle. President Obama signed a new law a couple of days ago requiring food makers to label items that contain genetically modified ingredients. There’s no scientific evidence that GMOs pose a health risk, however, so what’s the logic behind the new law?
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Chobani Founder Gives A Tenth of Company's Shares to Employees Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya started his modest yogurt company in 2005. It’s now worth billions and employs around 2000 workers. On Tuesday, some of those employees personally got a lot richer when Ulukaya announced a plan to give one-tenth of the company’s shares to his employees. For workers who have been with Chobani since the beginning, that could translate to a million-dollar windfall.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Mast Brothers Chocolate and a Recipe for Scandal Until last week, the Mast Brothers Chocolate Makers seemed to be living a hipster fairytale. Rick and Michael Mast are bearded brothers from Iowa. They started making their own chocolate in a Brooklyn apartment about ten years ago. Now their chocolate bars go for $10 a pop at their own shops. They’re also sold at restaurants, high-end groceries and fancy clothing stores. But then a food blogger published a series of posts accusing the Masts of lying about their ingredients and their so-called ‘bean-to-bar’ process. The backlash since then says as much about the power of food marketing as it does about their particular brand.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Kind Bars and the Meaning of 'Healthy' Food What do you consider healthy food? How about nuts? They have protein, vitamins, and mineral, but according to the federal government, nuts have too much fat to be officially considered healthy. That’s why the F.D.A. sent a warning earlier this year to the makers of Kind nutrition bars, demanding that they take the word “healthy” off their labels. Now Kind is petitioning the government to change its definition of healthy. What’s an average eater to make of all this?
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Sugar v. High Fructose Corn Syrup High fructose corn syrup has become a kind of demon food in recent years. But is it really any worse than plain old sugar? That’s the question at the heart of a trial that began here in L.A. this week. Sugar processors and corn refiners have filed competing lawsuits, each accusing the other of making false claims.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Over-the-Counter Antibiotics Another bill Governor Brown is expected to sign would be the first in the nation to eliminate over-the-counter sales of antibiotics for livestock. Instead, farmers would need to get a prescription from a veterinarian. This is part of a much larger effort to reduce antibiotic resistance in humans, which has been linked to 23,000 deaths a year.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
The Almond Tries For a Comeback California's almond harvest is underway, and so is an effort to rehabilitate the nut’s image as a water-thirsty crop. You might have even heard underwriting messages about almonds on KCRW. Over the last few months, the $5 billion almond industry hasn’t just taken out ads, it’s created a web site just to deal with its image, held sustainability events and given money for sustainability research. So is it okay to eat almonds again without feeling guilty? Or is it all corporate spin?
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
GMO Bill Passes the House The House passed a bill that blocks state and local governments from requiring labels on foods that contain GMOs—genetically modified organisms. Here in California, three years ago, Monsanto spent $46 million to beat back a ballot proposition requiring GMO labeling. How safe or unsafe are GMOs? And who should we listen to when it comes to deciding if they’re OK to eat?
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Where McDonald’s and Whole Foods Meet McDonald's has a new CEO, with a plan to turn the brand around. The fast food chain has unveiled a revamped menu featuring kale bowls and a new, hipster-fied Hamburgler character. Meanwhile, Whole Foods is going the opposite way. The high-end grocer plans to open a whole new chain of stores with lower prices. Could it be the end of “Whole Paycheck?”
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
California Raisins at the Supreme Court The singing, dancing California Raisins were on a different stage today: they were before the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices heard arguments over a Depression-era law that allows the government to seize part of a raisin farmer’s crop in order to keep prices high. This isn’t the first time raisins have gone to Washington. In the mid-1990s, some farmers challenged the government marketing program that made stars out of the dried fruit in the first place. We catch up on all the latest legal news for dried grapes.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Should Climate Change Affect the Food Pyramid? The U.S. Agriculture Department has started working on its latest dietary guidelines. You might know it as the food pyramid, though it was redesigned as a plate five years ago. It gets updated every five years. Government officials are considering a recommendation to put less emphasis on meat, and more on fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Some experts say it’s healthier for your body and the environment, but the meat industry and some members of Congress are pushing back. We catch up on the debate.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
California Upends Egg Farming As of January 1, all eggs sold in California must come from chickens that have enough room to spread their wings and move around. California is the country’s biggest egg consumer, and the new regulations are ruffling the feathers of farmers around the country who now have to renovate their coops. We look at what the law means for the industry and for consumers, who could see prices rise.
Recommended
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Accusations of lying fly between James Comey and White House During his testimony Thursday, former FBI Director James Comey accused President Trump and other White House officials of lying when they said the FBI was in disarray and its staff had lost confidence in him. President Trump’s lawyer said Comey was wrong -- that the president never asked for his loyalty, and never asked him to back off the investigation into former NSA director Michael Flynn.
The Treatment
Hua Hsu: A Floating Chinaman Author Hua Hsu stops by to discuss his book A Floating Chinaman, recounting the life of 1930's actor/writer H.T. Tsiang and his struggles entering the American literary world.
Design and Architecture
Securing Public Spaces, Super Wealthy Asians Vehicles are increasingly being used as weapons, as seen in the London Bridge attack over the weekend and in New York’s Times Square last month. The Compton-based company Calpipe is designing security bollards to help make public spaces safer. And novelist Kevin Kwan satirizes the “crazy rich” Asian jet set and their luxurious tastes in his latest book, “Rich People Problems.”
The Business
In 'Speechless,' Scott Silveri combines comedy, family & disability Scott Silveri has written and produced sitcoms for more than 20 years. In all that time, he never encountered a TV family that looked anything like the one he grew up in -- with a mom, a dad...and a brother with cerebral palsy. He changed that with his show Speechless on ABC. Silveri tells us about looking to his own past for stories, and why he was determined to make a family comedy and not just a "disability show."