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Pepsico CEO: Not Worried About Being Targeted by Trump Administration’s Food Industry Critics
PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta wants to change the minds of food industry critics inside the new Trump administration. “It’s not a worry. I think we’ve been leading the transformation of the food industry for many years,” Laguarta said on Yahoo Finance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Sentiment around packaged foods stocks has soured in part due to the new administration. Trump’s pick to run Health & Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr., is a noted longtime critic of the packaged foods industry. Meanwhile, the outgoing surgeon general warned this month alcohol should come with cancer risk labels. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned the use of red dye No. 3 in food, drinks and ingested drugs.
The barrage of health news has investors worried packaged food players may have to reformulate products at a significant cost. The bad press isn’t exactly great for business, either. Shares of PepsiCo are down about 14% in the past three months, underperforming the S&P 500’s 5% gain. The stock price of rival Coca-Cola is down 9% over the same stretch, while Spam maker Hormel’s shares are off by 3%.
As USDA Updates the Packers and Stockyard Act, Meat Industry Increases Political Spending, Lobbying
Meat industry groups and major meat companies spent more than $10 million on political contributions and lobbying efforts in 2023. For some, last year’s spending was an all-time high. The federal government has been rolling out changes to the protections given to livestock and poultry producers, as well as how these farmers operate.
In turn, these changes prompted various meat companies and industry groups to lobby against certain provisions. In some cases, industry groups backed lawmakers seeking to do away with the new rulings altogether. The now-finalized updates to the Packers and Stockyard Act include addressing discrimination of livestock and poultry growers based on race, sex, age, or disability from the companies that purchase their animals or pen the contracts by which producers abide.
Another update, known as “Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments,” requires sharing information between large chicken companies and the independent, contract farmers that raise chickens for consumption.
5 Expert-Approved Ways to Eliminate Artificial Sweeteners in Your Diet
Reaching for a diet soda or artificially sweetened snack to lose weight or to enjoy a few more treats? A growing number of scientists believe that’s not a good idea.
After studies found no long-term benefit, the World Health Organization announced in May 2023 that people should not rely on any sugar substitute — including stevia and monk fruit — to control their weight.
Long-term use of low- or no-calorie sweeteners may lead to an increase in eating and greater amounts of body fat known as adipose tissue, additional research has shown.
Various nonnutritive sweeteners have also been linked to heart disease and early death, migraines, depression, dementia, disruptions in gut microbiomes, cancer and cognitive, behavioral and developmental issues.
In July 2023, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified one synthetic sweetener, aspartame, as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” although the US Food and Drug Administration disagreed.
Sugar substitutes may also be linked to heart disease. Recent studies have found xylitol and erythritol — sugar alcohols used to tame the intense sweetness of stevia, monk fruit and lab-made sweeteners — associated with an increase in blood clots.
Cats May Have Gotten Bird Flu From Raw Pet Food. Here’s What to Know.
Federal officials who spent the last year grappling with a surge of bird flu infections in cows and people are now confronting a spate of new cases in cats, some of which have died after eating contaminated, uncooked pet food.
Since early December, more than two dozen cases have been confirmed in domestic cats in the United States. Officials have linked some of the cases to virus-laden raw milk, which is known to pose a serious risk to cats. But other cats fell ill after eating commercially available raw pet food — the first known cases in the country linked to pet food.
The cases have already prompted one pet food manufacturer to recall some of its products. And last week, federal officials announced new pet food safety rules and poultry surveillance efforts.
Bird Flu Outbreak Hits Suburban Chicago Chicken Farm, Wiping Out 3,000 Hens
A family-owned farm near Chicago has fallen victim to a devastating outbreak of bird flu, losing its entire flock of nearly 3,000 hens to the disease. The owners of Kakadoodle Farm in Matteson first noticed something was wrong last week, when dozens of their flock began dying without symptoms. Initially attributing the deaths to cold weather, they later learned from federal officials that bird flu had been confirmed in their flock.
“Ever since Marty survived cancer, we’ve poured everything we have into Kakadoodle,” a statement posted on the farm’s website said. “With God, will [sic] survive this as well.”
Bird flu in the U.S. has been tearing through populations of wild birds, poultry, dairy herds and even people since 2022. So far, more than 100 million poultry birds have died or been culled following infections with the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus.
As more and more animals become infected, spillover into humans is becoming increasingly common. While the virus is not yet thought to be transmitted from person to person, the U.S. reported its first human death linked to bird flu on January 6.
Experts warn that if the virus evolves to enable human-to-human transmission, it could trigger a pandemic.
