The privilege of MAHA and inflation in your kitchen YouTube video by Environmental Working Group (EWG)

This week on the podcast: Errol Schweizer, one of the sharpest minds in food + grocery. Former Whole Foods V.P., Forbes writer and author of The Checkout Grocery Update on Substack, he unpacks the politics shaping our food system. @grocerynerd.bsky.social

Excellent op-ed on public grocery stores from @civileats.com by @rajpatel.org and @grocerynerd.bsky.social. Props to @lisaelaineh.bsky.social for sharing through email newsletter.

Op-ed: Public Grocery Stores Already Exist and Work Well. We Need More. Government-run, nonprofit grocery systems can better respond to food-price inflation, corporate consolidation, and inequality.

Important read by the inimitable @grocerynerd.bsky.social and @rajpatel.org !

civileats.com/2025/08/20/o...

Grocery Update Volume 2, #13: Cooperative and Resilient, As Stubborn As The Hills. Also: Why MAHA Is A Smokescreen. And Some Good News!

I really liked this @grocerynerd.bsky.social update on a Co-op grocery store.
grocerynerd.substack.com/p/grocery-up...

So. I've been on field manual labor crews where most of my coworkers were convicts.

I've also worked with a lot of tech companies on automating farms.

And this press conference is incredible. Rollins hasn't the foggiest clue what she's on about.

fortify inside why spiritual practice matters during the rising authoritarian tide

Please believe me when I tell you:

Double the fuck down on your spiritual practice now.

You are going to need it.

And no, that doesn't have to be a prayer-god thing.

The thing that sustains and nourishes you.

That makes you more alive to yourself, the world, others.

More present.

More:

New Yorkers Voted For Public Grocery Stores. How Would That Work? New Yorkers turned out big time to support Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani's plans to open public grocery stores. Here's why the proposal is so popular, and so viable.

Or public grocery stores ... www.forbes.com/sites/errols...

New Yorkers Voted For Public Grocery Stores. How Would That Work? New Yorkers turned out big time to support Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani's plans to open public grocery stores. Here's why the proposal is so popular, and so viable.

Publix grocery stores ... likewise lol
Jfc www.forbes.com/sites/errols...

Tuesday was the hottest day in over a decade for parts of the East Coast. When will this extreme heat wave end? | CNN A long-lasting extreme heat wave reached its dangerous crescendo Tuesday, bringing the hottest day in a decade to some major East Coast cities and putting millions of already fatigued Americans at ris...

You can’t separate climate justice from worker justice.

Agricultural workers are out in 100+ degree heat with NO federal protections. No shade, no water, no breaks.

While billionaires stay cool in their boardrooms, working people are DYING from heat.
www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/w...

Grocery Update Special Feature: Why It’s Time for Public Sector Grocery Stores In New York. An Op-Ed On Building Diverse, Resilient and High Quality Food Supply Chains.

open.substack.com/pub/groceryn... this is for the folks who doubted @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social and his programs. They are viable and popular. We can have good food for all.

Texas governor signs MAHA bill to add warning labels to food products The new law will require labels on foods containing 44 dyes or additives commonly found in the country’s food supply, such as in baked goods, candy and drinks.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed sweeping legislation Sunday to slap warning labels on potentially tens of thousands of food and beverage packages — a move that could have ripple effects across the country.

If Democrats truly want to appeal to young men, they should probably start presenting themselves as the party that definitively *won’t* draft you into an illegal war.

Last year, Kroger's CEO raked in $15.4 million — 457x more than its typical employee. Kroger also announced $7.5 billion in stock buybacks.

I don't want to hear that Kroger can't afford to treat its employees fairly.

Solidarity to these workers.

Underpaid & fed-up - Hudson News workers are rallying for a fair contract! Workers, community allies, and elected officials came together at SeaTac to show our solidarity. Later this month at the bargaining table it'll be up to Hudson to decide if workers will vote to strike or to ratify a contract.

There’s a word for a system of government run by one person who prizes loyalty to the throne above all else — and it ain’t democracy.

The correct way to connect the authoritarian presence in LA and the Big Beautiful Bill is that the bill gives the government the resources to do this in dozens of cities at once. So if you don't like what's happening in LA, it's coming to your town if the bill passes.

Jews for Food Aid for Gaza Jewish people support food aid for families in Gaza and an immediate end to the Israeli government’s food aid blockade. #JewsForFoodAidForPeopleInGaza

Not too late to sign, Jews.

Not too late to amplify, everyone:

Nothin but the facts

I’ve said it before but it is embarrassing that so many intellectuals spent years in small factional battles over the propriety of calling this fascism.

Grocery workers are fighting over many of the same things as the broader labor movement—for living wages, health and safety, against understaffing and tiers. Their fight is also for the common good—understaffing and consolidation hurt community access to groceries and medication:

Recent Graduates Were Told They Were Coming to the U.S. for Cultural Exchange. They Ended Up Trapped in a Factory Farm. A lawsuit alleges that three Guatemalan citizens, who came to the U.S. on J-1 visas, worked dangerous jobs under false pretenses.

Big Ag + Human Trafficking:

"Recent graduates were told they were coming to the US for cultural exchange. They ended up trapped in a factory farm."

Blockbuster piece by @ninaelkadi.com and incredible legal work by @farmstand.bsky.social

Grocery Update Volume 2, #4: MAHA Or Misdirection. Grocery Nerd’s Ten Point Program To Make America Healthier Than Ever.

open.substack.com/pub/groceryn...

Kroger is allegedly overcharging consumers by listing expired sales prices on shelves and charging full price at checkout. 

And thanks to decades of consolidation, Kroger stores are now the only grocers in some rural areas.
 
Minimal competition means maximized price gouging.

Inside the business of killing in response to bird flu As bird flu has spread across the U.S., bird disposal companies, environmental waste businesses and large poultry producers have received millions of federal dollars to kill flocks, compost their bodi...

"Underage workers have been hired to kill poultry flocks, handle dead carcasses and clean industrial poultry farms... showed workers self-identifying as young as 15."

Blockbuster piece by John McCracken

Pope Leo XIV Calls for End to War in First Sunday Blessing as Pontiff

Pope Leo XIV used his first Sunday address to the faithful to call for peace. “Never again war,” he said to a roar from the crowd in St. Peter’s Square.

Grocery Update #67: Feeding Wall Street While Starving Stores. The Long-Term Harm From Short-Term Profits.

9/10 grocery store workers report price gouging at their stores while 4/5 workers are unable to pay basic living costs open.substack.com/pub/groceryn...

9/10 grocery store workers report price gouging at their stores while 4/5 workers are unable to pay basic living costs: an important new report on Krogers & Albertsons h/t Errol Schweizer economicrt.org/publication/...

‘Like being tortured’: Texas residents living next to bitcoin mine are getting sick and being ignored by Maximillian Alvarez May 7, 2025 Republican Governor Greg Abbott said Texas “wears the crown as the bitcoin mining capital of the world.” But in small towns like Granbury, working-class residents living next to giant data centers are the ones paying the price for Texas’s crypto boom

A bitcoin mine in Texas is “killing us slowly,” local residents say After a 300-megawatt bitcoin mining operation came to Granbury, TX, residents started suffering from hypertension, heart palpitations, tinnitus, migraines, and more—and they say their concerns are going ignored by the company and government officials. It’s “environmental euthanasia,” one resident tells TRNN. by Maximillian Alvarez April 23, 2025

Republican Governor @gregabbottx.bsky.social said Texas “wears the crown as the bitcoin mining capital of the world.” For @therealnews.com I've spoken to working-class residents in Granbury who live right next to a massive bitcoin mine & are paying the horrific price for Texas’s crypto boom...