New California law could make bacon hard to find in 2022 - KTVU San Francisco

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Packages of bacon are displayed on a a shelf for sale at a grocery store in Centreville, Maryland on October 26, 2015. Sausages, ham and other processed meats cause bowel cancer, and red meat "probably" does too, a UN agency warned Monday, in a poten

DES MOINES, Iowa - Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic.

That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items — bacon — hard to get in California.

"Our number one seller is bacon, eggs and hash browns," said Kim, who for 15 years has run SAMS American Eatery on the city’s busy Market Street. "It could be devastating for us."

At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to regain a key market.

Animal welfare organizations for years have been pushing for more humane treatment of farm animals but the California rules could be a rare case of consumers clearly paying a price for their beliefs.

With little time left to build new facilities, inseminate sows and process the offspring by January, it’s hard to see how the pork industry can adequately supply California, which consumes roughly 15% of all pork produced in the country.

"We are very concerned about the potential supply impacts and therefore cost increases," said Matt Sutton, the public policy director for the California Restaurant Association.

California's restaurants and groceries use about 255 million pounds of pork a month, but its farms produce only 45 million pounds, according to Rabobank, a global food and agriculture financial services company.

The National Pork Producers Council has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for federal aid to help pay for retrofitting hog facilities around the nation to fill the gap. Hog farmers said they haven't complied because of the cost and because California hasn't yet issued formal regulations on how the new standards will be administered and enforced.

Barry Goodwin, an economist at North Carolina State University, estimated the extra costs at 15% more per animal for a farm with 1,000 breeding pigs.

If half the pork supply was suddenly lost in California, bacon prices would jump 60%, meaning a $6 package would rise to about $9.60, according to a study by the Hatamiya Group, a consulting firm hired by opponents of the state proposition.

At one typical hog farm in Iowa, sows are kept in open-air crates measuring 14-square-feet when they join a herd and then for a week as part of the insemination process before moving to larger, roughly 20-square foot group pens with other hogs. Both are less than the 24 square feet required by the California law to give breeding pigs enough room to turn around and to extend their limbs. Other operations keep sows in the crates nearly all of the time so also wouldn't be in compliance.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that although the detailed regulations aren't finished, the key rules about space have been known for years.

"It is important to note that the law itself cannot be changed by regulations and the law has been in place since the Farm Animal Confinement Proposition (Prop 12) passed by a wide margin in 2018," the agency said in response to questions from the AP.

The pork industry has filed lawsuits but so far courts have supported the California law. The National Pork Producers Council and a coalition of California restaurants and business groups have asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay the new requirements. The council also is holding out hope that meat already in the supply chain could be sold, potentially delaying shortages.

Josh Balk, who leads farm animal protection efforts at the Humane Society of the United States, said the pork industry should accept the overwhelming view of Californians who want animals treated more humanely.

"Why are pork producers constantly trying to overturn laws relating to cruelty to animals?" Balk asked. "It says something about the pork industry when it seems its business operandi is to lose at the ballot when they try to defend the practices and then when animal cruelty laws are passed, to try to overturn them."

In Iowa, which raises about one-third of the nation's hogs, farmer Dwight Mogler estimates the changes would cost him $3 million and allow room for 250 pigs in a space that now holds 300.

To afford the expense, Mogler said, he’d need to earn an extra $20 per pig and so far, processors are offering far less.

"The question to us is, if we do these changes, what is the next change going to be in the rules two years, three years, five years ahead?" Mogler asked.

The California rules also create a challenge for slaughterhouses, which now may send different cuts of a single hog to locations around the nation and to other countries. Processors will need to design new systems to track California-compliant hogs and separate those premium cuts from standard pork that can serve the rest of the country.

At least initially, analysts predict that even as California pork prices soar, customers elsewhere in the country will see little difference. Eventually, California’s new rules could become a national standard because processors can’t afford to ignore the market in such a large state.

Kim, the San Francisco restaurant owner, said she survived the pandemic by paring back her menu, driving hundreds of miles herself through the Bay Area to deliver food and reducing staff.

Kim, who is Korean-American, said she’s especially worried for small restaurants whose customers can't afford big price increases and that specialize in Asian and Hispanic dishes that typically include pork.

"You know, I work and live with a lot of Asian and Hispanic populations in the city and their diet consists of pork. Pork is huge," Kim said. "It’s almost like bread and butter."

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August 01, 2021 at 01:11AM
https://www.ktvu.com/news/new-california-law-could-make-bacon-hard-to-find-in-2022

New California law could make bacon hard to find in 2022 - KTVU San Francisco

https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

2021 Patriots training camp: Bill Belichick notes 'hard decision' at QB - NBC Sports Boston

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The biggest takeaway for Saturday’s practice had zero to do with what was going on during practice and everything to do with what Bill Belichick said prior to practice.

Pressed a bit during his video conference on how and when he’ll make his decision on a starting quarterback, Belichick reiterated that Cam Newton is the starter.

“Cam’s our starting quarterback, I think I said that, so …” Belichick stated.

Curran: So far, time not on Newton's side at Pats camp

But he also seemed to acknowledge what’s been blatantly obvious through the first four days of practice (and during minicamp as well): Mac Jones is way, way, way ahead of the rookie curve and his performance is giving the coaching staff something to chew on.

“I don’t think we want to evaluate players at any position off of one or two plays or maybe a day,” Belichick cautioned when asked what he will look for when making a decision on a starting QB. “From a consistency standpoint, that’s always important. Obviously production. Hopefully those things will be good and I’m sure it’ll be a hard decision. But we’ll see how it goes. We’ll just let them play and try to do what we feel like is best for the team based on their performance.”

Fortunately for Jones, his production and consistency in the practices has extended far beyond “one or two plays or maybe a day.” He’s been accurate, decisive and consistent in that there just isn’t a huge disparity between his best plays and his worst.

So why is Belichick making it a point to remind folks that Cam is “our starting quarterback”?

Because it’s the process. In re-signing Newton just prior to the start of free agency, Belichick clearly had to somehow convince Newton that the quarterback’s self-assessment of still being one of the league’s better quarterbacks was valid.

Belichick isn’t into promises when it comes to changeable situations. But letting Newton know he was loved, respected and would get a very fair shot (if not a huge contract) was a must. The Patriots didn’t know they’d end up with Jones. They didn’t know just how good he’d look. Nor do they know how long Jones’ competency will last, especially once the pads come on and joint practices begin.

Now that he’s shown he’s beyond competent, he gets the public nod from Belichick that he’s making it a hard decision while Belichick also lets both Newton and Jones know the pecking order is intact. But that consistency and production are the coin of the realm.

Report: Stidham undergoes surgery to repair back injury

There’s no need to name a starter on July 31. And there’s no need to pull the rug out from under Newton after three practices. All through the summer, I said that for Jones to win the starting job he’d have to win by knockout. So far, he’s landed enough punches to at least catch the judge’s eye.

HOUSEKEEPING

• Let’s give a little housekeeping before we get into what happened at practice. Offensive lineman Ted Karras, who had a lower leg injury on Friday, was not at practice. He left practice under his own power after being rolled up on.
• Bill Belichick noted that second-year linebacker Anfernee Jennings missed the start of camp for personal reasons. Jennings was back on the field Saturday.
• Linebacker Brandon King came off the PUP list.
• The Patriots do a good-natured little initiation exercise every year at camp where they wet down the field far away from fans and media and have the rookies do a little slip-and-slide activity. That went on Saturday.
• The biggest crowd of the week was in attendance with the Chamber of Commerce weather dialed up.

PRACTICE SNAPSHOTS

• It felt a little like a low-energy day for at least the first-half of practice. I thought Cam Newton delivered some excellent deep balls during some non-competitive reps including one that was perfectly placed for Nelson Agholor to bring in with a nice dive.
• Agholor had a very solid first four days of practice and with the amount of work he’s put in probably could use the day off on Sunday. He’s run a ton of routes.
• Hunter Henry had an end-zone drop on a ball lasered in by Newton early in practice.
• Newton was better early in practice than Jones; Jones was better at the tail end, especially late. The competition remains very tight which is why the decision – as Belichick alluded to – will definitely be hard.
• Safety Adrian Phillips had a pair of pass breakups. He’s continued his very solid first week of work.

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July 28, 2021 at 02:00PM
https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/patriots/2021-patriots-training-camp-bill-belichick-notes-hard-decision-qb

2021 Patriots training camp: Bill Belichick notes 'hard decision' at QB - NBC Sports Boston

https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

New Athens hit hard by tornado | News, Sports, Jobs - Martins Ferry Times Leader

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T-L Photos/CARRI GRAHAM A home along Culbertson Drive in New Athens is destroyed after a tornado touched down Thursday evening. Homeowners John and Deb Ledger sit outside the home with family and friends as they await a response from their insurance company or Red Cross to be provided a place to stay for the evening while the damage to the property is assessed.

NEW ATHENS — Numerous homes were damaged and power lines downed Thursday evening after tornadoes touched down in New Athens and Wintersville.

One home on Culbertson Drive in New Athens was completely destroyed after the tornado ripped through the property, taking the roof with it. Homeowners John and Deb Ledger said they were in the middle of eating dinner around 5 p.m. when they received a tornado warning alert on their phones. It was only moments later when the twister began tearing away the roof of the structure. John said they began running through the home into the back of the house as the roof continued to rip away from the building. It was thrown into their backyard.

“As I was reading the alert on my phone, the wind kicked up and took our patio furniture up over the hill then the roof started peeling off,” he said.

The majority of the roof was completely gone, along with a shed that once stood in the backyard. Multiple trees were also scattered around the front of the yard. Although the property was severely damaged, no one was injured, which John said is the important thing.

“At least we’re safe and that’s what matters,” he said. “The worst part is over. We have neighbors and people helping us, the fire department and everyone else. That’s what America is about.”

The Ledgers have lived at the residence for 11 years and were unaware of anything like this occuring in the area previously.

As of Thursday evening, the couple along with their two dogs, Pika and Bella, were awaiting either the American Red Cross or their insurance company’s assistance to provide lodging for them as the damage to the property is assessed. A neighbor who offered to provide a generator to the Ledgers said a tree had fallen into his home, causing damage.

The Ledgers and more than 100 other families in the village were left without power following the tornado’s destruction — 143 outages to be exact, according American Electric Power Ohio. As of 10 p.m., the estimated restoration time was set for 11 p.m.

Another home located along North Main Street also lost a portion of its roof. Dawn Carson, the renter of the home, said half of her roof was torn off and thrown into a neighbor’s vehicle. Carson said she was in Cadiz at the time of the tornado but received a phone call just before 5 p.m. alerting her to the damage to her home.

Carson said her electric was knocked out and she had heard it could be days until it is restored. She said she and her father, Don, who also resides in the home, were waiting for first responders to get to the property to cover the opening in the building with a tarp to prevent further damage to the interior of the home.

The tornado went along Ohio 9 then made its way to Ohio 519, where multiple power lines were knocked down, witnesses said. According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, the road that leads to Harrisville will remain indefinitely closed due to “extensive damage to power lines and trees.” Crews were on scene working to clear the roadway late Thursday.

The Harrison County Sheriff’s Department took to social media to ask residents to use caution in the area.

“If you pass through New Athens please take it slow. Crews are working hard to clean up the damage caused by the tornado,” the department posted on Facebook.

The Harrison County Emergency Management Agency shared a similar message.

“Please use caution in the New Athens and Harrisville areas to allow emergency crews to work,” the agency wrote. “SR 9 near the water tower in New Athens as well as SR 519 between New Athens and Harrisville have tress, power lines and debris blocking roads. Please watch for downed power lines in the area that may be live. Fire/EMS crews, Sheriff’s Office, power company and ODOT are all headed to the area.”

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the area shortly before 5 p.m., saying radar indicated rotation within a storm passing through the region. It later confirmed touchdowns in both New Athens and Wintersville, where additional damage was reported.

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July 30, 2021 at 02:34PM
https://www.timesleaderonline.com/news/local-news/2021/07/new-athens-hit-hard-by-tornado/

New Athens hit hard by tornado | News, Sports, Jobs - Martins Ferry Times Leader

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China roundup: Keep down internet upstarts, cultivate hard tech - TechCrunch

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Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world.

The tech industry in China has had quite a turbulent week. The government is upending its $100 billion private education sector, wiping billions from the market cap of the industry’s most lucrative players. Meanwhile, the assault on Chinese internet giants continued. Tech stocks tumbled after Tencent suspended user registration, sparking fears over who will be the next target of Beijing’s wrath.

Incisive observers point out that the new wave of stringent regulations against China’s internet and education firms has long been on Beijing’s agenda and there’s nothing surprising. Indeed, the central government has been unabashed about its desires to boost manufacturing and contain the unchecked powers of its service industry, which can include everything from internet platforms, film studios to after-school centers.

A few weeks ago I had an informative conversation with a Chinese venture capitalist who has been investing in industrial robots for over a decade, so I’m including it in this issue as it provides useful context for what’s going on in the consumer tech industry this week.

Automate the factories

China is putting robots into factories at an aggressive pace. Huang He, a partner at Northern Light Venture Capital, sees three forces spurring the demand for industrial robots — particularly ones that are made in China.

Over the years, Beijing has advocated for “localization” in a broad range of technology sectors, from enterprise software to production line automation. One may start to see Chinese robots that can rival those of Schneider and Panasonic a few years down the road. CRP, an NLVC-backed industrial robot maker, is already selling across Southeast Asia, Russia and East Europe.

On top of tech localization, it’s also well acknowledged that China is facing a severe demographic crisis. The labor shortage in its manufacturing sector is further compounded by the reluctance of young people to do menial factory work. Factory robots could offer a hand.

“Youngsters these days would rather become food delivery riders than work in a factory. The work that robots replace is the low-skilled type, and those that still can’t be taken up by robots pay well and come with great benefits,” Huang observed.

Large corporations in China still lean toward imported robots due to the products’ proven stability. The problem is that imported robots are not only expensive but also selective about their users.

“Companies need to have deep technical capabilities to be able to operate these [Western] robots, but such companies are rare in China,” said Huang, adding that the overwhelming majority of Chinese enterprises are small and medium size.

With the exceptions of the automotive and semiconductor industries, which still largely rely on sophisticated, imported robots, affordable, easy-to-use Chinese robots can already meet most of the local demand for industrial automation, Huang said.

China currently uses nearly one million six-axis robots a year but only manufactures 20% of them itself. The gap, coupled with a national plan for localization, has led to a frenzy of investments in industrial robotics startups.

The rush isn’t necessarily a good thing, said Huang. “There’s this bizarre phenomenon in China, where the most funded and valuable industrial robotic firms are generating less than 30 million yuan in annual revenue and not really heard of by real users in the industry.”

“This isn’t an industry where giants can be created by burning through cash. It’s not the internet sector.”

Small-and-medium-size businesses are happily welcoming robots onto factory floors. Take welding for example. An average welder costs about 150,000 yuan ($23,200) a year. A typical welding robot, which is sold for 120,000 yuan, can replace up to three workers a year and “doesn’t complain at work,” said the investor. A quality robot can work continuously for six to eight years, so the financial incentive to automate is obvious.

Advanced manufacturing is not just helping local bosses. It will eventually increase foreign enterprises’ dependence on China for its efficiency, making it hard to cut off Chinese supply chains despite efforts to avoid the geopolitical risks of manufacturing in China.

“In electronics, for example, most of the supply chains are in China, so factories outside China end up spending more on logistics to move parts around. Much of the 3C manufacturing is already highly automated, which relies heavily on electricity, but in most emerging economies, the power supply is still quite unstable, which disrupts production,” said Huang.

War on internet titans

The shock of antitrust regulations against Alibaba from last year is still reverberating, but another wave of scrutiny has already begun. Shortly after Didi’s blockbuster IPO in New York, the ride-hailing giant was asked to cease user registration and work on protecting user information critical to national security.

On Tuesday, Tencent stocks fell the most in a decade after it halted user signups on its WeChat messenger as it “upgrades” its security technology to align with relevant laws and regulations. The gaming and social media giant is just the latest in a growing list of companies hit by Beijing’s tightening grip on the internet sector, which had been flourishing for two decades under laissez-faire policies.

Underlying the clampdowns is Beijing’s growing unease with the service industry’s unscrutinized accumulation of wealth and power. China is unequivocally determined to advance its tech sector, but the types of tech that Beijing wants are not so much the video games that bring myopia to children and algorithms that get adults hooked to their screens. China makes it clear in its five-year plan, a series of social and economic initiatives, that it will go all-in on “hard tech” like semiconductors, renewable energy, agritech, biotech and industrial automation like factory robotics.

China has also vowed to fight inequality in education and wealth. In the authorities’ eyes, expensive, for-profit after-schools dotting big cities are hindering education attainment for children from poorer areas, which eventually exacerbates the wealth gap. The new regulatory measures have restricted the hours, content, profits and financing of private tutoring institutions, tanking stocks of the industry’s top companies. Again, there have been clear indications from President Xi Jinping’s writings to bring off-campus tutoring “back on the educational track.” All China-focused investors and analysts are now poring over Xi’s thoughts and directives.

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July 31, 2021 at 11:00PM
https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/31/china-roundup-keep-down-internet-upstarts-cultivate-hard-tech/

China roundup: Keep down internet upstarts, cultivate hard tech - TechCrunch

https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

Once considered a 'city disease,' Zimbabwe's rural areas are being hit hard by Covid, and panic has set in - CNN

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The chatter around the canteen is all about the death of a popular health official from Covid-19 in a nearby village.

Panic has slowly set in this part of rural Zimbabwe as news of the death spreads in a place where people had previously considered themselves safe from a virus mostly concentrated in the country's bustling urban areas.

"This pandemic is scary. Everyone is talking about it and people are panicking. We thought we were safe but surely we need to think again," Chinyandura, 43, told CNN.

Livelihoods threatened

Life in Zimbabwe's rural areas has continued at a normal pace through the pandemic. Movement was unrestricted and those who wore face masks were often laughed at.

Funerals attracted large crowds and church gatherings would go on for days with no social distancing or face coverings.

By contrast, in the cities, the government has introduced another restrictive lockdown in a battle to curb a surge in coronavirus cases. Long lines form daily at vaccination centers as Zimbabweans rush to get vaccinated in urban areas.

Zimbabwe officially entered the third wave of infections at the start of winter in May, with the Delta variant dominating cases.

Three of the country's four districts that were declared as epicenters of the outbreak in June, and are now under strict lockdowns, are in predominantly rural areas.

The third wave has increased cases to more than 105,000 and nearly 3,421 deaths as of July 29.

Before the outbreak in her own village, people like Chinyandura thought the pandemic was a 'city disease.'

"It is something we heard from the radio, it seemed so distant that we never had to worry about it. But now, it is funeral after funeral, it has hit closer to home," the food vendor said.

"I am always afraid that maybe a customer will infect me with Covid-19," Chinyandura said.

The need to survive the day keeps her working, even as the risk of contracting the virus has become a reality.

"I need the money," she said, while dishing out steaming bowls of sadza, a local staple, to impatient customers.

"There is nothing I can do. I will die of hunger if I do not run this canteen. This face mask is all I have to protect myself from Covid-19, but for how long can I put it on. I have to talk to customers and breathe as well," Chinyandura said.

Chinyandura's canteen has no takeaway facility but, to minimize risk, she asks customers to leave after finishing their meals. Some of them consider that rude.

"I love my customers and my canteen helps them relax during lunch but times have changed. They have to leave after eating because it is becoming risky to gather even in small groups," she added.

Her husband, Alfred Makumbe emerges from a grinding mill, a few yards from his wife's makeshift kitchen.

Makumbe's business has also suffered from the hard lockdown in the village, imposed in late June.

No province spared

For the first time since the pandemic reached Zimbabwe in March last year, villagers are afraid of venturing out, he said.

"Covid has really affected us. If it does not get you, it will affect your pocket. People are no longer coming due to Covid. The police are always tracking us down, to shut down businesses that attract people," said Makumbe.

"Covid is here and it is not here to play," he added.

Agnes Mahomva, chief coordinator of Zimbabwe's response to the pandemic, told CNN that no province in the country has been spared.

"We are working hard to ensure that the response teams are as robust as possible using existing structures from previous outbreaks," Mahomva said.

But Zimbabwe's vaccination rollout, which started in February, has not prioritized rural areas and there has been a marked shortage of shots outside the cities.

This is because rural Zimbabwe is largely inaccessible due to poor roads and a lack of telecommunications.

By Thursday last week, 2 million doses had been administered in a country of almost 15 million people.

Zimbabwe has received donations and purchased more than 5 million vaccines, mainly China's Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube says millions more shots are on the way, although some Zimbabweans may need convincing to take the vaccines because of religious beliefs and general misinformation.

"I do not want to be vaccinated. I will see when I get sick," Chinyandura says.

"I am part of an apostolic sect and although we stopped all gatherings, we do not take vaccines. I have never been vaccinated in my life," she added.

However, others from the village such as 87-year-old Tiba Tanganyika told CNN he is desperate to get a jab.

The last time he visited his local hospital seeking a shot, the nurses warned that his blood pressure was too high and he was refused.

"I really want to get it," Tanganyika said.

'It hits home if it is someone that you know'

Around 70% of Zimbabwe's population live in poverty and dilapidated health facilities are themselves in intensive care.

Johannes Marisa, a medical practitioner described the third wave as a "disaster," and blames potential super-spreader events such as funerals for the rise in rural areas.

"Tradition is believed to be more important than any rules," Marisa told CNN.

However, the death of the senior health official at Makumbe District Hospital has brought the spread of Covid-19 into sharper focus.

"We just heard of the death ... so everyone is panicking. People are afraid of even going to get tested or getting vaccinated because of the increase in cases.

"We used to hear that there was Covid but now it is on our doorstep. It always hits home if it is someone that you know," said Alfred Makumbe, Chinyandura's husband, who was also related to the official.

"We all need to be serious," Sikhanyile Sikube, a 28-year-old mother from Domboshava, told CNN The death of the health worker should serve as a warning to those who do not take Covid-19 seriously."

While winter is almost over, Marisa says Zimbabwe is not yet out of danger.

"We are not yet out of the woods because of the behavior and attitude of the people. The level of complacency is too high with supersonic community spread. We need more discipline," Marisa added.

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July 31, 2021 at 08:06PM
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/31/africa/rural-zimbabwe-covid-cmd-intl/index.html

Once considered a 'city disease,' Zimbabwe's rural areas are being hit hard by Covid, and panic has set in - CNN

https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

Why hard seltzer is still America's 'it' drink - Yahoo Finance

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 10: Mike Johnson and Dustin Kendrick react to the season finale of The Bachelor while sippingon Smirnoff Seltzer Rosés on March 10, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for Smirnoff)

It’s nearly August. And as we slide into the back half of summer 2021 (with COVID on the rise, half the country sweltering, the other half rain-soaked, the Olympics still grinding along, the market mostly up and the Robinhood IPO mostly down) I have a salient question: What are you drinking?

It’s a question both small and big, because beverages, and, yes, I’m talking about those of the alcoholic variety, are a pretty major part of the economy, particularly the summer economy and more than that, to some of us, define who we are (not unlike what you drive in LA).

Even more than that, changes in what we’re drinking (beer, wine, liquor and now hard seltzer — much on the latter here), reflect the reopening of the economy (for now) and changes in our society writ large. Furthermore, delving into hard seltzer also allows us to meet a brand-new multibillionaire nick-named Tony Baloney, who’s minting money, never mind to note that effective Aug. 1, White Claw will no longer be considered beer, according to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. (Fear not, I will spell this out.)

First, about alcoholic beverages. We’re all aware of the general trends: wine up, beer down, (especially the old stalwart brands), and clear liquor up, except for the great American bourbon renaissance. Along with everything else in the world of food and drink, there’s been an explosion in craft, boutique, and bespoke everything; $2700 per bottles of gin, crazy beers like Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout, and the likes of chokeberry hard cider (yikes) along with endless flavors. (How'd you like some pb&j, doughnut, waffle, or cut grass flavored vodka?) Then there’s the mixes and blends of all manner of booze, beers, wines etc, all in the funkiest, coolest, weirdest, most psychedelic cans and bottles imaginable. Brand loyalty is out. Trying is in. (And please scream "marketing" here as loud as you can.)

Bud isn't even in the top 5 anymore

Young people today (ah, my favorite phrase) love nothing better than to grab a massive assortment of all of the above, ice ‘em down in some sort of tub and then mix, match, and drink all Saturday afternoon. (Oh yes, dear reader, I’ve seen this with my own two eyes.) Or they go off to brewpubs and quaff flights of raspberry Lambics, Flanders, Gose, and other sours. (And yes, I have tried them, oh reader, and they are not to my liking.)

Signage of Bud light outside a bar in New York City, United States. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Long gone are the days when all Budweiser had to do was roll out the Christmas Clydesdales TV ads to keep the business going. Today the amount of product development, testing, marketing, measuring of sales, and (shrinking) margins, as well as cajoling retailers and distributors — (and ultimately consumers) to accept the new SKUs (stock keeping units) and keep up with the relentless churn is truly a Herculean and in some cases Sisyphean task. On the other hand, what’s to justify a shopkeeper stocking Miller High Life (The Champagne of Beers) or even Heineken anymore?

“At one point, the Top 5 beer brands commanded over 50% of the market and now sit around 30%,” says Brian Sudano, managing partner for New York-based Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) in the 2021 "Beer Report: Beer market in state of flux as consumer preferences change" (Beverage Industry.) “In addition, Michelob Ultra and Modelo Especial are now Top 5 brands and former leading brand, Budweiser, is no longer in the Top 5.”

Can you imagine, Bud isn’t even in the top five anymore.

And now into this most fluid world, enter hard seltzer, a new category of beverages created in large part by a somewhat mysterious Vancouver billionaire named Anthony Von Mandl through his company Mark Anthony. (There is no connection to either Caesar’s general or the Latin Grammy winner. Von Mandl just thought the name sounded “vaguely familiar,” according to a 2014 Business in Vancouver article.) Mandl’s company makes crowd favorite White Claw, which is supposedly named after “the rogue ‘White Claw Waves’ that travel in sets of three across the ocean,” but I can’t confirm such waves exist. (Seltzer of course goes way back and another brand, Bon & Viv, lays claim to have invented the mixing in of alcohol.)

Von Mandl scrapped and clawed (!) his way up the food, er drink, chain by investing in high-end wineries in British Columbia (once visited by Prince William and Kate Middleton.) But Von Mandl's real genius moves were concocting lower-brow beverages, first Mike’s Hard Lemonade in the mid 1990s which made him rich, then White Claw in 2016 which made him mega-rich.

On his epiphany to create Mike’s, Von Mandl said in a 2006 interview, according to Bloomberg, "25% of guys didn't particularly want to drink beer, but couldn't be seen holding anything else in their hand."

The summer of White Claw

White Claw, “made from a blend of seltzer water, our gluten free alcohol base, and a hint of fruit flavor,” according to the company’s website, took the U.S. by storm in 2019, (the Summer of White Claw), replete with viral videos “"Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws," (5.9 million views) and product shortages. At one point White Claw had over 60% market share of hard seltzer in the U.S., and though exact numbers are tough to come by, it’s slipped a bit reportedly, whereas No. 2 in the category, Truly (more on them below) has gained. Together, it’s said Truly and White Claw command up to 80% of the market now.

In this screengrab, Anthony von Mandl speaks during the Breast Cancer Research Foundation Virtual Hot Pink Evening on May 20, 2020. (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images for Breast Cancer Research Foundation)

In that Bloomberg article noted above, a curious side point. It cites an email from Von Mandl’s company saying that Mark Anthony had become "America's fourth-largest beer company.” But wait, hard seltzer isn’t beer, right? As it turns out Mark Anthony may well have said that because as a beer or malt-based drink, White Claw was able to avoid U.S. tariffs because of preferential treatment for that beverage. (The Canadian version reportedly is vodka based.)

But early this year the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) noted that White Claw "does not have the taste, aroma, character or appearance of beer" and "is not named beer, and importantly, is not sold or marketed as beer,” and successfully reclassified the drink which will make it subject to tariffs, according to the previously mentioned Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, effective Aug. 1.

Why did hard seltzer take off, besides a marketing push from Von Mandl? “If you think about the whole seltzer dynamic, and what’s causing it, it’s the convergence of health and wellness and convenience,” says Nik Modi, an analyst at RBC Capital. The New York Times' Julie Creswell notes, “White Claw’s slim cans (smart, right?) prominently state that the drinks contain only 100 calories, are gluten free and have only two grams each of carbohydrates and sugar.” 

The drink is also apparently drunk by both men and women, not easy for any product to accomplish, particularly beverages, which tend to skew either male or female.

And then the pandemic hit, accelerating the growth of hard seltzer. “Maybe you don’t make yourself a Manhattan at home, but it's your favorite drink at the bar,” says Chris Lombardo, senior analyst at the industry research firm IBISWorld. “At home, maybe you want a low calorie, easy beverage, and you go with a hard seltzer.” Meaning instead of drinking wine at a restaurant, beer at ballgame or cocktails in a bar, young people in particular bought hard seltzer at convenience stores and brought them home to drink in the backyard or while watching Netflix. Hard seltzer sales totaled $4 billion in 2020, up from $500 million in 2018, Creswell reported in The New York Times, citing NielsenIQ data.

The end of hard seltzer?

But now that’s all unwinding, right? Maybe.

To understand the current state of play, let’s take a look at the No. 2 brand in the category, Truly, which also has a somewhat unlikely parentage, that being Boston Beer (SAM), maker of Sam Adams, as well as Twisted Tea and Angry Orchard Hard Cider. Boston Beer also now happens to be America’s largest independent publicly traded beer company, with Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller all foreign-owned.

Boston Beer dropped a bombshell on July 23 with an anemic quarterly report — “earnings of $4.75 per share on $603 million in revenue, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were looking for $6.69 in earnings per share and $658 million in revenue,” as CNBC noted. The miss was due to weaker than anticipated sales growth of Truly. The company also re-forecast demand for the product, which it now says will grow “25% and 40%, a decrease from the previously reported estimate of between 40% and 50%,” according to an earnings release. And SAM stock was down an eye-popping 26% on the day.

BOSTON - FEBRUARY 14: Jim Koch, brewer/founder of Sam Adams. (Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Boston Beer CEO David Burwick told CNBC that he was surprised by the lackluster sales of Truly, acknowledging that management did not "look very smart" after its prior forecast. 

SAM founder Jim Koch suggested in a statement cited by Bloomberg that there was “consumer confusion” over the number of hard seltzers available to consumers — confusion his own company may be adding to with its now 30 flavors. And of course all the biggies, Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors, Corona etc have jumped in with hard seltzers, too.

Predictably, the very same day of Boston Beer’s mea culpa, we saw headlines like “The hard seltzer craze has come to an end” (this one from CNN.)

But has it really?

'The category can grow double digits'

More than a few say folks in the biz say heck no. “What drove the segment to begin with is health and wellness and convenience — that’s still relevant. And that hasn’t gone away,” says Modi of RBC Capital. “The reality is the seltzer category is still growing very nicely off of some pretty tough compares. The beer industry is underperforming quite dramatically. There’s significant market share seltzer is taking from beer. We think the category can grow double digits for the next couple years.”

I agree that it’s hard to see hard seltzer not having staying power and more. Besides the fact that any COVID shutdowns probably boost hard seltzer sales, Modi’s health and wellness point seem most persuasive to me. And there are a few other points to consider, as well.

For one thing, the hard seltzer trend has room to grow overseas. White Claw, for instance, has just announced plans for international expansion.

Danelle Kosmal, vice president of the alcoholic beverage practice for NielsenIQ, also makes the point that more people may drink hard seltzer away from home. “What’s unique about hard seltzer is typically in alcohol you see a trend start in bars and restaurants and then it transfers to off premise,” she says. “Seltzer is one of the few times we see the opposite trend, started off premise and now it’s transitioning to on premise.”

And Lombardo of IBISWorld sees hard seltzer companies as takeover targets, which might lead to more investment. “To be honest, with the purchasing power that the biggest alcohol production companies have, I’d be surprised if at least one of them wasn’t acquired at some point. Just because of what history has shown us,” Lombardo says.

But hard seltzer makers won’t be immune from the fray and the churn I wrote about above. Coming on strong now are pre-made cocktails. That, and even more mixing, along the lines of “hard lemonade seltzer, hard tea seltzer, agave-based seltzers and tequila-inspired [drinks],” says Kosmal of NielsenIQ. “We’ll continue to see those. The blurring of the lines continues to increase to the point where most consumers don’t know or care what the alcohol base is — they’re going after what tastes the best.”

Imagine that.

This article was featured in a Saturday edition of the Morning Brief on July 31, 2021. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @serwer

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July 31, 2021 at 03:45PM
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-hard-seltzer-is-still-americas-it-drink-084512275.html

Why hard seltzer is still America's 'it' drink - Yahoo Finance

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#WordinBlack: Why I'll be cheering extra hard during these Olympics | Afro - Afro American

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(Photo by Charles Deluvio/Unsplash)

by Larry Lee
Publisher, Sacramento Observer

I absolutely love the Summer Olympics. Growing up, I ran, jumped and played, emulating some of my favorite American Olympians of the era such as Carl Lewis, “Sugar” Ray Leonard, Michael Jordan, Edwin Moses and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

For those reasons alone, I am glued to the television every four years to watch the best in the world reach unthinkable heights. This year, however, I have an additional reason to watch the 2020 Summer Olympics taking place in Tokyo, Japan — I want to see these great athletes use the Games to express themselves around issues of social and political justice.

Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) eased its longstanding ban on all athlete protest inside the Games field of play. Gestures are now allowed before races and games start, on the field, and at the start line. Political gestures are still not allowed on the medal stand. Observers see athletes and the IOC eventually heading to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to debate Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which bans any kind of “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda.”

Soccer (football) players from the United States, Great Britain and Sweden have knelt down on their knees to protest racism so far during these Games. FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, has had a relaxed view on taking a knee since players were inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement last year. It has been encouraging to see the international response to racism in the United States with athletes honoring the gesture that got quarterback Colin Kaepernick blackballed from the NFL.

These early protests have set off a familiar response by many.

Right-wing commentator Laura Ingraham went on one of her “shut up and dribble” rants — longing for the “Olympics of old” where American Olympians just collected medals and didn’t use the international stage of the Games to express themselves.

Ingraham, and others agreeing with her, need a history lesson about how the Olympics has served as a catalyst for social activism that changed the world for the better.

As a young person growing up in my parents’ home in Sacramento, Olympians who used their voice for change were not vilified as they were by a majority of Americans. They were considered American heroes. Athletes such as Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos were household names. Even countries that boycotted the Games over issues such as apartheid or the United States boycotting the 1980 Games (and Russia doing the same in 1984) during the Cold War was celebrated.

The Olympics is a global event and provides an opportunity for the seeds of change to be planted. To take a line from H. Rap Brown when describing American violence, in my mind, the Olympics and protests go together — they are “as American as cherry pie.”

Eighty-five years ago, Jesse Owens became an international icon after dominating the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Owens isn’t revered just because he won four gold medals; he is considered one of the greatest athletes in history because he accomplished the feat in the face of white supremacist Adolph Hitler. Owens’ victories on the global stage, put Hitler on notice that there was no such thing as Aryan superiority — years before Nazi Germany would be defeated in World War II.

Muhammad Ali was on the right side of history when he became a “conscientious objector” for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. Years before, Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, who won gold in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy threw his gold medal in the Ohio River after he was refused service in a Louisville restaurant because of the color of his skin.

Ali’s reaction to the response he was given as an Olympic champion signaled a sea change for African American athletes. Perhaps, it was after seeing even the great Jesse Owens disrespected by America — at times even having to race against horses for a pay day — that Ali began to develop a powerful voice that spoke up about the atrocities committed against Blacks by their own country.

That voice would fuel a generation.

Never was that more evident than at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. Buoyed by Ali’s call for racial justice, members of the San Jose State University men’s track team — among them Tommie Smith and Lee Evans, along with their sociology professor, Harry Edwards — had been organizing a Black boycott of the Games for about a year called the “Olympic Project for Human Rights.” Frustration for many on the SJSU team was born out of the racist housing practices they faced around the South Bay campus.

Larry Lee is shown interviewing 1968 Olympic gold medalist Lee Evans on the campus of San Jose State University in 1995. Evans was one of the key organizers of the protests at the Mexico City Games. Lee graduated from SJSU in 1997. (Courtesy photo)

While the boycott didn’t happen, Lew Alcindor (who would eventually change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) did boycott the Olympics, using his voice as the greatest college basketball player of the day and number one NBA draft pick, to stand up against racism.

Smith and John Carlos would go on to perform their iconic gesture on the medal stand after finishing first and third in the 200-meter race. Their simple, black-gloved, raised fists during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner would get the two removed from the Games by IOC’s Avery Brundage — who allegedly called the gesture a “nasty demonstration… by negros.” Evans, the gold medal winner in the 400 meters and the mile relay, wore a black beret on the medal stand in solidarity. Smith, Carlos, Evans and others would later receive death threats by their “fellow countrymen” for their actions.

Nations have also used the Olympics as a platform for change. Most notably, more than 30, mostly African nations boycotted the 1976 Olympics in response to the participation of New Zealand’s rugby team in the Games. New Zealand had permitted sports relations with South Africa despite the nation’s continued racial segregation policy of apartheid. Parts of the world had begun to see the cruelty occurring in South Africa — particularly after the Soweto uprising just weeks before the Olympics.

The 1976 Olympic boycott served as a key moment in the fight against racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa, forcing the word “apartheid” to be on the front page of nearly every newspaper in the world. South African apartheid would come to an end in 1994.

David Grevemberg from the Geneva-based Centre for Sport and Human Rights, calls this global moment “a crossroads for all sport.” Today’s athletes and nations are recognizing anti-Black racism and the centuries-long oppression of Black people around the world and are no longer going to sit idly by. Athletes from the WNBA, NBA, professional tennis and more have united in the chorus of racial justice and equity. The Olympic Games offers a powerful megaphone for athletes such as Gwen Berry, Noah Lyles and others to join in and let their voices be heard.

Track and field competitions, my favorite part, begin July 30. So while Brundage is rolling over in his grave and Ingraham is doing whatever it is she does, I will be cheering to see greatness be great — both on the field of play and off it.

Larry Lee, publisher of the Sacramento Observer. (Courtesy photo)

Larry Lee is the publisher of the Sacramento Observer.

The opinions on this page are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the AFRO. Send letters to The Afro-American • 1531 S. Edgewood St. Baltimore, MD 21227 or fax to 1-877-570-9297 or e-mail to editor@afro.com

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July 31, 2021 at 02:04AM
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#WordinBlack: Why I'll be cheering extra hard during these Olympics | Afro - Afro American

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Hard-won gains at risk as Delta variant spreads- WHO - Reuters

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A logo is pictured at the World Health Organization (WHO) building in Geneva, Switzerland, February 2, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA, July 30 (Reuters) - The world is at risk of losing hard-won gains in fighting COVID-19 as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads, but WHO-approved vaccines remain effective, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described the Delta variant of the coronavirus as being as transmissible as chickenpox and cautioned it could cause severe disease, the Washington Post said, citing an internal CDC document. read more

COVID-19 infections have increased by 80% over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Deaths in Africa - where only 1.5% of the population is vaccinated - rose by 80% over the same period.

"Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed," Tedros told a news conference.

The Delta variant has been detected in 132 countries, becoming the dominant global strain, according to the WHO.

"The vaccines that are currently approved by the WHO all provide significant protection against severe disease and hospitalisation from all the variants, including the Delta variant," said WHO's top emergency expert, Mike Ryan.

"We are fighting the same virus but a virus that has become faster and better adapted to transmitting amongst us humans, that's the change," he said.

Maria van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, said the Delta variant was the most easily spread so far, about 50% more transmissible than ancestral strains of SARS-CoV-2 that first emerged in China in late 2019.

A few countries had reported increased hospitalisation rates, but higher rates of mortality had not been recorded from the Delta variant, she said.

Japan said on Friday it would expand states of emergency to three prefectures near Olympic host city Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka, as COVID-19 cases spike in the capital and around the country, overshadowing the Summer Games. read more

Ryan noted that Tokyo had recorded more than 3,000 cases in the past 24 hours, among some 10,000 new infections in Japan.

"The Olympics is a part of that overall context and the risk management that is place around the Olympics is extremely comprehensive," he said.

Reporting by Mike Shields in Zurich and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; editing by Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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July 30, 2021 at 11:35PM
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Hard-won gains at risk as Delta variant spreads- WHO - Reuters

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As Hard Seltzer Interest Wanes, Hard Kombucha Gains Momentum - Forbes

Olympic Success Gives Hong Kong an Emotional Lift in Hard Times - The New York Times

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As China clamps down on its civil and political rights, Hong Kong is finding solace and hope in its best-ever Olympic showing.

TOKYO — The light red flag with the five-petaled bauhinia flower does not represent a country. But Hong Kong, the Chinese territory where political and civil rights have been battered in recent months, is enjoying its strongest-ever showing at the Tokyo Olympics, capturing gold in fencing and two silvers in swimming.

The three-medal haul is the first time that Hong Kong, which was returned to Chinese rule by the British in 1997, captured more than a single medal at the Olympics. On Friday, the swimmer Siobhan Haughey won her second silver of the Games, in the women’s 100-meter freestyle, following a victory in the 200-meter freestyle event on Wednesday.

But out of the pool and off the fencing piste, Hong Kong’s fortunes have not been as bright. The territory was promised significant political freedoms for the 50 years after its handover to China, but Beijing has clamped down. Most of Hong Kong’s top opposition politicians are in prison or in exile. Last month, the biggest pro-democracy newspaper was forced to shutter.

On Friday, the first person to be convicted under a tough new national security law of terrorism and inciting secession was sentenced to nine years in prison for driving a motorcycle into police officers while carrying a protest flag.

Beijing’s crackdown has targeted contemporary art, civics lessons in high schools and children’s books featuring a dozen fluffy sheep.

“Currently, many Hong Kong people probably feel unhappy and full of negative emotions,” said Tse Ying-suet, who played in the bronze medal match in badminton mixed doubles on Friday. “I think athletes winning Olympic medals brings Hong Kong people some hope and joy.”

Tse and her partner, Tang Chun-man, went on to lose against a Japanese pair, but she thanked people in Hong Kong who had flocked to malls and other public spaces to watch the badminton contest live.

“I feel very happy that so many people got together to support Hong Kong athletes,” Tse said.

People at a shopping mall in Hong Kong cheered for Haughey during the women’s 100-meter freestyle final.Vincent Yu/Associated Press

The Hong Kong police said on Friday that they had arrested a man in a crowd of people who had gathered to watch Cheung Ka-long’s fencing final at a mall. The man had violated the national anthem ordinance by holding up the British colonial flag and inciting others to chant negative slogans while the Chinese anthem was playing at Cheung’s victory ceremony, the police said. The authorities were also investigating whether he had breached the national security law.

“These insults to the Chinese national anthem are to incite hatred and politicize the sports event,” said Chung Lai-yee, a senior police superintendent.

Hong Kong first entered the Olympic fold in 1952 when it was a colony of the British, who ruled the territory with little regard for the rights of the colonized. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Lee Lai-shan won Hong Kong’s first gold, in windsurfing. “God Save the Queen,” the British national anthem, was played at her victory ceremony. A colonial flag was hoisted.

Four years later, in Sydney, Hong Kong competed for the first time as Hong Kong, China. When Cheung won gold in fencing’s individual foil event on Monday, “March of the Volunteers,” the Chinese anthem, was played. The bauhinia flag was raised.

With the rapid erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms, some have questioned how long the enclave will be able to field its own team at the Olympics. On Friday, Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, said that he was not aware of any discussion about Hong Kong’s future in the Games.

“I see no reason why it won’t continue,” he said.

Hong Kong’s team during the Opening Ceremony.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

During the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when equestrian events were held in Hong Kong, people in the territory cheered on both the Hong Kong team and the Chinese squad. Fears that Hong Kong would change drastically after the handover had not materialized.

The enclave, bound by a “one country, two systems” formula that ensured it a high degree of autonomy, seemed to enjoy the best of both worlds: a reputation as a law-bound society blessed with political freedoms and proximity to the booming markets of mainland China.

The last couple years have shattered that sense of security. Mass protests coalesced in 2019, bringing millions onto the streets. Each week seemed to bring more evidence that Beijing was determined to impose its will on Hong Kong. At the same time, some people in Hong Kong decried the pro-democracy movement, which disrupted the central financial district, calling it either impossibly idealistic or bad for business.

The trio of medals in Tokyo, an impressive tally for a territory of only 7.5 million people, has given the people of Hong Kong something to cheer.

Online, in English, the Hong Kong Olympic establishment celebrated the accomplishments of the medalists. But on one official website, the names of the athletes were at one point rendered in Mandarin, the official language in mainland China, not Cantonese, the predominant language in Hong Kong.

Ko Hei, a senior sports executive at the Hong Kong Fencing Association, said he was surprised to hear that Cheung’s name had been depicted for a time in Mandarin, rather than Hong Kong’s home language. (Cheung’s English given name is Edgar.)

Alexander Choupenitch of Czech Republic in action against Cheung Ka Long of Hong Kong.Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Fencing has long been popular in Hong Kong, he said, and more than 1,000 children regularly turn out for competitions. The sport has garnered Olympic medals for China, too, including a gold in Tokyo.

“They’re getting very good,” Ko said, of China. “But we don’t have any relationship with them. We are separate.”

Joy Dong contributed research from Hong Kong.

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July 30, 2021 at 10:20PM
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/sports/olympics/hong-kong-china-olympics-democracy.html

Olympic Success Gives Hong Kong an Emotional Lift in Hard Times - The New York Times

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