FERN’s Friday Feed: Conbini to the rescue!
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
How Japan’s 24-7 food marts fed the Olympic press corps
The New York Times
“Japan is in a state of emergency. Coronavirus cases are on the rise. Unleashing thousands of foreigners like me, an American journalist covering the Games, into a city — to its restaurants and bars and stores — would be imprudent,” writes Andrew Keh. “But we do need to eat. Enter the saving grace of these Olympics, the glue holding the whole thing together: Tokyo’s 24-hour convenience stores, or conbini, as they are known in Japan. They have quickly become a primary source of sustenance — and, more surprisingly, culinary enjoyment — for many visitors navigating one of the strangest Games in history.”
We can’t quit the Ziploc, and that’s a problem
Taste
“Resealable bags comprise a $1.6 billion industry today, and it’s growing in size and variety. There are sandwich bags, miniature snack bags, gallon storage bags, and freezer bags,” writes Mari Uyehara. “That convenience is not without cost. According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Single-Use Plastics report, between 1 and 5 trillion plastic bags, resealable bags among them, are consumed worldwide each year … As the plastic breaks down into microplastic particles and potentially toxic chemicals, those also enter the food chain. But the story of plastic bags started as one of immigrant innovation and hope.”
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The weird, sustainable booze of the future
Wired
“This booze is sui generis, made from substrates as varied as plum pits, pasilla Mixe chiles, and kombucha, distilled not in a steampunk copper pot but in a vacuum still plucked from a chemistry lab,” writes Adam Rogers. “It’s weird, yeah—but maybe the weirdest thing about all this atypical, unclassifiable booze is how normal it actually is. Spirits are going through a kind of a biotechnical revolution, an application of new methods and a rediscovery of old ones, applied to classic and unfamiliar ingredients alike … And those products also (bonus!) support sustainability in the face of climate change.”
Rethinking what it means to be a ‘Jewish’ restaurant
New York Magazine
“The only thing I know for sure is that ‘Jewish food’ is not one thing — it isn’t just bagels or bialys or pastrami — but, lately, that is too often what I see when a new Jewish restaurant opens,” writes Jason Diamond. “It had started to feel like all you need is an account with Acme Smoked Fish, somebody with a brisket recipe, and a few vintage glass seltzer bottles for decoration and really anybody can open up a ‘Jewish restaurant.’ It’s the goleming of my culture, soullessness dressed up in white subway tile. And it’s a problem that other cultures face as their food makes its way into the American diet.”
In California, wildfires hit insurers and insurers drop farmers
Grist
“Insurance companies in California have taken a staggering blow from wildfires — the industry’s losses in 2017 and 2018 eclipsed its total profits from the previous 25 years — and have started to drop customers by the thousands, leaving wineries and ranches unable to find insurance for properties worth millions of dollars,” writes Jake Bittle. “Hundreds of farm owners … have found themselves forced to go without insurance coverage this past year, from ranchers along the Central Coast, nut growers outside San Diego, and winery owners … in Sonoma and Napa Valley.”