Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
The depths of sugar
Eater
“Sugar is survival,” writes Ruby Tandoh, and we evolved to detect it as a means of finding high-calorie foods. But it is also “a commodity, one historically produced with some of the most brutal labor practices on the planet. In the Western imagination, sugar is pleasure, temptation, and vice — and in modern history, it is original sin.” Sugar is deeply connected to art, desire, race, and labor, Tandoh writes, despite being often associated with frivolity and indulgence.
What’s the fate of the Food Network?
Grub Street
Food Network was once the dominant cooking channel, whose competitions created stars and whose spread of instructional shows taught millions how to cook. But now, the network faces a serious challenger in Netflix, which has invested an increasing amount of its original programming to cooking shows and competitions. “As it’s doing with scripted shows, Netflix is offering creators and talent more — more creative freedom, and more resources,” writes Andy Dehnart. Meanwhile, “Food Network’s shows are hosted and judged by talented chefs and successful restaurateurs, but critics of the network say that the shows’ formats don’t always play to the chefs’ strengths or expertise.”
Send FERN to SXSW!
We’ve submitted two panels to next year’s SXSW—one on reporting on rural America under Trump, and another on the future of Big Food. Both feature our staff writer Leah Douglas, as well as an excellent lineup of FERN reporters and friends. But we need your help to get there! Vote for our panels here and here to help bring our big ideas to Austin in March 2019.
The waning days of Diet Coke
The New Yorker
Sales of Diet Coke have declined every year since 2006, causing some to predict that the beverage is in its waning days. Nathan Heller posits that the rise and fall of Diet Coke can be tied to our cultural and political trends. “Although the Coca-Cola Company has always tried to press Diet Coke on hip, scrappy youths, it became, enduringly, the beverage of the power generation that emerged across the Clinton years,” Heller posits. “Everything seems quite precarious these days, and Diet Coke, as is its wont, has given that precariousness a late-afternoon-style crash of jangly existential panic. “Ahhh” has become “AHHH!,” and along the way the fortunes of America’s favorite power soda have gone flat.”
A creator of GMOs wants you to love them
Bloomberg
“Three decades ago, Robert T. Fraley helped invent the genetically modified seeds that have become a $17 billion global industry and ushered in a new era of agricultural productivity,” writes Lydia Mulvany. “GMOs have become Fraley’s legacy, and he’s convinced the world will need more such innovations to keep pace with the demand for more food as populations and incomes grow.” But public skepticism toward GMO foods and Monsanto’s poor reputation have proved difficult to overcome.
Seltzer, now cool, encroaches on soda’s position
The Washington Post
Soda is still the country’s favorite soft drink, but seltzer is catching up. “Free of calories, sodium and fake sweeteners, the sparkling waters seem to have struck a sweet spot with health-conscious buyers eager to swap out syrupy sodas for the benefits of water but nevertheless bored by the most abundant liquid on earth,” writes Drew Harwell. “To compete, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have doubled down with new lines, such as Dasani Sparkling Water, while further hedging their bets with new brands of energy drinks, artisanal “craft sodas” and milk.”