Approved use of a sign

Michael Pollan on labeling

 "I think we should have a lot more transparency about food, not less. I think we should label food if it contains pesticides, but nobody is talking about that. It's really peculiar that if you're not using pesticides, if you're organic, you have to pay to put a label on declaring you aren't using pesticides. It should be the other way around."

For my money Michael Pollan one of the most considered food thinkers of our time. His insights are profound but also realistic, sensible. This comes from a brief interview by New York Magazine's Grub Street about his new Netflix documentary Cooked, which I'm watching now. If you haven't read his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, I highly recommend it. 

Recent reading, design edition.

Explaining graphic design to four year olds.

A comparison of Lush and Body Shop's website. Hat tip to Joseph Richardson.

An incremental design improvement, made over a weekend kaizen event, and the result is a machine that has outlasted four "improvements". A great article on why the B-52 is still the main big plane for the U.S. armed forces. 

Recent reading, moguls edition

The making of Shinola. A look inside a bit of the sausage making as a new luxury brand comes into existence right under our noses. 

"The biggest business incubator in New York" is a place that sells friend anchovies? The founder of Smorgasburg, the grandaddy of the new modern food hall movement, talks about the economics of running a modern food court.

Chuck Williams, one of the founders of the modern food catalog and how he got started.

Recent Reading

A nice article on the inspiring work of Jonny Hunter and his Madison, Wisconsin-based Underground Foods. Among many other things, they make a very fine summer sausage. 

How our slate cheese boards are made: images.

Singles Day, November 11, is China's Cyber Monday. Alibaba, China's biggest online retailer found out bra size could indicate spending power. Correlation? Causation? Who cares. Data marketing is weird. 

Recent reading on meat

The lack of small, local slaughterhouses is often cited as one of the obstacles getting in the way of you and me buying affordable meat from small, local farmers. There's a bill being proposed to change slaughterhouse oversight rules in a way that would make it easier for them to get off the ground. The article quotes from some people we work with like Will Harris and Greg Gunthorp.

One argument against raising animals for meat is that it redirects calories to animals that we could otherwise eat. Except...

"...most of the feed that livestock eat is not edible by humans. Globally, just 18 percent of animal feed is made up of grains or other crops that people might otherwise eat. The rest is crop residues, grass, and waste from milling grain and other food processing. And so, despite the inefficiency of converting calories to meat, animals are able to give humans access to energy that they wouldn’t have been able to access otherwise."

Many more interesting points in the article Can meat ever be environmentally friendly?

Tinned tuna Buddha

Hong Kong Airport, Terminal 1, Departures Hall, Non-restricted area, 10,000 tins of tuna—not Ortiz.