Lost in the Supermarket

Nora Minno is an award-winning registered dietitian and certified personal trainer based in New York, NY. Over the past 10 years, Nora has built a reputation in the fitness and nutrition space as a credible expert developing communications and marketing strategies for top CPG companies, professional sports teams, global health apps, and leading healthcare groups. Her work, writing, and advice have been featured in national outlets including The Today Show, Women's Health, Health Magazine, and Well + Good and she appears regularly as a trainer on Daily Burn’s Emmy-nominated show DB365.

Welcome to Lost in the Supermarket. Whether you're a shopper or whether you're the CEO of a major food company or a retail organization, the number one concern that everybody has when you walk in a supermarket, it's about the produce department. Think about it for a moment. What you've got is you've got these fabulous colors, you've got this great aroma. Basically it's putting you in a great mood for a great shopping experience. So today I'm really thrilled to have with us Chris Jorgenson. Not only is Chris one of the state of the art produce managers in the nation, but he just won the International Fresh Produce Association Produce Manager Award of the year. 

Mylk Labs is a woman & minority-owned food start-up based in California. Born out of the need for convenience, founder Grace Cheng created a better-for-you oatmeal cup that uses only 4-6 ingredients, a lot less sugar and no added flavors-- ever.

Grace Cheng is a fashion model, first-time entrepreneur, and founder of Mylk Labs. Juggling two different career paths, Grace emphasizes the importance of eating healthy on the go and using the knowledge gained as a USC Alumna, she's now sharing her secret go-to breakfast while traveling the world as the face of many prestigious brands.

It was about a month or so ago at the RDBA virtual experience that I met our next guest. Chef Barton Seaver is a seafood expert. World Oceans Day is coming up in just a few days from now. So I couldn't think of a better person to talk to about sustainability, about seafood and with the background, that chef Barton has.

Our food supply is in the headlines every day – as prices soar, shortages increase and a war 6,000 miles away has the head of the U.N. Food Programme predicting that it’ll get even worse. U.S. farmers are working hard to establish a safe and secure food supply domestically while climate change is creating new challenges every day. One of our core crops comes from the hard work of our US soy farmers; so I invited Mac Marshall from the United Soybean Board to give us the lowdown.  Mac serves as the Vice President, Market Intelligence for the United Soybean Board (USB) and U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC). His background includes serving as a staff economist at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics with a focus on agriculture commodities. Mac serves as an industry source of market information and analysis here and globally. I can think of no one better to give us the real take about what’s going on.

Food packaging is in the news. Over the past year, there have been more than 250,000 news reports about food packaging. Topics including edible packaging, eco-friendly packaging, phthalates, and single-use plastics are creating headlines and generating interest.  This webcast and podcast is designed to help retail RDs cut through the headlines and gain clearer understanding about food packaging benefits and risks related to food safety, health threats, food waste, environmental impact and more. During this segment, David Smith offers an overview of the current food packaging industry and highlights some of the most common misconceptions. David also provides insights into the myriad of challenges food companies face when evaluating packaging choices, such as compatibility with food ingredients, material sourcing, integration into food processing, food protection/safety, consumer perception, recycling, and reuse.

Throughout history, food processing has played a critical role in building a safe, accessible, healthy and sustainable food system.  More recently, there has been growing criticism and confusion among health professionals, researchers and media regarding the benefits associated with the consumption of processed foods, especially against the evolving scientific discourse around ultra-processed foods.

During this podcast episode, Phil Lempert interviews food scientist Eric Decker, Phd, about the historical role processed foods have played to ensure we have a safe, accessible, healthy and sustainable food system. Dr. Decker describes the benefits and techniques of food processing and highlight how it can improve compliance to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Lastly, Dr. Decker shares insights that retail dietitians can use when communicating with consumers about processed foods.

Today, we're gonna talk about the future. We're gonna talk about indoor farming. We're gonna talk about aquaculture. And with me is Jason Green, the CEO and co-founder of Upward Farms based in Brooklyn, New York, and a breakthrough vertical farming company who brings whole ecosystems into controlled environmental agriculture, through aquaponic farming of leafy greens, fish, and a robust and beneficial microbiome. Back in 2013, Jason and his partners started upward farms. They were the only large scale vertical farm that offers locally grown, washed, and ready to eat USDA certified organic leaf greens and best aquaculture practices, certified fish upward farm grows and packs superior quality microgreens that are bursting with delicious flavor and nutrients that are best selling products at whole foods.

Microsoft and Bayer recently announced a strategic partnership to build a new cloud-based set of digital tools and data science solutions for use across the food and agriculture sector. These new capabilities will be available to businesses – from startups to global enterprises – to accelerate innovation, boost efficiency and support sustainability across food value chains. Through this partnership Bayer will work with Microsoft to co-develop new solutions that address critical industry scenarios such as farming operations, sustainable sourcing, manufacturing and supply chain improvement, as well as ESG monitoring and measurement. In this session, representatives from Bayer and Microsoft will share more about the new partnership and how it's poised to benefit food, agriculture and adjacent industries.

Decarbonization is key when it comes to combating climate change, and agriculture plays a major role in it. To support farmers in driving sustainability across the entire value chain, Bayer collaborates with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Bushel in Project Carbonview – a data solution that will help ethanol producers in the United States report, analyze and assess their end-to-end supply chain carbon footprint. This new solution marks the latest development by Bayer – who is working to build a portfolio of farmer-facing programs to complement our existing Bayer Carbon Initiative, a program which incentivizes the adoption of climate-smart practices, creating new revenue streams for growers who use technology to keep carbon in the soil – and out of the atmosphere.. Join Max Dougherty- Carbon Business Development Lead for Bayer- Crop Science as he chats carbon, farming, and what this could mean for the value chain.