News From the Control Tower - 5/13/2020
Interesting reads this week:
1. The FDA’s balancing act between regulatory oversight and making tests more widely available.
F.D.A. Paves Way for Home Testing of Coronavirus
New findings, scientists say, will speed up the mass production of affordable self-collection kits that can be dropped in the mail.
2. Yes, many are hurting during the shutdown, but some businesses are seeing a boom.
Boom in Canned Food Means a Boom in Cans, Too
3. Financial markets have gotten out of whack with the economy. The Economist says “something has to give”.
A dangerous gap: The market v the real economy
4. Coronavirus infections have disproportionately affected minority communities. The Federal Bailout package may also be shutting minorities out of relief.
Getting Help For Minority-Owned Businesses Shut Out Of PPP Loan Relief
5. With recent meat shortages, The Financial Time’s Alphaville highlights the opportunity for fake meat companies, such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, to grab market share, calling it “one of the most fascinating corners of business.”
Beyond Meat’s profit-driven pricing power
Bonus: This fascinating article on baby diets was published in 2019, but was recently selected for The Best American Food Writing 2020 book. “No diet has been more obsessively studied, more fiercely controlled, or more anxiously stage-managed than baby food. Yet we still get it wrong,” says Burkhard Bilger in the New Yorker.