Vanilla

“Vanilla has long been the best-selling ice cream flavor not only because it is creamy and delicious, but also because of its ability to enhance so many other desserts and treats.” (source)

Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid by Tim Ecott (published 2004)

Vanilla! A flavor that almost everyone loves, even though many people think it’s somehow neutral — just plain vanilla. Vanilla is not always easy to identify, but you really notice something is wrong when it should be present but isn’t. And experts totally agree that artificial vanilla flavoring is really inferior to the organic flavor that comes from real vanilla beans, grown only in tropical areas.

A good example of the subtlety of this flavor is the complexity of colas — vanilla is a key component of these long-popular beverages, most notably Coca-Cola. Vanilla Coke has been introduced and then discontinued in various markets several times: the added vanilla taste intensifies the impact of the more subtle vanilla note in the secret formula for ordinary Coke. 

Maybe you like Coke, maybe you don’t, but you know what it tastes like, and would miss the vanilla if it was left out. Some people say that the absence of vanilla was the problem with New Coke that flopped spectacularly in 1985 and is now essentially forgotten.

Like many favorite flavors, including chocolate, with which it’s often paired, vanilla comes from a New-World plant, or plant family: the vanilla orchids. Vanilla cultivation originated in Mexico and Central America. Production now takes place in many tropical locations, especially in French colonies and former French colonies. Vanilla orchids of several species produce a pod filled with small brown beans, which can be dried and cured to produce the familiar aromatic flavoring. It’s often preserved in alcohol in the form of vanilla extract.

Good to eat…Vanilla ice cream, vanilla wafers, vanilla pudding, and vanilla extract.
The tiny specks in rich vanilla ice cream are the seeds that are left in when processing the beans.

Sadly, Trader Joe’s currently doesn’t have those wonderful vanilla wafers any more. And sadly, most brands of “vanilla” wafers use artificial flavoring, which just isn’t as good as the essential flavor derived from actual vanilla beans that are laboriously cultivated, cured, and preserved. Most brands of vanilla pudding mix also use artificial vanilla, though it’s not that hard to make it from milk, sugar, starch, maybe an egg — and REAL vanilla extract. Follow a vanilla pudding recipe and you’ll have a treat that was once a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I in her last years before she died in 1603.

Did you ever hear the story of the novice cook whose salad recipe called for plain yogurt?
And who therefore naively bought vanilla yogurt? Not good in salad dressing?

Coke isn’t the only vanilla-flavored beverage. Quite a few liqueurs are flavored with vanilla. And as you probably know, almost every good cup of cocoa has a hint of vanilla in it. A dash of vanilla in the hot chocolate was even the tradition of the Aztecs, who introduced chocolate to the Spanish conquistadors. Their recipe also called for hot chilis, though.

In 2019 we visited Tahiti, including a vanilla plantation. Here, you can see the flowers, the pods, and a bottle of vanilla extract. Each growing area has its own characteristic flavors, especially Madagascar, Tahiti, and Mexico. 

The aroma of vanilla is so special, especially in a carefully designed combinations, that it’s even used in making perfumes. Some of these are: Shalimar by Guerlain, Chanel N° 5, Thierry Mugler’s Angel, Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium, Dune by Dior, and Tresor by Lancome. (Vanilla p. 155)

In Ecott’s Book

Author Tim Ecott isn’t as interested in culinary uses for vanilla as I am. Vanilla is more of a travel book, in which he visited vanilla-growing regions in Mexico, Madagascar, Tahiti, the Island of Réunion and other places where vanilla is grown and where the beans are cured. He’s very interested in the economy of vanilla, and in the secretive commodity dealers and traders who buy it and ship it to first-world countries where it’s widely used. 

The horticultural history of vanilla is also of serious interest to Ecott, especially the famous story of the young enslaved boy who figured out the challenge of how to fertilize the plant in the absence of the insect that does the job in its native environment. The vanilla orchid is  a finicky plant: it has to be pollinated or it won’t produce the beans; while a symbiotic insect did the job in the original environment in Central American jungles, it has to be done by hand by growers elsewhere. 

That’s quite a story in itself, as you may know — after years of growing vanilla vines that produced no fruit, one plantation owner was surprised to find a few with pods on them. The year was 1841, and the location was the island of Réunion. This success was due to a very young enslaved boy named Edmond Albius, who had realized that one could gently open the flower and force the pollen to fertilize the plant, thus replacing the work of the insect. To be exact, he figured out how “to peel back the lip of the small orchid with his thumb, and with the aid of a small stick, lift the rostellum out of the way and press the anther and the stigmatic surfaces together.” (p. 91)

For a modern educated person this process may seem obvious — even elementary school children learn about plants. However, 200 years ago the understanding of how plants were fertilized had not yet been developed, so this was a major breakthrough. Poor Edmond, though, never received any reward for his work, and lived a hard and ordinary life, first as a slave and when slavery was abolished as a very poor freed man. Vanilla farms throughout the tropics adopted his method, which continues to be employed even today.

In Polynesia, where we toured this vanilla farm, the orchid vines are grown under roofs.
One huge problem with Ecott’s book is that there are no photos, drawings, maps, or other illustrations.

The Vanilla Economy 

Over 20 years ago when Ecott was traveling and writing, problems of supply and demand were already occurring. Vanilla prices were rising rapidly when he toured the vanilla production areas of Madagascar, the world’s major producer. These were a result of political corruption, social inequality, price fixing, and other third-world problems. The agricultural workers were underpaid, and theft was a major issue. Since Ecott’s publication, the prices have fluctuated wildly, with a major drop in price shortly after his visit. Political and social problems continue — along with plant diseases and impacts of destructive weather due to climate change. Ecott’s story is a bit out of date, but the major issues repeat themselves in every generation, it seems. 

What is the Future of Vanilla?

An article in the New York Times a few days ago summarized the current, and rather bleak recent past and the possible depressing future of vanilla. Author Aimee Nezhukumatathil, wrote about vanilla cultivation in “This Is How the World’s Favorite Scent Disappears.” Here is her key paragraph about the current situation:

“Most commercial production of vanilla is in Madagascar, Mexico and Tahiti. As the world warms, cyclones and storms in these regions are growing stronger, toppling the orchid blossoms and vanilla beans before they get a chance to fully mature. In 2017 a Category 4-equivalent cyclone devastated an estimated 30 percent of the vanilla vines in Madagascar, which produces 80 percent of the vanilla used around the globe. As a result, the price of vanilla bean pods surged to nearly $300 a pound. The increasingly erratic weather, along with pressure to cut the forests that harbor the orchids, is particularly worrisome for farmers who rely on this crop and wait up to four years for a single orchid to blossom.”

Severe weather events continue to affect Madagascar, including one in March of this year, according to an AP article dated March 29, 2024. The cyclone caused severe flooding and killed 18 people.

“Madagascar has been hit by at least 10 strong tropical cyclones since the start of 2022 and is facing a hunger crisis in parts of the island, due to the damaging impact of extreme weather, according to the World Food Program.”

Vanilla is an important source of income for this unfortunate island, which produces 80 to 85% of the world’s vanilla. For us in the more fortunate temperate zones, the crisis of climate change is a detail in our still-rich diet, where we have many good flavors to choose from. But will we continue to have vanilla ice cream, Thomas Jefferson’s favorite that he introduced to America? Will other superb vanilla cookies disappear the way Trader Joe’s Ultimate Vanilla Wafers did a few years ago? Will climate change and unwillingness of third-world peasant laborers to continue working contribute to declining supplies of vanilla for first-world connoisseurs? We don’t know.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander.

Shared with Elizabeth’s weekly blog party.

In My Kitchen and Thoughts on Chocolate, April, 2024

What’s New?

Using my new dragon bowl for fruit, for candy, and for leeks vinaigrette.

Using a new set of little bowls for tomatoes, artichokes, mushrooms, and grated cheese— to go on pasta.
They were perfectly designed for this use: mis en place.

Cooking in April

Preparation for making stir-fried pork.

Salad and roasted peppers.

My kitchen this month has been busy, as we have had a few invited guests to share meals. I’ve just selected a few of the foods that Len and I cooked or prepared. I’ve posted already about our Passover food, our first outdoor cooking, and some of the things we ate elsewhere. I’m sharing these food images with a group of bloggers who post kitchen thought each month at Sherry’s blog in her link-up called “In My Kitchen.” Now for some thoughts about the possible fate of one of my favorite foods!

Climate Change Is Coming for the Chocolate Supply

Cocoa pods growing on the trunk of a cocoa tree. The beans in these pods must undergo considerable
processing — fermentation, drying, roasting, and conching — before they become cocoa or chocolate.
(Tree is in Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Ann Arbor.)

Climate change and its effect on farming is often in the news, but reading about it seems very distant and maybe not even urgent. If you love chocolate as much as I do, you’ll see one issue as more pressing; specifically, rising chocolate prices due to supply disruption. Ultimately, the problems with the global chocolate supply are caused by poor growing conditions in the tropical areas where cocoa is produced. Recently, these areas have had bad weather — temperatures are high or rainfall is too little or too much, leading to stressed or diseased trees, lower harvests, higher prices, and instability of processors.

Many factors prevent the logical response; that is, the expansion of cocoa farms. The main obstacle is that it takes years to grow new productive trees. Expansion is limited because chocolate can grow only in a narrow area within 20 degrees of the Equator.

According to the trade association World Wide Chocolate (article here), many people “have no idea how difficult cocoa ‘the commodity’ is to grow, procure, process and ultimately apply to different applications and create all of those wonderful chocolate products we’ve come to love.” This article uses two West African countries and their difficulties as examples — the challenges to poor third-world farmers are much more profound than one would guess, and rising prices don’t generally mean that the impoverished farm workers receive more for their labor. As an article in yesterday’s Guardian explains: “Nine in 10 west African growers are smallholders, while the confectionery market is dominated by huge players: Oxfam notes that Lindt, Mondelēz, and Nestlé raked in nearly $4bn in profits from chocolate sales last year, while Hershey’s confectionery profits totalled $2bn.” (link)

But the problems of growers and injustices to workers are just one area of many. More detail about the many difficulties of farmers and processors in Africa appeared in an article in Reuters in March titled “African cocoa plants run out of beans as global chocolate crisis deepens” (link). It’s complicated, involving pre-set prices from farmers who are experiencing very poor harvests. Opportunistic dealers step in and disrupt the expected supplies to the local processing plants:

“In normal times, the market is heavily regulated - traders and processors purchase beans from local dealers up to a year in advance at pre-agreed prices. Local regulators then set lower farmgate prices that farmers can charge for beans. However, in times of shortage like this year, the system breaks down - local dealers often pay farmers a premium to the farmgate price to secure beans. The dealers then sell the beans on the spot market at higher prices instead of delivering them at pre-agreed prices. As global traders rush to purchase those beans at any price to meet their obligations with the chocolate firms, local processors are often left short of beans.”

Chocolate candy production requires more than just cocoa. The Wells Fargo Investment service (article here) summarizes the situation:  “To some extent, chocolate’s escalating cost can be understood by looking at the overall rise in product manufacturing costs, with the Producer Price Index (PPI) for Food Manufacturing increasing 28% since January 2020. This rising inflationary environment has increased the cost of labor, processing, manufacturing, packaging, and transportation. Higher raw material costs for two of chocolate’s crucial ingredients - sugar and cocoa - are also included in this overall cost increase.”

In an article in this month’s Atlantic, titled “Chocolate Might Never Be the Same,” author Yasmin Tayag  wrote:

“By one estimate, retail prices for chocolate rose by 10 percent just last year. And now this is the third year in a row of poor cocoa harvests in West Africa, where most of the world’s cocoa is grown. Late last month, amid fears of a worsening shortage, cocoa prices soared past $10,000 per metric ton, up from about $4000 in January. To shoulder the costs, chocolate companies are gearing up to further hike the price of their treats in the coming months. Prices might not fall back down from there. Chocolate as we know it may never be the same.”

This week’s Guardian article cites even more increase in prices: “Soaring prices for cocoa beans recently hit a record $12,000 a tonne: roughly four times last year’s price. Many think they will go higher.” Issues of sustainability and fairness to workers are not easy to address. For an extremely detailed study of these issues related to global chocolate production and processing, see the recent report from Oxfam (link).

Chocolate candy seems to me to embody a whole range of cultural and economic concerns for our time. Exploitation of third-world agricultural and processing workers, including child labor abuses and even slave labor are of great concern. Chocolate plantations, which must be in the tropics, are especially affected by climate change. All chocolate is a highly processed food and an economic commodity handled by huge corporations. Consumers of luxury goods such as high-end chocolate candy provide a giant contrast with the extreme poverty of the producers. 

So many issues! As I thought about this, it occurred to me that the expression “first-world problems” is a good description for people who are inconvenienced by high candy prices — in contrast to impoverished and exploited third-world farmers and their children who are paid a pittance for the produce for which they labor.

I’ve written about this before, including a post earlier this week. For my post on chocolate cultivation issues see “Cocoa: Who cultivates it? Who processes it? Where does it come from?” and “Chocolate: Food of the Gods.” For more history see “Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures.” 

In 2021, this bag of Hershey Nuggets cost $8.98.
It now costs typically $12.58 (though a terrific sale price has been in effect).
I’ve been buying this and other chocolates quite often.

Blog post and photos © 2024 mae sander.

Shared with Sherry’s In My Kitchen.

Chocolate, Food of the Gods

Pre-Columbian drinking vessel with a monkey smoking a cigarette
and holding a cacao pod. (Boston Fine Arts)

When the early Spanish explorers in Mexico encountered chocolate in the 15th century they were impressed. As a beverage, chocolate soon became widely popular in Europe. Later, in the 18th century, it was given the name Theobroma: “Food of the gods.” In the 19th century, methods were developed for the manufacturing of chocolate candy and for its incorporation it in baked goods. Today, chocolate is widely popular in many parts of the world, but there’s a dark side: it grows in the tropics, where poverty, child labor, and even slavery are problems. 

Much has been written about the history of chocolate and about today’s humanitarian considerations of chocolate production. Later this week, I’ll be writing about the current problems with chocolate and agriculture. In that post, I’ll summarize how climate change is leading to smaller crops and thus to skyrocketing prices. Today, I want to look at the steps needed to start with raw cocoa beans and end up with a kiss (Hershey’s, of course).

Jean-Étienne Liotard, "The Chocolate Girl," 1745

A cup of cocoa at home.

Where does chocolate come from?

Cocoa pods growing on a farm in Costa Rica. (source)

Today, I want to take a look at how the cocoa beans — cultivated mainly by impoverished third-world farmers —are processed before the end products of this processing reach us, the first-world consumers. Cocoa grows only within 20 degrees of the equator: a region currently feeling a severe impact from climate change. Chocolate growers in Africa and Central America have been affected by both climate change and political events. Here’s more about how the cocoa beans from these pods are turned into the products we love. 

A farmer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo opens a cocoa pod. (source)

Once the cocoa beans have been harvested and the beans removed from the pods, they require many steps to become the delicious food that a large number of people love:

“The chocolate production process consists of fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding of cocoa beans, mixing of all ingredients (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifiers, aroma, and milk components if needed), conching, and tempering. Major chemical reactions occur during fermentation, drying, roasting of cocoa beans, and conching of chocolate mass. These reactions are the most important for flavor and aroma development.” (source)

Fermentation takes place soon after harvest:

• “There are multiple ways to ferment cocoa beans. Cocoa fermentation techniques include placing the extracted pulp on mats or in buckets to dry. Sometimes banana leaves or reeds lay on top of them to help protect them. By leaving them to ferment, the alcohol in the beans changes to acetic or lactic acid.” (Source: the Anarchy Chocolate Store)

Drying cocoa beans (source)

Drying: The fermented beans are spread on boards and dried in the sun for five to ten days. Like the fermentation, this generally takes place in a processing plant near the chocolate-growing plantations. After grinding, the beans are sorted by quality and size.

Grinding results in production of chocolate liquor, containing the cocoa butter and cocoa from the bean.

A conching machine: one of several designs for this procedure.
The earliest conching machines, invented in 1879, were shaped like a conch shell. (source)

Mixing, conching, and tempering. These steps are usually done by a chocolate company such as Hershey or smaller outfits, in facilities near the final production factory. Each processor has their own methods, which produce distinctive flavors and quality of the final product. Without conching and tempering, chocolate bars would be crumbly and show white streaks; these steps are essential for modern candy-making.

• Conching: “The chocolate liquor is placed in a conching machine, a large mixer with heavy, grinding stones. As the machine works, it kneads, heats, and aerates the chocolate. This process helps to develop the flavour of the chocolate, reduce acidity, and evaporate unwanted flavors. The process can last from a few hours to several days depending on the desired quality and characteristics of the chocolate.” 

• Tempering: “After conching, the chocolate is tempered. During tempering, the chocolate is carefully heated, then cooled, then slightly reheated. This manipulation of temperature helps to align the fat crystals in the chocolate, ensuring a smooth texture, glossy appearance, and a nice ‘snap’ when broken. Untempered chocolate can have a grainy texture and a dull appearance.” (Source: Whitaker’s Chocolate)

Technically: “In the tempering process, melted chocolate is first cooled, causing the fatty acid crystals to form nuclei around which the other fatty acids will crystallize. Once the crystals connect, the temperature is then raised to keep them from solidifying.” (source)

The final steps go from the tempered chocolate to manufacturing end-products.

Kisses on the production line at the Hershey Chocolate Factory. (source)

The global politics of chocolate production, trade, and price setting, which affects every step from growers to consumers, is very complex. A long Oxfam report was published this week titled “The Living Income Differential for cocoa: futures markets and price setting in an unequal value chain.” From the report:

“The current cocoa trading system works well if you are a chocolate company that doesn’t want to take responsibility for the lives and livelihoods of the people producing the raw materials. It also works well for you if you’re a trader with massive capital assets – which allows you to hedge your cocoa and speculate on the futures market. It’s also a great system when you’re a speculator with good intel. It’s not a great system when you’re a cocoa producer. We should therefore not be surprised that an increasing number of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are selling their lands, often for goldmining and thereby continuing the vicious cycle of exploitation and natural degradation.” (link)

More on the global situation with chocolate and chocolate prices will be in my end-of-month post later this week.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander. Photos as credited.

What's wrong with the world?

"At least 15 dead after Russian strike on shopping mall." (source)
Are we growing calloused towards news of brutal civilian killings?

Ten interconnected things that are wrong with America and the world:

1. Hunger worldwide. Global food insecurity and even famine are bad and growing worse for many reasons, especially because of war, also because of climate change and economic instability.
2. War in Ukraine. The struggle drags on, causing unimaginable suffering there. One international consequence is the threat to global food supplies because Ukraine is a major food producer, as is Russia, and agriculture and shipping capabilities there are disrupted, especially that of Ukraine.
3. More war coming. Russia is also threatening to confront or even to attack other countries on its borders, leading to more and more unstable situations and fears. Other European powers may be retreating from confrontation, emboldening the Russians. Other hot spots exist and may flare up.
4. Human Rights Violations. In he US, the now fully right-wing Supreme Court, drunk with power, has cancelled one established right (a woman's right to make her own health decisions) and threatens a whole list of other rights, especially for women and minorities, including religious, racial, and gender minorities. For a few years recently in the US people seemed to care about these rights, but a sense of futility is setting in, reducing the will to improve the situation. In many other countries, basic rights are also endangered. In some countries, human rights have never existed.
5. Guns. Possession of guns is out of control in the US and the situation is likely to get worse. Laws controlling guns are one of the Supreme Court's targets, and with one damaging decision already this session. Death at the hands of a crazy gun user is a constantly increasing risk for all citizens, especially children.
6. Unjust law enforcement. In the US, public trust in the police has deteriorated -- for good reasons. Police malpractice affects minority rights, gun control, and many other areas of civic life. Good policing exists at times, but the injustices of police actions are too frequent and too much targeted at minorities.
7. The economy in trouble. In the US, rising prices of essential products and services lead to insecurity in many families, Poverty, hunger, job losses, homelessness, and inequality are increasing. Worldwide, economic disruptions are also causing much suffering, and economic refugees are numerous. This is complicated. 
8. Threats to Democracy. In the US, voters seek irrational solutions to the country's economic insecurity and other real or imagined problems, thus increasing the danger of democracy's demise and the takeover by demagogues or worse. This is combined with the rampant disrespect for majority values by the Supreme Court. The Electoral College and the disproportionate representation of underpopulated states makes this even more of a threat. Gullible and vulnerable people don't make sensible voters, they cling to religion, guns, and republicans. Globally, in several other democratic or formerly democratic countries, democratic political systems have been undermined or even totally destroyed, replaced by repressive tyrants. Totalitarian governments, meanwhile seem to be increasingly powerful and unlikely to change.
9. Emerging Diseases and Pandemics. We aren't done with covid, and there may be other epidemics yet to come. 
10. Climate change: the biggest! Climate disruption is the root of many other problems throughout the world. Fires, crop failures, rivers tearing out of their banks, hurricanes, and other disasters are more and more clearly due to climate change. As the world warms measurably and undeniably there are many consequences. Flooding overwhelms some areas while others are destroyed by drought. Previously hospitable areas have become uninhabitable. Global warming might mean that some of the other things on the list won't look so bad.

Sometimes the thought of all that's wrong makes me feel really depressed and hopeless. Will the world really become worse and worse as this century progresses? I'll try to keep these thoughts away from my blog, and try to be more upbeat. 

Blog post by mae sander for mae food dot blog spot dot com. © 2022.

Long ago and far away!

The book Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil was published in 2016, only six years ago, but while I was finally reading it this week, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that it is vastly outdated, particularly the final chapter about Facebook and its role in the 2016 election. The author is deeply critical of the use of algorithms in Facebook to determine what information is presented to which users — and her points were well-taken. However, many more abuses have been disclosed in the years since then. 

Little did anyone dream of the vast conspiratorial misdeeds of the Russian hackers and propagandists, who took advantage of the Facebook algorithms and created an entirely false picture to assist the election of Donald Trump! How painful to read the partial and incomplete insights in O’Neil’s analysis that might have helped if taken a bit further. (Again, I’m happy that one day a few years ago, I decided that I would never look at FB again, and I never did.)

The overall focus of O'Neil's book is on mathematical models, including those that enabled the Facebook horror show. One of the prior jobs of the author had been in the field of data science, particularly as a “quant” who worked on financial models. Before the 2009 economic crash, this area was very trendy. Beyond the financial applications, mathematical computer modeling was growing in power and effectiveness in social, business, and political manipulation in our society. Ultimately, the net result of these Weapons of Math Destruction or WMDs (as she names them) was to make Americans’ lives worse in many ways. O'Neil shows how the combination of irresponsible data collection about individuals and bigoted assumptions built into the software has caused a great deal of harm to the most helpless members of society.

The net effect of WMDs was to grind down poor people by refusing them jobs and insurance policies, to trick people into enrolling in useless private college programs with government loans (coming out with nothing but huge debts), to ensnare people with disastrous mortgages that they could never afford, to cause teachers to lose their jobs because the measures of success were based on false data, and to engage in a terrifying variety of other injustices. And ultimately to concentrate more wealth in the already wealthy sectors of the population. Racial minorities and poor people were the most viciously affected by the secretive computer programs and data-gathering mechanisms that determined their creditworthiness, their voting behavior, their job offers, and more. For victims, even if they knew that these programs were responsible for their suffering, there was often no recourse.

Obviously, the coronavirus pandemic, which began a few years after the book’s publication, was not caused by data modeling. However, many of the social structures and features of American society that figure in O'Neil's book have been changed and disrupted amazingly by the last two years of isolation, impoverishment, hunger, and ultimately close to 1,000,000 deaths. Of particular relevance to the pandemic disruption is O'Neil's description of computer-based job scheduling that meant workers at enterprises like Starbucks would often have only a few hours of sleep between work shifts, or would be unable to plan essential activities such as going to school or organizing child care. The pandemic caused many people to abandon such jobs. 

People can become victims in so many ways! Employer "wellness" programs are a good example. These ostensibly beneficial incentives to lose weight, stop smoking, or adopt other supposedly healthy behaviors were foisted on employees by health insurance companies in collusion with employers. They illustrate another seeming accomplishment of manipulative data science. O'Neil writes: "In fact, the greatest savings from wellness programs come from the penalties assessed on the workers. In other words, like scheduling algorithms, they provide corporations with yet another tool to raid their employees’ paychecks." (p. 178). 

Have things changed now? I’m not sure, but a lot of people who were praised as “essential workers” or even as “heroes” in the spring of 2020 have been questioning the way they are treated by employers and by the computer programs that in a sense enslave them. I found myself wondering over and over -- how did O'Neil's examples function in the changing workplace environment of the pandemic, as people either worked from home or had to take extreme risks with their health. What became of the "wellness" programs when so many people were so unwell? I am also curious about how the big data science-based businesses like Uber, Air B&B, Grub Hub, and others used or misused the vast computer programs and their dubious data sets that O'Neil describes.

I meant to read this book when it was new and widely praised. I guess I waited too long! I’d like to see an updated version — O’Neil’s new book The Shame Machine, published last month, may be that book. According to the New York Times reviewer:

"O’Neil’s previous book, Weapons of Math Destruction, explored how algorithms encode and exacerbate inequality; the “shame machines” in her new book, which include the weight loss and wellness industries, function similarly — fueling bad feeling in order to buoy profits while maintaining an unfair status quo." (source)

Review © 2022 mae sander.

American Products, Russian Consumers

 

"Over the years, McDonald's has become, in the eyes of Russians, associated with youth and low-level managers. Long forgotten was its symbolism -- of the Western world arriving in the USSR. The first McDonald's in Russia opened in Moscow in January 1990, more than a year before the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991. When McDonald's shuttered this week, it signaled the end of the West in authoritarian Russia. The days of our merry global consumption were over, and it pointed to darker ones ahead. Of course, compared to the horror happening in Ukraine, the closure of brands looks insignificant. They are just symbols of the economic collapse in Russia, provoked by the invasion -- and subsequent sanctions." (Words of Andrei Kolesnikov, a Russian writer) 

 

 No More Coca-Cola

S9

You can't get a coke any more in Russia. The Coca-Cola 
company has suspended operations there to express its view of the war. 

After several days of public opinion in the US that pressured the Coca-Cola Company to close its Russian operations, they announced: "Our hearts are with the people who are enduring unconscionable effects from these tragic events in Ukraine. We will continue to monitor and assess the situation as circumstances evolve." (Coca-Cola Company Statement March 8, 2022)

McDonald's Has Closed 850 Russian Restaurants

In the 1990s, when McDonald's was just establishing its operations in Russia, there was a theory called
the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention." According to this theory, no two countries with McDonald's restaurants had ever been at war with each other, because their economic interests were aligned to give them an incentive for peace. "The admittedly semi-serious theory offered an easy shorthand for a broader belief at the time that common economic interests and increasing global connectedness would supersede the causes of conflict between nations," wrote Adam Chandler in the Washington Post a few days ago. (link)

The theory was invented by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Soon after he published it, Chandler pointed out, several wars broke out that disproved it. "Today, one trivial side effect of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is that it has brought the theory back for examination once again. And while Friedman’s premise is as wrong as it always has been, it’s also increasingly clear that it misunderstood something fundamental about the global order — and the role of the United States in it. What is implicit in the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention is the idea that the economic system upholding it would be American-led. This, after all, is why McDonald’s, the quintessential American export, is so important."

McDonald's, which was experiencing significant public pressure from American and European customers to close in Russia, stated this: "our values mean we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine ... McDonald’s has decided to temporarily close all our restaurants in Russia and pause all operations in the market. ... As we move forward, McDonald’s will continue to assess the situation and determine if any additional measures are required. At this juncture, it’s impossible to predict when we might be able to reopen our restaurants in Russia. We are experiencing disruptions to our supply chain along with other operational impacts. We will also closely monitor the humanitarian situation." (McDonald's statement, March 8, 2022)

This did not prevent war?

Another Drink You Can't Get Today in Russia

Like Coke and McDonald's, Starbucks has suspended operations in Russia and closed 130 coffee shops.

Maybe Starbucks, McDonald's, and Coke couldn't change fundamental Russian values?

Will this pressure have any effect?

Since Russia attacked Ukraine, at least 300 other Western corporations have closed or limited their operations in Russia. International banking operations, particularly, have shut out Russian banking activity, including access to Russia's government funds in other currencies. Product and service providers that have reduced or cancelled Russian commerce include several aircraft manufacturers (meaning no parts for most planes flying in Russia), Shell Oil, Ikea, Pizza Hut, L'Oreal luxury products, Ferrari and other automobile companies, Apple Computers, and Netflix. Visa and Mastercard have limited Russian charging privileges. AirB&B has suspended operations. Pharmaceutical companies, however, have so far expressed a sense of obligation to supply crucial medications to the Russians, and a few other companies like Mars and Nestle may still be doing business there.

Economic commentators have been explaining what these disruptions mean for the Russian economy and Russian consumers. The ruble, of course, has been in a severe decline since financial sanctions started at the beginning of the war, with implications for Russian businesses of all types. It’s a very complicated situation, obviously.

I hope for the sake of the Ukrainian people, that there's an end in sight, but I don't see it. It goes without saying that the suffering of the Ukrainians under siege is infinitely more painful than any impact from the sanctions against Russia. Humanitarian considerations motivate some of the choices of governments and corporations in determining sanctions against Russia. When attacking at least 9 hospitals and many people’s homes, the Russians didn’t seem to be hampered by any humanitarian considerations.

“Ukraine's national poet Taras Shevchenko with the smouldering remains of residential buildings in Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, in the background.“ — Tweet by Andrei Kolesnikov

Blog post by mae sander for mae food dot blogspot dot com.

Photos from a variety of websites.

Grocery Store Inflation, Part 2

"Giant corporations are making record profits by increasing prices, and CEOs are saying the quiet part out loud: they’re happy to help drive inflation. American families pay higher prices and corporate executives get fatter bonuses." – Tweet by Elizabeth Warren, February 14, 2022.

Are rising prices due to fundamental economic and practical problems, or is corporate greed driving price indexes? Yesterday I wrote a post seeking to understand the causes of increasing prices in our inflationary economy. A few commenters on my post noted that corporate greed and profit-seeking are also an important factor. 

Avocados for sale yesterday…
what will they cost next week?

Yes, there's evidence that corporations that produce and sell food and household goods are using inflation to create higher profits, increasing prices faster than the actual costs require. For example, in the last quarter of 2021, Tyson's average beef price rose 31%, and their profits doubled. And Proctor and Gamble projected increasing profits in 2022 as the prices of their household products soared. (source)

CNN quoted a supermarket executive who came right out and said the quiet part:

"Our business operates the best when inflation is about 3% to 4%," Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said on an earnings call with analysts Thursday [June 17, 2021]. "A little bit of inflation is always good in our business." 

Kroger can pass off costs to consumers when inflation hovers around that mark, McMullen said, and "customers don't overly react to that." (source)

In December, Senator Warren wrote letters to several CEOs of supermarket chains summarizing their greedy behavior. She posted copies of these letters which included the following statistics:

"In 2020, Kroger, reported $2.6 billion in profits, up 5.6% from 2019; Albertsons reported $1.89 billion in net income for 2020, an increase from $612.1 million in 2019, and Publix reported a 60% growth in profit for the third quarter of 2020. In 2021, these same companies continued to earn massive profits while pushing grocery cost increases onto consumers. " (source)

In addition to simply increasing retail prices at a higher rate than their costs increase, grocery stores have a number of ways to keep prices high. One of these is contracts with suppliers called cooperative marketing agreements, or CMAs, that reduce competition among brands and that nudge consumers to buy unhealthy over-processed foods. The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating CMAs, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The CSPI recently wrote: 

"Americans’ health is not the only thing CMAs put at risk. CMAs can threaten fair competition by creating high entry costs. For example, exorbitant ‘slotting fees,’ which charge manufacturers to place new products on grocery shelves, disadvantage smaller manufacturers and producers who are then unable to introduce or expand product offerings. ‘Category captain arrangements’ are another anticompetitive grocery marketing practice in which retailers cede marketing decisions to the dominant manufacturer in a given food category, allowing them to make placement and promotion decisions for their products and even their competitors’ products." (source)

In an ongoing investigation, "the FTC asked Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger to produce the contracts that detail their trade promotion practices that determine product choice and marketing, including the total fees received. Additionally, the retailers must disclose their use of suppliers as category captains, including their identity, services, and fees received.”

FTC action has not been announced, as far as I know.

I have only scratched the surface of the issue of corporate greed and the fact that corporations use legitimate cost increases to create even higher prices for consumers, higher profits for their shareholders, and higher bonuses for their executives. 

Blog post by mae sander, 2022.

Excuse or Reason?

“LIMIT 1”

What is an excuse? Dictionary definitions: 

• "a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense." 
• "a reason put forward to conceal the real reason for an action; a pretext."
• "something offered as justification or as grounds for being excused."

What is a reason? Dictionary definitions: 

• "a cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event." 
• "a statement or fact that explains why something is the way it is, why someone does, thinks, or says something, or why someone behaves a certain way."

I thought about this distinction when I read a comment on my posts about high grocery prices: "Yada, yada – getting quite tired (as most of us are) about the excuses for consistently rising prices of everything." 

This comment implies that there might be a facile explanation for the high cost of goods today: it's somebody's fault and they are covering up with excuses. Is there an entity somewhere that has responsibility for prices? Is someone hiding why the authorities (whoever they are) don't just fix the situation? When something is called "an excuse" there's a suggestion that no real causes and effects are involved. I wonder, is there supposedly someone who could simply restore conditions at the grocery store to what they were two years ago? Who is responsible for empty shelves, higher prices, and difficulties all along the supply chain? Who is to blame for current inflation being at a 40 year high point? Why is there a high increase in the Consumer Price Index? Because commodities and finished products are produced and consumed globally, prices have global as well as national causes. Critical imports particularly come to the US from Mexico, Canada, and China. So inflation is not simply due to events or policies in the US.

I searched for explanations of rising prices other than simply inflation. For starters, sudden increase in demand as the pandemic started resulted in higher prices for some types of goods (and drove down other prices but nobody mentions this). This isn't an so much an excuse, it's more of an economic principle about supply and demand, as I understand it. 

Look at these details about a few specific commodities and what is driving their prices –

• Toilet paper? Like almost all household paper products, it's made of wood pulp, which is scarce now, due to shipping and labor issues. So prices have gone up, and panic buying in April 2020 and in September 2021 also caused some retailers to limit purchases.
• Lumber?  Along with many other building materials, big increases in demand were driven by home repair increases during the pandemic, resulting in big price increases. In addition, lumber prices rose because of forest fires, labor shortages due to covid, and overseas shipping issues. In the fall of 2021, prices dropped, but in December they again increased enormously. (Interesting article here)
• Oranges? They are scarce now especially because groves in Florida are experiencing cold temperatures and diseases of the trees. Harvests are dramatically lower, so orange juice prices are going up.
• Avocados? The price recently doubled. Right now, a threat to a US inspector of avocados in Mexico has caused cessation of all avocado imports from Mexico; that is, almost all the avocados we eat.  So without credible assurance that US inspectors are protected from Mexican organized crime, there will soon be no avocados available here at any price. It's a developing situation, changing even since I mentioned it a few days ago.
• Cocoa, Coffee, Bananas, Vanilla, Tea? All are agricultural imports with various risks from shipping problems, plant diseases, climate change, labor issues including workers infected with covid, political unrest in producer countries, and more. 
• Meat? Costs throughout the entire US meat industry have gone up. The price of chemical fertilizer to grow cattle feed is going up. The number of cattle available to be sold for slaughter is low; there are fewer animals now because of abrupt interruption of cattle ranching at the start of the pandemic. Availability of labor in meat processing plants has been reduced by employee illness during the pandemic (also employer cruelty). Costs of meat-packaging materials like styrofoam trays and wraps has increased. Transporting meat from the processor to the supermarket costs more. Supermarket costs and labor availability are also affected by covid and inflation.
• Gasoline? The price of gas depends on global supplies (which might be hit by a war in Ukraine next week). The price is affected by oil pipeline capacity, by refinery capacity, by weather disruptions like hurricanes, and by local gas station conditions. Vastly decreased demand for gas during the coronavirus lockdowns caused price reductions; as lockdowns end, demand goes up so prices go up.
• Cars, clothing, household utilities, houses for sale or rent, appliances, restaurant meals, snacks, furniture, electronics? Prices of these essentials are all driven upward by increased demand and reduced supplies. A few causes: shipping delays, shortages of electronic components, covid recovery problems in China where many key commodities are manufactured, and labor scarcity.

Maybe it's a mystery, whether price increases have identifiable causes or are created by some sort of conspiracy or ineptitude. When I look for solid evidence about prices rising, though, I feel as if I'm being provided with some solid causes, many resulting from the vast number of working people who had covid, others going back to climate change, still others from various specific events. 

Once I started down this rabbit hole, reading articles about shortages and inflation, I couldn't stop, so forgive me for my amateur wanderings in economic theory. I'm no good at this.

Economist Paul Krugman (a real expert with a Nobel Prize!) writes about economics in the New York Times. Recently, he discussed the way people get their news and form their economic beliefs. He pointed out that the right wing is being primed by sources like Fox News and worse, to believe that the economy is terrible and it's the government's fault. He says: "a substantial part of the electorate has economic perceptions quite far from reality; even if things improve, they probably won’t hear about the good news or will be regaled with other negative stories." (source)

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine Chocolate Memories

Heart-Shaped Chocolate Box, 1950s

Valentine's Day makes me think of a lot of things. Above all: chocolate. When we were kids, my father would buy the family a heart-shaped box of chocolate, or just some chocolate candy in an ordinary box. My memories are not detailed, but I do know that he and my mother particularly liked a local St. Louis candy manufacturer called Mavrakos, whose plant was located not far from where we lived. The company had several stores in St. Louis from early in the twentieth century until 1984, so they definitely existed throughout my childhood. My mother always saved the chocolate boxes, so I also remember loose buttons or rubber-band-bound letters kept in faintly chocolate-scented boxes with the Mavrakos logo.

1961 Mavrakos newspaper ad.

Heavenly Hash from Mavrakos -- a real treat 
we enjoyed from time to time.

A write-up of the Mavrakos candy company's history:  https://losttables.com/mavrakos/mavrakos.htm

More Chocolate

While we were in graduate school, Len and I lived in Berkeley, California, for several years. A favorite chain of chocolate shops at the time was See's Candies (blogged here). I'm sure See's had lots of special chocolate for Valentine's Day, but I mostly remember that I used to stop on ordinary days at the shop on Telegraph Avenue, and buy just a few pieces of chocolate from the candy counter. After California, we moved to Michigan. One local candy company was Sanders' Candy; it went out of business for a while and has now been reborn with different owners. Better than Sanders' Candy, though was Drake's, a diner and candy store next to the University of Michigan campus (blogged here). Opposite the soda fountain and antique wooden booths, Drake's had a whole wall of little cubby holes with various chocolates from which you could choose just what you wanted. And I did.

Today, See's Candies, founded in California, has been making chocolate continuously for over 100 years. They are now a national company. Here in Ann Arbor, we have a See's candy counter in our local Plum Market. Interesting price comparison: a 1 pound box of assorted chocolates at Mavrakos from the ad in 1961 cost between $3.25 and $3.49. The Plum Market website offers a 1 pound box for $36 or a heart-shaped box for $44.99. 

More critically: in 2022, the price of chocolate has gone up 5% to 10% over last year, which is pretty much an average rise in these price-troubled times. Sorry, I can't keep from thinking about the economy. 

I hope that you enjoy a great Valentine's Day with your favorite treat, whatever it may be!

Blog post © 2022 mae sander.