Free Republic

Roughly 75% of Americans drink coffee every day. That won’t be the case for long, apparently, if the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have their way. Did anyone notice what they were talking about back in January during the 2024 World Economic Forum's Davos get-together? During a recent WEF panel discussion, a reporter for Moneywise, in an item posted on Yahoo! Finance, reported that one speaker, some banker named Hubert Keller, remarked, “The coffee that we all drink emits between 15 and 20 tons of CO2 per ton of coffee.” Ominously, he added, “so we should...

Note to self: Go to Mexico City immediately.Need one more reason to book a trip to Mexico City? Easy. You need to go taste the food at El Califa de León, the very first Mexican taco stand to earn a Michelin star. In May, a Michelin representative presented chef Arturo Rivera Martínez with the award, including the coveted white chef's jacket, which the Associated Press noted he didn't even bother putting on. He was just too busy searing his daily meats. The taco stand, located in the San Rafael neighborhood, only serves four tacos, but those four tacos, Michelin explained,...

The PB&J is as American as it gets, and its story is spread across the internet from web page to web page as if by digital butter knife, each as recognizable to the next as the sandwich itself. I'll spare you too much of a regurgitation here, except in the broadest strokes: It supposedly started as a fancy-ish tea sandwich at the turn of the 20th century, but quickly became a popular lunchtime snack as an increasingly industrialized food system made sliced bread and store-bought jam and peanut butter a common and affordable option to Americans of all economic stripes

In mid-2022, we set up a news alert for terms like “cricket protein” and “cricket burgers.” Since then, there have been occasional peaks with a whole lot of valleys in interest as Americans generally aren’t excited about the prospects of getting their necessary protein from bugs. There was a spike that started shortly after news broke that bird flu was being transmitted to cattle. On the surface this makes sense, but it was conspicuously odd that there was no spike when bird flu was limited to poultry. Surely Americans would be concerned about their sources of protein whether it was...

The "disgust factor" must be overcome if insect-based foods are to become mainstream, according to a study. Insects can be high in protein and making them more acceptable could help cut the high greenhouse gas emissions that come from farming cattle. There are also potential benefits for cutting obesity and researchers say the idea of farming insects is gaining more attention. Hundreds of millions of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are estimated to already eat insects to some degree. There are hopes Western attitudes could shift over time, perhaps in a similar way that food such as sushi...

Steve Moore, from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a free market think tank, says Democrats were to blame for refusing 'to mandate work for welfare.' They 'view food stamps as an economic stimulus and/or virtuous income redistribution,' he said. Meanwhile, the scheme is increasingly targeted by fraudsters. A New York Times investigation spotlighted the scammers who use illegally installed skimming machines to lift payment card data from beneficiaries who swipe their SNAP cards through the devices in stores or at ATMs. Skimming cons picked up in 2022, and that the federal government has spent at least $30 million reimbursing stolen...

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.3 percent in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, after rising 0.4 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.4 percent before seasonal adjustment. Advertisement The index for shelter rose in April, as did the index for gasoline. Combined, these two indexes contributed over seventy percent of the monthly increase in the index for all items. The energy index rose 1.1 percent over the month. The food index was unchanged in April. The food at home...

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to President Biden, pleading with him to act on high grocery prices that have been slow to fall as inflation has come down. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., led the letter Monday morning, calling on Biden to "exercise your executive authority to take additional action to address rising food prices without congressional action." The letter amassed 40 Democratic signatories between the House and Senate, including senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and representatives Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., among others. The lawmakers acknowledged "Americans are facing sky-high...

The journey from cucumber to pickle is long, arduous journey.Some stars only get their big break after putting in years of work. Pedro Pascal played numerous bit parts before making it big on “Game of Thrones.” Bryan Cranston only became a household name after “Malcolm in the Middle.” Pickles, after struggling for decades, became a viral celebrity after starring in Dr Pepper. Empty cans of Dr. Pepper soda sit stacked in the warehouse before being filled at the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. bottling plant in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Tuesday, April 21, 2015.Pickles and Dr Pepper — the latest...

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—You can get a really good idea how the U.S. economy is doing by watching restaurants in your area. When the economy is booming, restaurant parking lots are full and chains are feverishly establishing new locations. But when the economy is struggling, restaurants get a lot less traffic and poor performing locations get shut down. Sadly, in 2024 it appears that a “restaurant apocalypse” has started to sweep across America. Most people have very little discretionary income to spend as a result of our cost of living crisis, and that is particularly true for our young adults....

Timothy Bundren must have heard wrong. The sun wasn’t up yet. He was still groggy from starting his morning routine of walking through chicken barns. His phone rang and his contact with the global meat company headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, just two hours south of his farm, started telling him he would no longer be raising chickens. Bundren, 52, didn’t believe him at first. Just hours later, he was supposed to meet with the bank about another loan to buy the farm down the road. Bundren waited an hour and then called the man back. The news didn’t change, but...

Struggling Red Lobster is abruptly closing at least 48 of its restaurants around the country, according to a leading restaurant liquidator. TAGeX Brands is conducting an online auction of Red Lobster restaurant inventory, including kitchen equipment, furniture, tables and chairs. The auction begins Monday and continues through Thursday, according to company founder Neal Sherman. Red Lobster locations in Buffalo, Orlando, Jacksonville and other cities were listed as “temporarily closed” on Red Lobster’s website, according to local news reports. Red Lobster did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. The company has around 650 locations. Red Lobster is reportedly considering filing...

Arcane tax rules based on carbonation levels are flattening the growth of America's craft cider industry. America's tax code is notoriously convoluted, but the complexity really sparkles when it comes to the federal government's approach to alcohol taxation. Wine, beer, and liquor are all subject to varying tax rates based on intricate calculations, but the so-called "bubble tax" for hard cider is the star of this regulatory circus. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the tax rate for alcoholic cider is based on, among other things, the amount of carbonation the drink contains. Yes, America technically already has a carbon tax and...

Applebee's is to close another 35 further locations this year, after shutting 46 in 2023. The restaurant chain has shut at least three locations so far this year and has plans to close even more, president Tony Moralejo said in an earnings call on Wednesday. Closing restaurants was 'an incredibly difficult decision' and a 'last resort' for the company, Moralejo said. The American grill chain, famous for its $10 burgers and 'dollaritas', closed 46 of its more than 1,500 locations due to 'underperformance' last year. The franchise - which competes with the likes of Waffle House and Denny's - has...

A United Nations watchdog organization published a series of chat room posts by Palestinians purportedly accusing U.N. Relief and Works Agency staff members of stealing humanitarian aid intended for civilians and selling it or hoarding it in their homes. On Wednesday, the Geneva-based non-governmental organization UN Watch published posts from a chat room run by former UNRWA employee Haitham al-Sayyed, who continues to run the chat rooms.The NGO, accredited in special consultative status to the U.N. Economic and Social Council and affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, reported that al-Sayyed was fired after he publicly criticized the agency for hiding...

The rooster bottle won’t get shipped anywhere until at least September.Marnie Shure is a writer and editor with over a decade of experience. For the past six years, she has been primarily focused on food publications, covering restaurant reviews, recipes, breaking news, fast food and grocery taste tests, industry trends, and more. She previously helmed The Takeout, a Midwest-based food website. Over the past few years, fans of Huy Fong Sriracha, the hot and garlicky chili pepper sauce in the iconic rooster bottle with the green cap, have experienced a roller coaster of emotions and heartbreak typically reserved for sports...

President Joe Biden stubbornly refused to admit Americans' struggles with inflation might cost him the election in a rare interview Wednesday. A growing economy could inspire confidence in Biden's leadership ahead of the election, but the issue of persistent inflation could ruin that. Biden, who was in Wisconsin to tout his record on the economy and to announce an investment by Microsoft to build a factory, defended his handling of inflation.

It's been known for years that cooking indoors can taint the air in a home and cause health problems, especially when cooking without proper ventilation. But a new study found that emissions from cooking may degrade the air quality outdoors as well. "If you can smell it, there’s a good chance it’s impacting air quality," researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chemical Sciences Laboratory recently wrote about a new study looking at the "unrecognized and underappreciated sources of urban air pollution."

...we need to go back to when agriculture was inefficient. Good idea. There are too many proles anyway, right? Time to thin the herd. ... Climate change hysteria is a magic force in the hands of an elite that has been preaching deindustrialization and mass culling of human beings since the early 1960s. What was once a fringe movement led by the truly insane Club of Rome and Paul Ehrlich has gone mainstream, at least among the Leftists who are at the top of the social pyramid these days. The UN, WEF, IPCC, MSM, and of course the EU and...

During an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” President Joe Biden stated that while “corporate greed” has caused an increase in the amount of money people have to spend on groceries and people feel real pain from the cost of groceries and food and he’s angry people have to spend more, “if you take a look at what people have, they have the money to spend.” Host Erin Burnett said, “[T]here’s real pain. Grocery prices are up 30% — more than 30% since the beginning of the pandemic, and people are spending more on food and groceries than...