Cornucopia: The Cult, Culture & Business of Food

ITS BEEN a year since we published our homage to the addictively sweet and garishly bright Easter Peeps . Some might the episode the grocery world's answer to David Sedaris' Santaland Dairies. We just call it GROCERY HELL. The Easter with no Peeps. 

Twenty-five years ago phones were connected to the wall, gasoline cost an average of a $1.23 a gallon and in San Francisco a small grocery chain had no peeps at Easter because its ...

Twenty-five years ago phones were connected to the wall, gasoline cost an average of a $1.23 a gallon and in San Francisco a small grocery chain had no peeps at Easter because its distributor was no good. Matt Levine recalls his time working as a sales representative for this incompetent distributor in this funny tale of grocery hell, featuring George the nasty manager and lots of candy too. The names have been changed. The candies...

Bottled water sold today is a new phenomena, not much older than quarter Tom Brady. Back in the 19th century there were lots and lots of bottled water companies in America. But the advent of municipal waters system in the early 20th century meant nearly of all these early brands disappeared.

When Evian arrived in America back in 1978 experts wondered if people would buy bottled water in a country with clean tap water Evian huge suc...

In this episode we'll talk about John Harvey Kellogg and bacon, oat bran and coconut water as well as ask whether the Paleo diet makes sense. Spoiler alert- logic never matters when it comes to diet and food trends.  

We'll examine a variety of food trends, how the grow and how they die, as well as the people pulling the levers behind the curtain manufacturing our desires and conventional wisdom too. 

This episode is funn...

In case you wonder why some people think eating spaghetti and garlic bread is as bad for you as pouring whiskey on your wheaties don't miss this episode. Actually, even if you pour whiskey on your wheaties or use it as pasta sauce, you should listen too. 

As the title implies were going to take a look at keto and other high protein  diets, But not to praise or debunk them. But as a starting point to look at something near...

This is the first episode in our new series,  Cornucopia Express: Ten Items or Less (aka: A Podcast in a Hurry). In these four minute-ish episodes we will expand your understanding of the grocery and consumer packaged goods business as well leave you lots of time to beg your spouse for a foot rub, tell your teenager to turn down the  Ariana Grande, call your parents (and yeah we know you're hoping to get voicemail) and ev...

Twenty-five years ago phones were connected to the wall, gasoline cost an average of a $1.23 a gallon and in San Francisco a small grocery chain had no peeps at Easter because its distributor was no good. Matt Levine recalls his time working as a sales representative for this incompetent distributor in this funny tale of grocery hell, featuring George the nasty manager and lots of candy too. The names have been changed. The candies...

Originally this was going to be a bonus episode to Episode 23 Poor Jack Dorsey & The Search for Meaning Through Food. But once we bushwhacked through the billionaire weed patch it became clear that this required way more time. Because our local bamboozling billionaires were symbols, as well as the causes of a wide range of problems facing America today.  Massive inequality. Stagnant and unlivable wages. A declining middle ...

If you've listened to episode 23, Poor Jack Dorsey and the Search for Meaning Through Food you heard our admonition that if you think we're being unfair to that lanky  fellow worth 15 billion don't troll us on Twitter until you listen to the Bonus Episode Bamboozling Bay Area Billionaires. Well it's not ready yet because there was so much juice in the bonus episode of a berry, that we are making this into a regular episode.Ple...

In this episode we take a look at the anti-Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and his unconventional approach to living.  His  lifestyle offers something to marvel at -- okay, laugh at too -- but  also provides an opportunity for self-reflection. In other words he's not the only buying stupid things. Though his are way, way, way more expensive than the things most of us buy to “improve" our lives.

One other thing. When we first ...

As food shopping and grocery stores have become the center of so much of our pandemic life we thought it would be great to replay our pilot episode. In this episode we’ll look at the history of food retailing in America, how self-service replaced counter service, the way a couple of notable innovators changed how we shop and discuss how today’s retail landscape resembles a florescent-lit Hunger Games minus the bloody sword wounds a...

In our new series  we'll look at how San Francisco and the Bay area both influence and reflect our national obsession with food. In this episode we'll set the scene. Since the gold rush we've been boom and bust, sometimes crazy rich and stupid too. An anecdote from just before Covid-19 changed where and how we eat sums this up quite well. A young guy wearing a PayPal t-shirt was  talking loudly to his friends, proclaiming...

While Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods has received a lot of media attention, there has been little discussion of the impact on Whole Foods' employees. And the impact has been huge. But while Amazon's gutting of employee profit sharing is just plain greedy, it's nothing new. Ever since the last quarter of the 20th century corporations have been reducing wages, gutting unions and getting richer in the process. And the conventiona...

While Coke, McDonald's, Nestle and the rest of America's food giants capture nearly 90 cents out of every dollar spent on food & beverages their consolidation is beginning to erode, at least a little bit. And amid this shifting landscape paying huge prices for little companies continues unabated. In this episode of Cornucopia Point of View we look at Nestle's $425 million dollar purchase of a 68% share of San Francisco based Bl...

After we finished our pilot on the history of the supermarket we realized that Clarence Saunders, the man who created Piggly Wiggly, deserved way more attention. Blending PT Barnum's theatrics with Steve Jobs-like innovations so much of the grocery business even today bear his mark.  With an unabashed joie de vivre, Saunders was a self-made man who took on Wall Street and lost, but rose again. Only to lose everything another t...

This bonus track from our Food Scientist on Weed episode features Mary Mulry who discusses the challenges weed food companies face as California shifts to legal cannabis. New rules requiring companies  to standardize the amount of THC in their cookies, gummies and chocolates is a  burden. One that isn't easy, even for food science professionals and especially difficult for those many companies who entered the business wit...