January 29: Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week

In the most Wisconsin situation ever, thieves stole a trailer with $70,000 worth of cheese last Friday. Strangely, the greedy cheeseheads drove the trailer to a nearby grocer and unloaded the cheese there, where it was found soon after. You’d think that sort of grand heist would be a rare thing, but just yesterday, $90,000 worth of Parmesan that had been stolen a few weeks ago was found. No one is in custody for either of these crimes.

The meatpacking industry might get a little more automated, which could save workers from the dangers inherent in the biz – meat grinder incidents notwithstanding. The perks of robot workers include faster processing (killing, dismembering, and packaging more animals in a shorter amount of time) and sparing human danger. Slate points out that a higher expertise may be needed for the slaughter of cattle than chickens, and that robots may not align with Temple Grandin’s modern humane slaughter guidelines.

The Washington Post did a piece on whether or not people really care about food issues as much as they say they do. The amount of people who say they care about, say, farmworker health, changes depending on the way they’re asked.

Lastly, an interesting piece (also by the Washington Post) brought to light the foods we’d be into if we were alive a hundred years ago. Lots of pickled things (we still like those), and alligator pear, which we didn’t know we liked until we found out it meant avocado.