A plateful of news

Indignity Vol. 5, No. 145

Tom Scocca, JOE MACLEOD

13 Aug 2025 — 10 min read

MEDIA DIET DEP'T.

What's Happening in the Four Basic Food Groups?

MEAT

"ELEVEN MADISON PARK, the elegant, internationally acclaimed Manhattan restaurant whose climate-minded move to an all-vegan menu four and a half years ago was hailed as both brilliant and baffling, is bringing back meat."

"Woolworths has stopped selling a selection of deli meat off-cuts, which was priced higher per kilogram than some fresh meat. An image of a tray containing bits of saveloy sausages, luncheon, salami and other cold cut meats was taken at a central Auckland Metro supermarket and posted on Reddit, sparking outrage."

"Beyond Meat plans to reduce its North American workforce by about 44 employees as the food maker struggles with a prolonged slump for its plant-based burgers, chicken and sausages. The reduction represents approximately 6% of its total global headcount."

"Dan Burton has trapped hundreds of wild pigs for clients of his wildlife control company in Salinas, but even he was startled when he cut one of them open and found blue meat inside...Burton said he investigated to try to figure out how the pigs’ meat had become tainted and found that the animals appeared to be targeting squirrel bait stations in the field, which were being used to control the squirrel population."

"New Delhi: A huge political row has erupted after several civic bodies in the country ordered that meat shops and slaughterhouses must remain shut this Independence Day."

"Justin Ransom was named the administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the agency charged with overseeing the safety of the U.S. meat and poultry supply. Up until his appointment, Ransom held a senior leadership role at Tyson, where he played a key part in launching the company’s highly contested “climate-friendly” beef brand called Brazen Beef."

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

"A man from Cokeburg has won big again in several vegetable growing contests at the Washington County fair...With his watermelon, onion, green tomato, red tomato, pepper, carrot, and eggplant, [Justin] Lint swept first place awards with all of his entries this year."

"Taiwan is experiencing a 30–40% drop in overall vegetable supply, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. The shortfall follows damage from Typhoon Danas in early July, compounded by heavy rainfall since July 28 that has further disrupted harvesting and replanting, CNA reported."

"Dole sold its fresh vegetable division to private equity firm Arable Capital Partners, which owns packaged salad brand Organicgirl, for $140 million."

"Dried fruit is a tasty snack or sweet addition to recipes, but the water removal process often requires heat and energy. In a step toward more sustainable food preservation, researchers reporting in ACS Food Science & Technology have developed a method for drying food at room temperature by adjusting air pressure conditions and using food-safe calcium chloride."

"The first Cambodian durians arrived in China’s central province of Henan by air over the weekend, marking the official launch of a direct air corridor for fresh fruit between the two nations."

"Doehler Dry Ingredient Solutions, LLC is recalling Member’s Mark Freeze Dried Fruit Variety Pack 15 count boxes, UPC 1 93968 50900 2 due to contamination with Listeria monocytogenes."

MILK

"A pair of Ohio Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would legalize the sale of unpasteurized milk."

"About 300 gallons of raw milk spilled into the Sandy Creek due to an overflow at Minerva Dairy on the evening of Aug. 12."

"Frida, a parent company, and OddFellows, a small-batch ice cream company based in New York, have partnered to release a limited number of breast milk-flavored ice cream pints nationwide."

"The Florida Surgeon General has said he approves of Floridans' right to consume raw milk after 21 people in the state were infected with E. coli from drinking it."

"The Wuethrich Family/Grassland Dairy Center of Excellence at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls will now be able to produce even more tasty dairy foods, thanks to the donation of a milk-hauling truck by a regional automotive dealer, Cernohous Chevrolet of Prescott."

"On a breezy Wednesday morning in mid-June, The Associated Press visited Beder Camel Farm—one of a new generation of camel dairies springing up around Mogadishu...Demand for camel milk is growing, buoyed by a wave of local entrepreneurs who see untapped potential in a traditional resource."

BREAD AND CEREALS

"For years, you could walk into a government-subsidized bakery like [Juan de Dios] Castillo’s anywhere in Bolivia and get a 100-gram (3.5 ounce) roll for 50 centavos (7 U.S. cents), but as a cash crunch cripples flour imports and inflation squeezes budgets, bakers have almost halved the size of their staple bread. Early last year, rolls shrank to 80 grams, then 70, now 60."

"Multiple Houston area locations of the popular chain Panera Bread have closed amid a legal battle pitting the nationwide brand against a franchisee."

"'I'm always baking bread and texting my friends like, "Can I send you some bread? I need some feedback. Do you like this one better than you like the other one? I did the rise a little differently,"' Taylor [Swift] admitted. 'I'm on sourdough blogs. There's a whole community of us, and I didn't know it.'"

"Cereal maker Kellogg will remove artificial food dyes from [Froot] Loops and other products as part of a deal with Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday that Kellogg signed a voluntary compliance agreement certifying the company will remove artificial food colorings by the end of 2027."

"Gen Zers are less likely to eat breakfast at all, and if they do, they’re choosing eggs, fruit, toast, and pancakes ahead of cereal, according to YouGov’s research."

"WK Kellogg Co. needs to disclose more about any potential conflict its financial adviser has from a deal with the cereal-maker’s former company, a shareholder lawsuit said. Goldman Sachs & Co. provided a fairness opinion of the proposed $3.1 billion acquisition by Ferrero International SA...The initial proxy was misleading because it didn’t include the amount of money Goldman’s supposed to make off of affiliate Kellanova’s $36 billion sale, said the Aug. 8 complaint."

HELP INDIGNITY HOARD FROOT LOOPS

SIDE PIECES DEP'T.

FOR DEFECTOR, I wrote about visiting the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and then coming back to America:

There's plenty of precedent for, and fodder for predictions about, tyranny and subjection within the borders of the United States. This country was built on mass murder and enslavement, and when the system of enslavement was overthrown and barred by the Constitution, the political system reconstituted it as a new system of racial segregation and political subjugation—one that helped show South Africa's white minority how its own project of domination might be accomplished.

But what the Apartheid Museum demonstrates is how quickly and completely it could all happen, within a more modern political setting. Using minority rule, South African whites built up the whole savage contrivance within a few years and kept it grinding up the country for decades. When my parents were born, apartheid didn't exist; when I was born, apartheid was the entrenched reality for 23 million people. It was senseless and indefensible and it was the law.

For Air Mail, I reviewed Henry Wiencek's Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age:

Who put the shine on the Gilded Age? Mark Twain’s original sarcastic metaphor of a name, distinguishing the superficial American version from the golden ages of myth, has itself been beaten to tissue through the years. But Wiencek relays [Augustus] Saint-Gaudens’s own childhood reminiscences of watching craftsmen at work, “‘four or five men with big, strong, bare arms with big veins on them,’ hammering gold until it was so thin ‘you could blow it away.’” Amid the evanescent ostentation and the mercenary spirit of the times, artists and artisans were striving for beauty, even hoping to reach eternity.

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OUTSIDE READINGS DEP'T.

When not on vacation, your Indignity editor has been working a temporary summer job editing features at CNN, which is how your Indignity editor could afford to take a vacation. Today, that meant having the chance to handle a breaking-news blog by Choire Sicha about Donald Trump's selection of the next round of Kennedy Center honorees:

Gloria Gaynor, singer of the great American gay anthem “I Will Survive,” also made the list — “an unbelievable song,” Trump said. “One of those few that get better every time you hear it.” Ivana Trump agreed — this was the song, she wrote in her memoir, “Raising Trump,” that she listened to in court with headphones during her divorce trial from Trump.

WEATHER REVIEWS

New York City, August 12, 2025

★★ The dark red brick face of an apartment tower was glazed with the blue-white glare from the sky. The air was hot but still breathable; facing downtown meant looking into a disorienting blast of light and heat. Pokeweed and some kind of sunflowers were sprawling out of their fenced patch of ground inside the Park gate, with bees and a butterfly darting among the far-thrust yellow blossoms. A rat pressed its belly low to the pavement and sniffed across the pathway. The lawn on the crown of the Great Hill looked empty at first approach, but the sunbathers were just extra-flattened into the grass.

EASY LISTENING DEP'T.

HERE IS TODAY'S Indignity Morning Podcast!

HERE IS THE Indignity Morning Podcast archive!

ADVICE DEP'T.

HEY! DO YOU like advice columns? They don't happen unless you send in some letters! Surely you have something you want to justify to yourself, or to the world at large. Now is the perfect time to share it with everyone else through The Sophist, the columnist who is not here to correct you, but to tell you why you're right. Direct your questions to The Sophist, at indignity@indignity.net, and get the answers you want.

SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.

WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich selected from Dr. Allinson's Cookery Book: Comprising Many Valuable Vegetarian Recipes, by Thomas Richard Allinson, published in 1915, and available at archive.org for the delectation of all.

DEVONSHIRE SANDWICHES.

Cut some slices of new bread into squares, spread each piece with golden syrup and over this with clotted cream.

TOMATOES ON TOAST.

Cut in slices 1 or 2 ripe red tomatoes, after having removed the seeds. Arrange in a single layer in a baking tin, sprinkle with fine breadcrumbs seasoned with pepper and salt. Put a little bit of butter on each slice, bake 15 minutes, and serve on hot buttered toast; pour the gravy from it round the dish. A few drops of lemon juice are an improvement.

If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net .