The US Plant Based Food Association (PBFA) reported growing consumer interest in vegan alternatives to traditional foods. Plant-based meat had reached sales of US$670 million in 2017, showing that plant-based food industry has gone from a relatively niche market to fully mainstream. PBFA also adds that plant-based meat and dairy alternatives are not just for […]
A good indicator whether a niche market has become mainstream is to look at the merger and acquisition activities. In the last few years, major food companies have acquired growing companies in the meat alternative sector. According to livekindly.com, in 2016, there were just four global plant-based acquisitions, whereas there were seventeen in 2017.Some notable […]
The Rantau Abang beach in the state of Terengganu, Malaysia , is one of the few places on earth that the giant leatherback turtles (leatherbacks) choose to come ashore to nest. Once, they helped put this normally quiet small village on the world map. Tourists, foreign and domestic as well as locals flocked by the […]
Honey of the stingless bees is a sweet, viscous food substance produced by stingless bees from floral nectar. It is quite similar to honey from the common honey bees (genus Apis) in most aspects but with its own distinctive physicochemical profiles, minerals and bioactive compounds. There are more than 500 species of stingless bees worldwide. […]
PWC, the global auditing company, regularly issued reports under the title, The World in 2050. The latest report, The World in 2020: The long-term view-How will the global economic order change by 2020? was published in February, 2017. The report showed some interesting highlights. Among the highlights are: Other than the usual countries of China, […]
We noted a new health drink in a recent article in The Times of London on December 29th, 2018. Non-alcoholic beer has become a health drink for fitness enthusiasts in Germany. The health benefits of beer are derived from the use of hops (hop flower) in making beer. The hops are what make beer taste […]
Changing Roles The report highlighted examples of stable, new and redundant roles in all industries as shown below: Stable roles Managing Directors and Chief Executives General and Operation Managers Software and Applications Development and Analysts Data Analysts and Scientists Sales and Marketing Professionals Sales Representatives Human Resource Specialists Financial and Investment Advisers Database and Network […]
Introduction In 2019 and beyond, many people are concerned whether they will continue to hold on to their existing (well-paying) jobs. They have both good and bad news. Many organizations and governments have issued research papers and reports on the impacts of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) on future jobs. One such interesting report is […]
The year is almost over. Old technologies can take longer to die and the timing is unpredictable, according to an article in the Lex column of FTWeekend 15/16 December 2018. Sony announced that it was stopping production of Betamax tapes in 2015, for example, more than 50 years after it lost a format war with […]
In a recent blog we highlighted meat from plants. The high-fashion industry is also embracing plant-based materials, as explained in an article written by Richard Grassie in the FT Weekend magazine on December 15th, 2018. Leading this revolution is manwear brand, Brave GentleMen. Its founder, Joshua Katcher, created the company in 2008 with a […]