Once Rare, Cage-Free on the Rise
Forreston, Ill. — Inside a long barn next to rolling fields, Rod Wubbena looked out over 12,000 or so brown hens scratching in the wood chips and fluttering onto perches. The chickens have always been cage-free at Phil’s Fresh Eggs, headquartered in the small farming town of Forreston in northwest Illinois, one of the first commercial egg farms in the U.S. to market and produce cage-free eggs. Now that niche is vanishing. “I always...
Organics Do Well in Produce, but Struggle in Meat, Bread Aisles
Washington — Organic foods are seizing shelf space in the fresh-foods sections of grocers but struggling to break into the bread and meat aisles. Organic-product sales farmers made to businesses including Dean Foods and Wal-Mart Stores totaled $5.5 billion in 2014, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of organic growers. The total is 72 percent higher than the last time a similar survey was conducted in 2008. Sales so...
Fresh-Foods Era Has Campbell Soup Cooking Up New Products
To understand the ideas driving the overhaul of Campbell Soup Co., it helps to consider how the packaged food giant describes the products it makes. Instead of “formulas and processing,” company leaders now talk about “recipes and cooking.” It is a subtle verbal cue that reflects what the company behind Campbell’s soup, Pepperidge Farm cookies and SpaghettiOs said is an “extreme makeover” to prevent it from becoming irrelevant in a...
Moms Surpass Sweethearts In Flowers
New York — You don’t write, you don’t call. The least you can do is buy your mom flowers for Mother’s Day. OK, Mr. Original. Did you know that more flowers are sold on Mother’s Day than on Valentine’s Day? This year U.S. florists expect record sales. Tells you something about how much children love their mothers. Or how guilty they feel about not writing or calling. Doesn’t matter the reason. More than two-thirds of celebrants will...
