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David Barber shared thisDavid Barber shared thisWetlands are the unsung heroes in battling the climate emergency. "Peatlands and marshes are the carbon sink champions. The world's peatlands account for about a third of the total CO2 absorbed by soil, although they make up just 3% of the world's land area." Michel Penke for Deutsche Welle Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/3CSNTLJ #carbonsink #climatechange
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David Barber shared thisExcited to see Spare Tonic rise from years of work and dedication to food waste challenges. Congratulations to Adam, Jeremy and the entire Spare Tonic team!David Barber shared thisFor over a decade, we’ve dreamed of building sweetgreen drive thrus, taking the traditional fast food format of convenience but with our food and our digital experience. This year has forced us to pivot in many ways, and with that we decided to sprint on making this dream come to life. I’m so proud of our team for their brilliant work and design. #2021Sweetgreen will pilot a drive-in restaurant as part of suburban pushSweetgreen will pilot a drive-in restaurant as part of suburban push
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David Barber liked thisDavid Barber liked thisLast week Daniel Humm (of Eleven Madison Park fame) and Mark Ramadan (co-founder of Sir Kensington's and former CEO of Hu Chocolate) launched a new line of shelf-stable products under the brand name Riff. Riff joins a growing group of brands - including Salad for President, Momofuku Goods and Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings to name a few - that are applying a new formula to shelf-stable food (one I really like): Familiar format + more ambitious flavor + culinary authority with followings. Format: Americans already understand “this box + a few ingredients from home.” Boxed mac & cheese is a $2.1–$2.3B category, and GOODLES has proven there’s room to reinvent it - just acquired by the Barilla Group - and data shows, three boxes are purchased every second. But there’s also a lesson from the meal-kit era. Blue Apron tried to make home cooking easier through an intense system - fresh ingredients, refrigerated packaging, portioning - and still required the consumer to do a lot of the work. After years of struggle, it was acquired by Wonder for $103M. This generation of center store innovation is making a different bet: ask less of the consumer without asking less of their palate. Americans have become accustomed to bolder flavors and more culinary experimentation. 93% eat hot sauce, 62% are more likely to buy something advertised as hot or spicy, and ~73% of Gen Z consumers want to try new flavors. Boxed meals don’t need to be dumbed down, just simplified in their prep. At the same time, chefs and food personalities now have enormous direct audiences that can follow them straight into the grocery aisle. David Chang - 1.7M Instagram followers; Chrissy Teigen - 39M. Daniel Humm brings the authority of a chef whose Eleven Madison Park was once ranked #1 in the world. The center of the store has long been treated as grocery’s least dynamic territory. Riff (and a growing list of others) is already proving otherwise. Read more on my Substack, linked in comments. New Fare Hallie Bonnar Daisy Bowes Williamson Erin Patinkin
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David Barber liked thisDavid Barber liked thisCold Steppe built and commissioned a commercial-scale biochar facility in just 169 days! Matthew Freniere, MBA, Kevin Crow, and the Cold Steppe team recently won Groundbreaker of the Year at the 2026 International Biomass Conference & Expo for rapid development and deployment of their facility, and it couldn't be more deserved. The carbon-negative project in Stuttgart, Arkansas converts rice hulls and agricultural residues into renewable energy and biochar using continuous pyrolysis and waste heat recovery. Offstream is now deep in monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) implementation with the Cold Steppe team ahead of carbon credit issuance later this year. Offstream is very proud to be building alongside Matt and Kevin! Photos: Award ceremony at the International Biomass Conference & Expo and Alec Sosnowski's recent site visit.
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David Barber liked thisDavid Barber liked thisHeading to Expo West? Stop by our booth at #N1200 to get a bite of the hottest breakfast on the market and be the first to discover our two brand new products! 🎉 🍳 🎉
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David Barber liked thisDavid Barber liked thisEarlier this week, I posted about Spindrift Beverage Co, Inc. and we received reactions from almost 2,000 people. Five take-aways: 1. Spindrift flavors are of greater interest and concern than VC funding announcements, founder opportunities, or basically any other topic I've ever posted about. 2. I will now be launching my new career as a beverage influencer. 3. People are passionate about the lemon flavor. About half the comments were accusing us of blasphemy, and the other half were offering to adopt our unwanted cans sight unseen. To the people who agreed with our lemon take - congratulations, you have great taste. 4. Spindrift needs to publish a crowd-sourced cocktail recipe book. Between the Ginger Lime Mule and everyone's pairing recommendations in the comments, the book is already mostly written. 5. This was unintentionally the greatest way to collect customer feedback at scale. Scroll through the comments and you see all ranges of favorite flavors, variety pack recommendations, and more. Shoutout to Dave Burwick and the Spindrift team for their support and sportsmanship (despite our candid feedback). Thank you also to the brands that reached out to send us free samplings of their sparkling water drink lines. Even though our fridge space is quickly disappearing, my DMs are always open to new brands and snacks for the office. Didn't realize a Spindrift take would bring so many of us together, but here we are. Cheers!
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David Barber liked thisDavid Barber liked thisLast week in Chicago, ReFED was honored to receive a The James Beard Foundation Impact Award alongside an inspiring group of leaders and organizations working to build a more sustainable and equitable food system. The awards ceremony celebrated achievement and collaboration. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. This award is really for the “Big Tent,” which couldn’t happen without the philanthropic and corporate supporters of ReFED, the multi-stakeholders working tirelessly for solutions, the incredibly talented and dedicated ReFED professional staff, and the board of directors. It was wonderful to spend time with the other honorees throughout the weekend. A big shout-out to Senator Ben Ray Luján, the team at the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, and all of the other organizations working on hunger, equity, community development, and food systems change. It was inspiring to learn from people who are making a real difference. ReFED is honored to be included among such an extraordinary and diverse group. Food waste is a challenge that requires action from all of us: consumers, businesses, restaurants, grocery retailers, and policymakers alike. Chefs play an important role as they have both a platform and the public's trust, giving them the ability to raise awareness about food waste AND also to inspire meaningful action. Through their creativity, leadership, and influence, chefs inspire people to see food differently and become part of the solution. We are grateful to the James Beard Foundation for recognizing this work and to everyone who has helped advance the food waste movement over the past decade. #JamesBeardAwards #ReFED #FoodWaste
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David Barber liked thisDavid Barber liked thisThe Everlane acquisition has some in mourning, but the funeral happened long ago. When private equity assumes the role of majority stakeholder, the company's trajectory is set. PE does not acquire values, they acquire margin from attrition. Everything after that is a matter of fact, not whether. Standards don't collapse overnight, they erode under debt pressure and board logic. Consumer preferences are not part of the calculus. I'll say this — in the culinary world, provenance is not marketing, it is a material reality. A chef who can't source can't be the best. Provenance literacy is table stakes because commodity and prestige cannot coexist. Not intellectually, but also, literally. A locally grown tomato could never be confused for the one from the supermarket. Fashion has no such literacy. In its absence, marketing fills the vacuum. When private equity and customer values go head-to-head, the verdict has been set — and the same winner over and over again. Transparency does make a product more valuable, but unless it is valued, it is still worthless. COMOCO has assumed the logic of gastronomy. We will not attempt to convince you about the virtues of our sourcing. We move the way we do because of the knowledge that our tomatoes are the best. We trust consumers will keep up. The proliferation of farmers markets is proof they can, but ethics that are marketed could never be confused with those that are embodied. When they are, disappointment ensues.
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David Barber liked thisFor years, as a sommelier, I was steeped in an ideology of provenance — legibility at the point of origin as a marker of preeminent quality and good politics. It was a prerequisite for every serious food and beverage establishment. I've been dreaming of bringing that legibility into fashion. Knowing who grew your clothes should carry the same prestige and ubiquity as knowing who grew your food. We've got a long way to go, but I'm proud we've made it possible with COMOCO. Julius' family has been growing cotton in North Carolina for more than 100 years. Time to make that legacy legible.David Barber liked thisThis is Stephen Satterfield, host of the critically acclaimed Netflix show How on the Hog, who is now a cotton textile manufacturer and founder of Comoco Cotton. He is holding cotton yarn that was produced in NC from cotton I grew on my farm. This is not normal. Its quite unique and historical in many ways. Understanding that black american people can find ownership of the cotton value chain is truly a 21st century event. Im proud that I've had a part in making this historical sourcing point in agriculture and textile history happen. #cottonisourculture #blackcotton
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David Wolin
Raising the Bar for NJ Wine: Clear Standards and Respect for Consumer Preference Every emerging wine region faces the same challenge: how to build real and lasting credibility. New Jersey is producing some genuinely exciting wines. Growers are improving vineyard practices, winemakers are refining techniques, and the quality of fruit and finished wine continues to rise. The potential here is real. But potential alone does not create trust, and trust is the foundation of any respected wine region. Over the years, different efforts have tried to elevate New Jersey wine. Some focused on curated tastings, others on enthusiastic declarations about quality. These efforts come from a place of strong belief in what our state can produce. Passion is important, but passion by itself does not create legitimacy. The term “world class” is a powerful phrase, but when it is applied too broadly or too casually, the meaning becomes diluted. If a single, subjective evaluation leads to a world class designation, the term quickly loses its meaning. It becomes marketing language rather than an earned distinction. True world class wines achieve that status through rigorous evaluation, consistent excellence, and comparison with global benchmarks. History proves this point. Napa Valley’s breakthrough came during the 1976 Judgment of Paris, where California wines were blind tasted against top French wines and won based on quality. New Jersey had its own version decades later with the Judgment of Princeton, where our wines were evaluated alongside respected international bottles. These events strengthened credibility because the wines earned their recognition in transparent comparison. The regions that have earned global recognition built their reputations through clear standards, open methods, and consistent evaluation. They defined what quality means, communicated their expectations, evaluated wines blind, and let the results speak for themselves. If New Jersey wants to reach the next level, we need to follow the same principles. Another truth that mature wine regions understand is that not every wine needs to be considered world class to be successful, appreciated, or respected. New Jersey produces a wide range of wines, including dry vinifera, hybrids, sparkling wines, and fruit wines. Each style has a different audience and purpose. At Old York Cellars, our Double Gold medal Peach Wine is a favorite among wine drinkers who enjoy sweeter styles. But we would never describe it as “world class.” That does not diminish its quality or its appeal to the consumers who love it. This is why both standards and consumer preference matter. Clear criteria give the industry credibility. Respect for diverse palates gives the industry reach. When we communicate honestly about what each wine is and who it is for, confidence grows. If we combine high standards with respect for consumer taste, the future of New Jersey wine will be stronger than ever.
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