• What used to be the only place you ever heard of pork bellies— the frozen pork belly futures market at the Merc— has shut down. It’s not entirely bad news, though— part of the reason is that the market has moved to fresh product. [Crains]
• In other frozen pork belly news: some countries have grain stores, but China keeps a frozen-pork reserve, which it plans to release to the market now that prices are up. Weird. [NYT]
• Like we’ve been telling you, organic and natural pet food is on the rise, so much so that some PetCo locations have a special store-within-a-store dedicated to the products. [LAT]
• A new study shows that using a bigger fork causes people to eat less of the food on their plates. So, small plate, big fork? [Marie Claire UK]
• Try as it might, PepsiCo just can’t beat Coke, which continues to gain shares in the drinks market. [Street]
• They love their squid pizza, apparently— despite Asians not having their own tradition of making and eating cheese, the ubiquity of pizza and cheeseburgers is boosting demand for U.S. cheese in Asia. [Bloomberg]
• New Zealand is the latest country to suffer higher inflation owing partly to rising food costs. [RTT News]
• The year-old drought affecting the swath of the southern U.S. from Florida to Arizona is being dubbed a “once-in-a-generation” disaster. [Financial Times]
