supermarkets

A Harper's Magazine essay argues that lab-grown meat, once heralded as a revolutionary alternative to conventional livestock farming, has failed to deliver on its hype. Years after bold predictions, cultured meat remains expensive, hard to scale, and largely absent from supermarket shelves, prompting renewed debate about whether the technology can ever compete with real meat.

A new investigation looks into the wave of protein-fortified products now filling supermarket shelves, from snacks to drinks, and asks whether the added protein offers real nutritional value or is mainly a marketing strategy. The reporting examines how manufacturers use the protein label to charge premium prices and what consumers are actually getting for their money.

Scientists expect the El Nino weather pattern developing in the Pacific to be one of the strongest since records began. The phenomenon is forecast to parch crops in some regions while flooding others, squeezing harvests and pushing up food prices at the supermarket. Commentators are weighing which staple goods and regions will be hit hardest as the pattern intensifies.