Editors' Blog

Here at FSD we've got a lot of opinions. The Editors' Blog is a place where we get to speak our minds. Check back often for posts from Paul King, Becky Schilling, Lindsey Ramsey and Peter Romeo on the foodservice topics of the day.

FSD to Offer Statistical Big Picture of Non-Commercial Industry
Operators plan to add gluten-free options.
10-23-2012

[image]I get a lot of phone calls that go something like this: How many non-commercial operators are doing X. Or what percentage of non-commercial facilities offer Y. Most of the time I can’t give an exact number because, unlike their commercial counterparts, very little research is done about the non-commercial foodservice industry. That’s all about to change.

Fed up with the lack of detailed research about the industry, I proposed a massive research project—The Big Picture. We launched five surveys this year on topics ranging from gluten-free dining to food...

Comments: 1
Read more
Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming
Comments from readers suggest controversy over new school meal regulations may just be heating up.
10-22-2012

I just finished the research and interviews for our November cover story, entitled "Schools’ New Balancing Act," at about the time our October issue hit readers’ desks. One of the elements of that issue was my Opinion piece called "Building Rome in a Day." The catalyst for the column—as well as our upcoming feature—was a proposal by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to rescind the calorie-limit portion of the new U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations that are currently causing school foodservice directors so much agita.

Well, letters already...

Read more
Stealing Stories: Follow the Trail
Students can't resist a flour fight, which leads to their undoing.
10-15-2012

We're always encouraging the stealing of ideas from other operations. It helps operators do their jobs better. However, everyone has a good story about customers who try the other kind of stealing—the bad kind. Since we love a good story, we are starting a new, fun monthly column on the Editors' Blog called Stealing Stories. We want to hear your funniest/most creative stories about a time when customers got crafty when trying to steal from your operation. To submit a story, email me at lramsey@cspnet.com.

Today’s story comes from Tim Dietzler, director...

Read more
A Tale of Rivalry Dining Programs
Two days at competing colleges shows similarities in dining programs.
10-10-2012

Rivalries are a tricky thing, especially in colleges. I graduated from the University of Kansas and the hatred for our bitter rival, the University of Missouri, was palpable from the day I set foot on campus. The rivalry has some interesting real world history involving the era known as Bleeding Kansas, slave state versus free state and the fact that Missourians once burned KU’s hometown of Lawrence to the ground.

So it was with a great swallowing of pride that I decided to arrange a tour of Mizzou, in Columbia, while I was going to be in the area for a family wedding last...

Read more
The End of Bacon?
Pork prices rising, pig herds declining, says pig association.
10-03-2012

Oct. 4—In what must be a sure sign of an impending apocalypse, a pork shortage is predicted for next year.

Britain's National Pig Association (NPA) says that pig herds are declining at a significant rate around the world. The association says the shortage is "unavoidable," due to high pig feed costs, "caused by the global failure of maize and soya harvests," according to an association press release.

The Guardian reports that the cost of bacon has doubled...

Read more

Advertisement

Advertisement