FYI: 2009 Might Not Be So Good To Restaurants
• Philadelphia's mayor just signed a law requiring fast food and chain restaurants to list calorie and fat levels in their dishes. [Forbes]
• The NRA (no, not that NRA — we mean the National Restaurant Association) predicts a 2.5 percent increase in restaurant sales next year. It also says menu prices are likely to go up 3.6 percent ; that means a 1.1 percent drop in real growth. Not promising. [Dallas Morning News]
• Some awful man actually posted videos on YouTube in which he claimed to have poisoned millions of Gerber baby food jars. It was all untrue, but it caused quite a scare. He pleaded guilty yesterday. [Reuters]
• The UN says 33 countries are in need of food aid, Zimbabwe and North Korea in particular. [AP]
• The lack of good supermarkets and fresh fruits and vegetables in poor urban areas is a huge problem across the country, but one teenager in South Los Angeles is making a difference by using grants to remake the shelves of local independent grocers and convenience stores. [AP]
