Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
Meat Returns to Eleven Madison Park After Four Vegan Years
Eleven Madison Park will reintroduce meat and seafood to its menu this October, ending its four-year run as a fully plant-based fine dining restaurant. Chef Daniel Humm, who helms the three-Michelin-starred Manhattan restaurant, cites financial pressures and a desire to be more inclusive as key reasons behind the pivot. “While we had built something meaningful, we had also unintentionally kept people out. This is the opposite of what we believe hospitality to be,” Humm says.
The restaurant introduced its vegan menu after a 15-month pandemic closure. Concerned with the sustainability of how food is sourced and consumed, EMP vowed to create exciting meals without moving a single animal product. In 2022, EMP became the first restaurant in the world to earn three Michelin stars for a fully vegan menu.
But some doubted diners would be willing to pay as much for a plant-based meal, and some dismissed it as a high-end stunt.
Over the past year at EMP, private bookings dwindled and Humm says the labor-intensive, high-concept menu became harder to sustain. The decision also followed a trip to Greece, where Humm watched a goat being slaughtered with reverence. The experience, combined with guest feedback about the restrictive menu, led him to reconsider.
Humm says plant-based option will remain on the menu but will no longer be the only option.
USDA Cancels Contract for Food Safety Inspectors
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently moved to cancel collective bargaining agreements with employees at its animal health and food safety inspection agencies, affecting more than 8,000 unionized workers.
Notices provided to union leaders at the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) explain that the move was aligned with Executive Order 14251. Signed in March, the executive order excludes some federal workers from collective bargaining if their agencies have national security roles.
But according to Cole Austen Gandy, president of the National Association of Agriculture Employees (NAAE), which represents nearly 1,500 APHIS workers, none of the employees’ work involves national security.
The USDA says the change will allow the agency to be nimble and “farmer-first.” But critics warn the shift may undermine food safety and labor protections. “It doesn’t just erode labor rights — it damages the public’s trust in the safety of our food supply,” says Milton Jones, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
Paula Soldner, chair of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, which represents some FSIS employees, notes that the move “flies in the face of every promise [FSIS] has made to protect America’s food supply.
The National Association of Agriculture Employees recently filed a suit challenging the executive order and its revocation of its collective bargaining rights. According to the union, it is the sixth lawsuit contesting Executive Order 14251.
Environmental Data Is Disappearing from Government Websites
A new Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) report finds that scope and speed of the second Trump administration’s changes to websites related to environmental regulation has far exceeded that of the first. According to the researchers, the removals and revisions have significantly altered the federal environmental information landscape.
EDGI began documenting loss of access and usability of government environmental information during the first Trump administration. The organization found that the second Trump Administration has made 70 percent more changes to government websites related to environmental regulation during the first 100 days than the first administration did.
The amount of information being scrubbed has surprised Gretchen Gehrke, Co-Founder of EDGI, who tells NPR that the level of “total erasure” of any topic was never seen under Trump’s first term.
The report also finds that the changes are getting bolder, with intensifying rhetoric and increasing challenge to statutory authorities for information sharing. The changes’ biggest targets include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and environmental justice, according to EDGI.
The Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which identified disadvantaged communities to ensure a percent of climate program benefits reached them, was removed. Nine similar screening tools also disappeared.
On the EPA’s website all pages about environmental justice are gone. And following layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), climate.gov—which shared information about changing weather patterns, drought conditions, and greenhouse gas emissions—stopped publishing new content this summer.
Europe Faces Worst Wildfire Season in Nearly 20 Years
The European Union is experiencing its most destructive wildfire season in nearly two decades. Fueled by heat waves, prolonged drought, and strong winds, the fires have ravaged the continent, displacing tens of thousands, burning homes, and devastating farmland.
Satellite data from the Copernicus space program show that almost 9,000 square kilometers—roughly the size of Puerto Rico—have burned in 2025. Several deaths and many injuries have been reported. Thousands of fire crews have been deployed across the continent.
In Greece, flames swept through pine forests and olive groves, burning houses, dozens of vehicles. Spain is experiencing its highest fire emissions since 2003, severely degrading air quality up to several hundred kilometers from the fires.
Turkey has been battling wildfires since late June, with 18 deaths reported so far. And Portugal, facing its worst year of fires since 2006, has been in a state of emergency for weeks. “We are at war and we must win this war,” says Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.
Last week, evacuations affected thousands, with more than 31,000 people displaced in Spain alone. Many have lost homes and farmland, and agricultural infrastructure has been severely damaged. Images from the Associated Press show scorched barns, charred equipment, and families fleeing with their livestock. In Albania, where rural communities rely heavily on animals for food and livelihood, some were forced to leave livestock behind. Residents are now returning to assess the damage, with volunteers helping to care for injured animals.
Though wildfires are common during European summers, their severity can be exacerbated by heatwave conditions—which meteorologists say are becoming more frequent.
Mexico Celebrates “Historic” Reduction in Poverty
More than 8.3 million people in Mexico rose above the poverty line between 2022 and 2024, according to a recent report from the national statistics agency. The report shows a nearly 18 percent overall drop in poverty, with extreme poverty falling 23 percent and moderate poverty decreasing by over 16 percent. About one in three Mexicans remains below the poverty line.
According to Manuel Martínez Espinoza, a researcher at Mexico’s National Council of the Humanities, Sciences and Technologies, the progress can likely be attributed to a number of factors. But the decrease in poverty can likely be attributed to increased wages and social programs under Former President López Obrador, says Espinoza.
Between 2018 and 2025, Mexico’s minimum wage rose from 88.40 pesos to 278.80 pesos per day, a threefold increase. Former President López Obrador also implemented cash transfers for elderly people, unemployed youth, farmers, and others, significantly raising total social spending.
López Obrador successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum called the progress “extraordinary” and “historic,” stating that “‘For the food of all – first the poor’ is not just a slogan, but a reality in Mexico.” Viri Ríos, an independent public policy expert, notes that “there has never been a single six-year term in which poverty has been reduced or decreased so significantly.”
But experts caution the gains may not be sustainable. “If people stop receiving [the transfers], they could fall back into poverty because there wasn’t enough investment in things other than addressing people’s most immediate needs,” says Manuel Martínez Espinoza.
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Photo courtesy of Sandie Peters, Unsplash
