🥬 The future of lettuce

Plus: App overload | Tuesday, November 08, 2022

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Capital One   Axios What's Next By Jennifer A. Kingson, Joann Muller and Alex Fitzpatrick · Nov 08, 2022 Climate change won't kill salads anytime soon — but it might change what's in them, Jennifer reports today. Today's newsletter is 1,173 words ... 4½ minutes.     1 big thing: The future of lettuce Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios   the lettuce supply chain Hydroponic lettuce grown indoors, long regarded as niche, is edging into the mainstream as climate change hits outdoor growers and the salad-lovers who depend on them, Jennifer A. Kingson reports. Greenhouses enable "proximity growing" — a hot industry term — where lettuces are shipped shorter distances to markets, saving on freight costs and emissions. The rise of indoor growing comes with a new category: "Teen" lettuce, which is larger and crispier than baby greens, yet more tender than a mature head. Why it matters: While indoor growing is no replacement for vast outdoor fields, it's expected to play a bigger role going forward — evening out the transition between summer and winter lettuce, and filling in when climate-related crop failures strike. Driving the news: With lettuce production migrating to Quebec, Vegpro International — Canada's largest fresh vegetable producer — has built a 10-acre greenhouse complex for growing hydroponic lettuce year-round. It'll specialize in buttery teen leaves of romaine and other varieties, and ship primarily to Eastern Canadian stores and packagers — lending consistency to the lettuce supply and reducing logistics headaches. It's currently the "shoulder" season for lettuce, when U.S. production shifts from California to Arizona, and Vegpro's outdoor production moves from British Columbia to Florida. What they're saying: "There's no doubt that a product grown outdoors will have a more robust texture," Luc Prévost, EVP of sales and marketing at Vegpro, told Axios. But with indoor growing, "not only can you do it continuously, but there are very few surprises that can happen." Plus, Prévost adds, hydroponics are good for the lettuce supply chain. "When everybody is growing out of the same region ... then people have limited-to-no other options, and that creates panic in the industry. The more diverse the sourcing can be, the better." Where it stands: Drought and crazy heat left California lettuces wilting and turning brown in the fields this past summer. Competition for water among Western growers, meanwhile, could prompt them to ditch lettuce for more lucrative crops, such as avocados, nuts or citrus. Yes, but: Outdoor growers in California produce about 70% of U.S. lettuce supplies, while Arizona growers furnish the rest. That's not likely to change anytime soon. "You're dealing with a pretty resilient industry here," said Richard Smith of the University of California, Davis, a farm adviser on vegetable crop production and weed science. Hydroponic lettuces "are making a little bit of a dent in field-grown lettuce, but so far we're still growing a heck of a lot." What's next: Bigger greenhouses and new lettuce-growing frontiers could bring fresh flavors and textures to North American consumers. Teen lettuce is "a little bit bigger and a lot crunchier" than the baby leaves people are familiar with, Prévost said. "They're the type of leaf that could probably hold up to heavier dressings and toppings." "By bringing in a whole new texture, you're bringing in a new culinary experience," he said. "We're trying to bring a whole new portfolio of products to consumers." Share this story.     2. Another shakeup in self-driving cars Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios   A merger between two suppliers of lidar — a key autonomous vehicle technology — is the latest tremor in the quickly shifting world of self-driving cars, Joann Muller reports. The tie-up between former rivals Ouster and Velodyne, announced Monday, comes less than two weeks after Argo.ai, a leading self-driving car startup, said it was shutting down. The big picture: The race to develop self-driving cars led to a gold rush for lidar makers, many of which went public in the past couple of years. However, their valuations have since plummeted as investors grew disillusioned with autonomous vehicle technology. Automakers are now largely turning their focus from fully autonomous driving to partially automated driver-assistance technology, which they're already selling. How it works: Lidar ("light detection and ranging") sensors use invisible lasers to create highly detailed 3D maps of their surroundings. They work alongside other sensors — such as cameras, radar and ultrasonics — to help vehicles "see" their surroundings. Yes, but: Even if self-driving cars never go mainstream, there's still plenty of lidar sensor demand for use in driver-assist features and in other fields of robotics. Share this story.     3. More apps than an Applebee's menu Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   The number of workplace apps in use at any given company can make it feel like we're doing multiple jobs at once, Axios' Hope King writes. By the numbers: Workers are using an average of six to eight apps to perform a single task, Tori Paulman, senior director analyst at Gartner, told Axios. A recent Harvard Business Review study suggests workers are switching from app to app, website to website, nearly 1,200 times a day — and this "toggling" consumes 9% of their work time annually. What they're saying: "You might not be commuting into the office, but you're commuting from email to CRM and from CRM to [the web] and from the internet to [your phone]," Paulman said. All that traveling requires additional cognitive energy and effort — to readjust mentally to a new application. Read the rest.     A message from Capital One The car-buying process needs more transparency     Only 19% of car buyers believe the car-buying process is transparent, Capital One's 2022 Car Buying Outlook found. The solution: A hybrid car-buying experience — that's online and in-person — allows consumers to research online before going in person. Learn more about the future of car buying.     4. 📊 The busiest office days Data: Kastle; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Most office workers are starting and ending their week at home, Axios' Emily Peck reports. What's happening: Tuesdays and Wednesdays have become the most popular days for in-person office work, according to employee swipe card data analyzed by security firm Kastle. There's a network effect happening here: Because more employees regularly come in on these days, more of their coworkers will show up to see them. 💬 Alex's thought bubble: If you need a quiet place to get work done, try your office on Mondays and Fridays. Share this story.     5. Schools aren't spending COVID $$$ fast enough Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios   Schools are failing to effectively use billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 funding before a looming deadline, experts told Axios' Erin Doherty. "What school districts are doing now is the equivalent of just shooting bottle rockets at the moon," said Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist and expert on pandemic achievement loss. Driving the news: Test scores released last month showed the largest math declines on record for fourth- and eighth-graders. No state showed improvements in their math scores, and reading scores dropped to 1992 levels, according to the results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). "The NAEP scores ... really raised that question about whether or not the money is aligned in a way that's going to fix this problem," said Marguerite Roza, the director of Georgetown University's Edunomics Lab. Zoom out: In March 2021, the Biden administration announced $122 billion in American Rescue Plan funding to help reopen schools, beef up staffing, implement mental health programs and more. Those funds expire in September 2024. State of play: Some schools are using the funding for various programs, but not on the scale needed for academic recovery, Kane said. Plus, there's a lack of widespread metrics to assess such efforts — and schools are slow to switch gears if something isn't working. The big picture: "The questions people should be asking their school districts is: 'What is your investment to remedy these gaps, and do we think it's going to work, and what are we seeing so far?'" Roza said. Read the rest.     A message from Capital One The state of car buying     More than 75% of car buyers believe dealerships should provide more upfront information about pricing and financing, Capital One's 2022 Car Buying Outlook found. In other words: Consumers want the car-buying process to be more transparent. Learn more about the state of the industry.   Big thanks to What's Next copy editor Amy Stern. Was this email forwarded to you? Get your daily dose of What's Next by signing up here for our free newsletter. Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. 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