– The National Review
The nation’s franchise restaurants are about one month away from the imposition of new nutritional-labeling rules created by the Obama administration via the Affordable Care Act. Outlets of brands with 20 or more locations will be required to post signs in the shop with calorie counts for every item on the menu and for every variation on that item. According to Domino’s, options ranging from gluten-free crusts to thick to hand-tossed to pan pizza, along with multiple sizes, cheeses, toppings create about 34 million possible combinations. Right-leaning National Review issues a scathing critique of the ordinance.
How Fast Food Cornered the Urban Market
– City Lab
The Atlantic’s City Lab explores how small business loans backed by the federal government helped quick service restaurant brands become the urban staples that they are today. A book on the topic, Fast Food Nation, opens with a telling statistic: the Small Business Administration backed 18,000 franchise loans between 1967 and 1979 – often new Burger Kings and McDonald’s; by 1996, the federal government had nearly $1 billion in 600 franchises of 52 fast food companies.
Hundreds of Thousands of Workers Will Strike May 1, Organizers Say
– Buzzfeed
Almost 350,000 service workers plan to strike on May 1, a traditional day for labor activism across the world, in the most direct attempt yet by organized labor to capture the energy from a resurgent wave of activism across the country since the election of Donald Trump.
Wages Rise on California Farms. Americans Still Don’t Want the Job
– The Los Angeles Times
Trump’s immigration crackdown is supposed to help U.S. citizens but for California farmers, it’s worsening a desperate labor shortage. Farmers are being forced to make difficult choices about whether to abandon some of the state’s hallmark fruits and vegetables, move operations abroad, import workers under a special visa or replace them altogether with machines.