Many types of food are made using microbes, and the two most common types of microbes used in food production are:
Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) — a collection of bacteria species used to make cheese, pickles, yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, and sourdough bread — and
Yeast — Different strains of which are used to produce bread, coffee, beer, wine, and liquor.
Over the last decade, several foodtech startups have genetically engineered specific strains of these microbes in order to produce proteins normally derived from animals (e.g. Impossible Foods uses genetically modified yeast to produce the heme protein).
The FDA has approved the proteins produced by those genetically modified microbes, but the microbes themselves didn’t have to be approved because they weren’t included in the final product (e.g. Impossible Foods only makes its fake meat using the protein produced by GMO yeast but doesn’t include the GMO yeast itself in the fake meat). However, there are many opportunities to innovate by genetically modifying microbes that DO end up in the final product:
Create GMO bread yeast that will enrich bread with vitamins,
Create GMO wine yeast that will produce fewer sulfites, or
Create GMO lactic acid bacteria that will sweeten yogurt, pickles, and kimchi with miraculin.
Has the FDA approved any such GMO microbes for use as food ingredients?
No, the FDA has not approved any genetically modified strain of yeast, lactic acid bacteria, or other microbe for use as a food ingredient. No GMO microbe has received FDA approval as a food additive or been granted GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status.
In fact, only a few GMO plants have ever been granted FDA approval, a single GMO animal has received FDA approval, and no GMO microbes have received FDA approval. Below is a complete list of genetically modified organisms that have received FDA approval for human consumption:
Alfalfa
Apples
Canola
Corn
Eggplant
Papaya
Pineapple
Potatoes
Salmon
Soybeans
Summer squash
Sugarbeets
As you can see, that’s not a very long list! That’s partly because of the amount of time and money that are needed to obtain FDA approval for a GMO. Extensive scientific studies must be performed to demonstrate that a GMO is safe before it can be sold in the U.S. In general, you can expect a new GMO to take around 16 years to obtain FDA approval for human consumption.
This review paper explains the prospects for lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to obtain GRAS status from the FDA. As of the time the paper was written, no genetically modified LAB strains had been granted FDA approval.
There are many subindustries within the food industry (e.g. wheat farming, flour milling, bread production, fast food restaurants, etc). In this article, I list 66 of these subindustries along with the total U.S. revenue and average profit margin for each. Industries which are both large and profitable are highlighted in purple while industries that especially small and/or unprofitable are highlighted in orange. Use this list as a guide when selecting what kind of business to start or how to expand your existing food industry business.
Industry
U.S. Industry Revenue
U.S. Industry Profit Margin
1
Beef Cattle Production
(i.e. farming cattle and selling to meat processing plants & beef wholesalers)
$85 Billion
4.0%
2
Beef and Pork Wholesaling
(i.e. buying beef & pork from farmers and selling to retailers)
$109 Billion
2.4%
3
Meat Processing
(i.e. buying, slaughtering, processing, and packaging livestock and poultry, selling the resulting products to wholesalers and food manufacturers and retailers, and selling the byproducts as oil or leather)
$296 Billion
5.2%
4
Hot Dog & Sausage Production
$23 Billion
4.5%
5
Corn Farming
$95 Billion
14.3%
6
Wheat, Barley, and Sorghum Farming
$17.7 Billion
16.1%
7
Bread Production
$53 Billion
4.6%
8
Bread & Bakery Products Wholesaling
(Primary customers are cafes and grocery stores)
Primary products: – Cookies & cakes (51.9%) – Bread & rolls (26.5%) – Other baked goods, including crackers (13.9%) – Baking mixes & dough (7.7%)
Example products: – Sara Lee cakes – Oreo cookies – Bagged bread in bread aisle
(i.e. buying ingredients, manufacturing boxed/packaged cereal, and selling it to wholesalers and grocery stores)
$12.5 Billion
6.9%
13
Tortilla Production
$6.4 Billion
7.2%
14
Sugar Processing
(i.e. buying sugarcane and sugar beets, refining it into various forms of usable sugar, and then primarily selling it to processed food manufacturers)
$13.2 Billion
7.6%
15
Farm Animal Feed Production
(i.e. buying soybeans, corn, and other ingredients, manufacturing food for farm animals, and then selling it to cattle ranches, hog farms, and other animal farms)
$46 Billion
2.7%
16
Fruit & Nut Farming
Biggest product categories: – Grapes (19.6%) – sold primarily to winemakers – Almonds (18.2%) – Strawberries (13.4%) – Apples (10.7%) – Cherries, Blueberries & Cranberries (8.2%) – Pecans & Walnuts (5.5%) – Other (24.4%)
(i.e. buying milk, producing milk, butter, cheese, dry and condensed milk, and other dairy products, and then selling to wholesalers, retailers, and food service companies)
$164 Billion
3.1%
34
Cheese Production
Product categories – American cheeses (40.8%) – Italian cheeses (41.5%) – Other cheeses (17.7%)
$68 Billion
3.2%
35
Ice Cream Production
$10.6 Billion
4.9%
36
Yogurt Production
(i.e. purchasing ingredients, manufacturing yogurt, and then selling it to wholesalers/distributors, supermarkets, and convenience stores)
$8.2 Billion
1.7%
37
Frozen Yogurt Stores
$677 Million
5.7%
38
Juice & Smoothie Bars
$2.7 Billion
4.8%
39
Soda Production
$42 Billion
5.1%
40
Juice Production
(i.e. Buying ingredients, producing & bottling/packaging juice, and then selling juice products to wholesalers and retailers)
(i.e. Buying ingredients, manufacturing snack foods such as chips, pretzels, roasted & salted nuts, peanut butter, and popcorn, and then selling the snack foods to wholesalers/distributors and grocery stores)
$43 Billion
14.1%
45
Chocolate Production
(i.e. buying cacao beans, milk, sugar, and other ingredients, processing them into chocolate-based confectionery, and selling the resulting products to wholesalers, retailers, and other intermediaries)
(i.e. buying coffee beans and other ingredients, producing coffee products like roasted beans, coffee grounds, ready-to-drink coffee, and instant coffee, and then selling the products to wholesalers and supermarkets)
According to the USDA, U.S. farmers sold $21.8 billion of vegetables and melons in 2022, with lettuce accounting for $4.12 billion of that (about 18.9%). Lettuce is the most widely consumed leafy green in the U.S.
The vast majority of U.S. lettuce is produced in Arizona and California, with Florida in a distant third place. Overall, about 85% of lettuce consumed in the U.S. is grown in the U.S.
Annual sales for the different types of lettuce as well as other leafy greens are summarized in the table below.
Type of Leafy Green
Total U.S. Farmer Sales in 2022
Total U.S. Farmer Production in 2022
Romaine lettuce (a.k.a. cos lettuce)
$1.54 Billion
2.55 Billion pounds
Iceberg lettuce (a.k.a. crisphead)
$1.33 Billion
3.32 Billion pounds
Leaf lettuce (e.g. red & green oak leaf)
$1.25 Billion
1.41 Billion pounds
Spinach
$562 Million
764 Million pounds
Collard greens
$176 – $323 Million
439 Million pounds
Kale
$127 – $233 Million
317 Million pounds
Turnip greens
$35 – $65 Million
98 Million pounds
In total, U.S. leafy green growers generated about $5.16 billion in sales in 2022, with just over 80% of that coming from lettuce.
Leafy greens in general are high margin products, but certain types of leafy greens such as microgreens have especially high margins. Besides leafy greens, small farms may also want to consider producing various other types of cash crops such as orchids, vanilla beans, or wasabi.
At 6:59 PM local time, an explosion rocked the Al-Maamdani Baptist Hospital in Gaza. The hospital’s location in central Gaza City is shown below.
Palestinians were quick to accuse Israel of bombing the hospital, but Israel has denied responsibility, leading to a significant amount of contradictory information being floated online, including doctored videos from propagandists on both sides. In this article, I attempt to identify the facts.
Timeline of Events
6:59 PM, October 17 — Al Jazeera (a pro-Palestinian news source) livestreams footage of a rocket launched from within Gaza that appears to break up mid flight and then fall to the ground in two pieces, causing explosions where each piece impacts. One piece appears to hit the Baptist hospital.
Google Maps confirms the location by showing the same rooftop structure on an adjacent building as can be seen in the video.
The footage shows about 6-7 seconds between when the rocket breaks up and when the hospital is hit. Physics tells us that during that time, the rocket would have fallen around 177-240 meters, assuming it had no upward momentum at the moment it broke up. That appears consistent with the footage.
7:28 PM, October 17 — Al Jazeera posts on X to accuse Israel of bombing the Baptist Hospital in central Gaza.
(Estimated) 7:40 PM, October 17 — Israeli government influencer Hananya Naftali makes a (now deleted) post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that the IDF bombed the hospital because it was being used as a Hamas base.
7:57 PM, October 17 — Al Jazeera posts on X, claiming that a Gaza Ministery of Health spokesperson estimated more than 200 deaths from a bombing of Al-Maamdani Hospital
8:40 PM, October 17 — Another pro-Palestinian news agency publishes a video on X accusing the IDF of bombing the hospital. This video appears to show the same explosion from a different angle and closer proximity. X user Jack Godin later synchronized the footage to show a direct comparison.
9:06 PM, October 17 — The Israel War Room, a pro-Israel nonprofit, publishes a video on X purporting to show a Hamas rocket misfiring and hitting the hospital.
9:25 PM, October 17 — Hananya Naftali posts on X to state that he believes the hospital explosion was either caused by a failed rocket or an intentional act of Palestinians to garner international outrage against Israel. However, Hananya does not address the elephant in the room which is his earlier post (now deleted) claiming Israel was responsible for the hospital’s destruction.
11:00 PM, October 17 — The IDF issued a statement on X claiming that Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian terrorist organization affiliated with Hamas, launched a rocket which malfunctioned and hit the hospital.
12:58 AM, October 18 — Hananya Naftaliposted on X to explain why he deleted an earlier post claiming Israel was responsible for the hospital’s destruction.
4:42 AM, October 18 — The @Israel government X account posts that IDF intelligence suggests a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket is responsible for the explosion at the hospital. However, the post also contains three confusing videos, including one video supposedly showing the explosion but timestamped an hour later than the actual explosion (7:59 PM local rather than 6:59 PM local) and a second video showing video timestamped October 18th instead of October 17th. Less than an hour later though, the post was edited to remove the videos.
10:00 AM, October 18 — IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari delivers a presentation to the BBC, claiming that Hamas knew the hospital was hit by a misfired rocket, not an IDF bomb, but intentionally claimed otherwise to garner international outrage. He also claims that IDF intelligence tracked the misfired rocket on radar and also obtained a recording of two Hamas members discussing the misfired rocket.
12:17 PM, October 18 — OSINTtechnical, an X user who works as an analyst at CNA, a nonprofit national security research organization based in Virginia, shares videos from the Russian news agency Tess, purporting to show the inside of the chapel adjacent to the hospital as well as from the parking lot where the explosion happened.
Many of the chapel windows are unbroken and no major impact crater is visible in the parking lot, further supporting the hypothesis that the explosion was caused by a malfunctioning Palestinian rocket which still carried a significant amount of fuel which was set ablaze upon impact.
From the scale of the visible damage, it’s hard to imagine more than 100 people could have been killed by the explosion even if many people were encamped outside the hospital. That contradicts the Gaza Ministry of Health claims that 500 or possibly 900 Palestinians were killed.
1:31 PM, October 18 — TASS, a Russian news agency, posts a photo on X showing the damage from the hospital explosion. Most immediately obvious is that the actual rocket or bomb hit the hospital parking lot, not the hospital itself. It’s also quite clear that the majority of the damage came not from the explosion itself but rather from the subsequent fire. The explosion itself could not have been exceptionally powerful since nearby trees are still standing and most of the windows in adjacent buildings appear to be unbroken.
1:59 PM, October 18 — Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, posts several images on X, including a diagram from IDF intelligence of Hamas & Islamic Jihad failed rocket locations and statistics, indicating around 10% of Palestinian rockets misfire.
4:27 PM, October 18 — Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, posts a video on X showing aerial footage of the hospital parking lot and surrounding buildings. The damage appears to be consistent from the photos published hours earlier by various news agencies — damage that appears to be primarily from a fuel fire rather than an IDF bomb explosion.
6:59 PM, October 18 — The Wall Street Journal publishes an article with additional photos and video of the hospital parking lot during daylight. The damage appears far too small to be caused by an IDF bomb.
Conclusion
More than likely, Islamic Jihad, a Gaza-based terrorist organization strongly affiliated with Hamas, launched a rocket which malfunctioned during flight and landed in the hospital parking lot where it exploded. The explosion and resulting fire likely killed 50-100 Palestinians who were sheltered mostly outside the hospital. Hamas then intentionally decided to blame Israel for the explosion in order to stir up international outrage at Israel and the U.S. At the same time, Israel propagandists like Hananya Naftali and the social media team behind accounts like @Israel were quick to defend Israel before they actually knew what happened. They made the assumption that the IDF must have bombed the hospital because Hamas was using it as a base, and they shared that narrative as well as unverified footage that turned out to be fake. Eventually, they retracted this information as new information became available.
There could still be inaccuracies in that conclusion, but as of now it seems the most likely explanation for the events of the past 36 hours.
Who is Hananya Naftali? A Reckless Israeli Government Influencer.
Hananya Naftali is a niche internet celebrity with 292,000 subscribers on YouTube and 362,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter).
Born in Israel in 1995, his celebrity status started in 2014 while he served in the IDF as part of Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” and then began publicizing his pro-Israel point of view of what was happening on the ground.
In 2017, Naftali managed to interview Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu, and that further bolstered his media status.
“It was the first time I had met him, and months later they asked me to join his team. When you’re 22 and the prime minister offers you a job, you don’t say no. I guess they liked me. So, that’s how I got into this political world.
Hananya Naftali in an interview with the Jewish News Syndicate
However, Hananya is not completely transparent about his Israeli government affiliation. His Twitter bio describes him as an Israeli media personality interested in peace in the Middle East, with no mention of his government employment.
His YouTube bio also has no mention of his Israeli government affiliation. This lack of transparency led to confusion during the Baptist Hospital attack controversy in Gaza in October 2023 when Hananya’s tweets were sometimes interpreted as official Israeli government statements and other times were annotated by Community Notes which indicated he was just an influencer with no government connection.
Another complaint against Hananya is that he frequently shares fake or contradictory information. After the news broke about the October 17, 2023 hospital explosion in Gaza, Hananya posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Israel had conducted an airstrike on the hospital (screenshot below).
However, within minutes, he deleted the post claiming Israel’s responsibility. He eventually published a retraction post explaining the deletion.
I’m inclined to believe Hananya’s explanation, but the very fact that he has privileged access to certain information from the Israeli prime minister’s office means that his public statements are often (understandably) viewed as official Israeli government statements. That means Hananya’s reckless initial post claiming Israel’s responsibility for the hospital’s destruction is now being interpreted by many as evidence that Israel DID attack the hospital and is now trying to cover it up.
Hananya exacerbated this accusation by posting an old video from 2022 claiming that it was unverified footage of the Palestinian rocket that misfired and hit the hospital.
To be clear, I don’t think Hananya is a bad person, but I do think he is reckless, biased, and imbued with a soldier’s dedication to protect a pro-Israel narrative online even in the complete absence of evidence. Those attributes are now costing the government of Israel significant credibility and risk exacerbating tensions with Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
The federal Civil Rights Act of 1968 consisted of three parts: (1) the Indian Civil Rights Act (Titles 2-7), (2) the Fair Housing Act (Titles 8-9), and the Anti-Riot Act (Title 10).
The purpose of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) was to follow up on, clarify, and strengthen the protections that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided to home buyers and renters.
Below are 10 things that every real estate agent should know about the Fair Housing Act:
The FHA was passed in 1968 but has been amended several times since.
The FHA originally banned discrimination in real estate sales, leasing, and financing on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin.
A 1974 amendment expanded the FHA to also ban discrimination on the basis of sex.
A 1988 amendment banned discrimination on the basis of disability or familial status (i.e. whether or not you have kids under the age of 18 living in the house).
Altogether, the modern FHA bans discrimination on the basis of 7 protected classes: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and familial status.
The FHA applies to most single family homes and multifamily properties. However, the FHA does NOT apply to (1) owner-occupied buildings with 4 or fewer units, (2) single-family homes rented without a broker, so long as the owner does not own more than 3 houses, or (3) commercial office, retail, or industrial property.
The FHA’s ban on discrimination on the basis of familial status does NOT apply to senior housing properties that are part of 55+ or 62+ communities.
Specific practices banned by the FHA include (1) refusing to rent to someone because they are a member of a protected group, (2) quoting different terms or prices based on prospects’ protected characteristics, (3) discriminatory advertising, (4) steering buyers or renters to different particular areas based on their protected characteristics, (5) blockbusting (i.e. telling homeowners that their neighborhood is undergoing a change of demographics as measured by protected characteristics, in order to influence the homeowner’s desire to sell or rent at lower-than-market-value), (6) redlining (i.e. refusing to lend to a creditworthy applicant to buy a home in a particular neighborhood, or lending to them at higher interest rates or offering insurance at higher rates), and (7) making false statements about the availability of a property.
The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is responsible for administering and enforcing the FHA.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) can initiate a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court if (1) a person believes they have been discriminated against in violation of the FHA and requests the DOJ to bring suit, (2) a real estate professional repeatedly violates the FHA, or (3) a real estate professional breaches a conciliation agreement created during an earlier dispute over an alleged FHA violation.
If a discrimination claim is made against a real estate agent or broker, HUD assumes that the agent or broker is guilty unless proven innocent. The agent or broker has 10 days to answer a HUD claim with proof that they did not discriminate. If the agent or broker cannot prove their innocence, they can be hit with injunctions, restraining orders, and orders to pay damages, court costs, and attorney fees.
