As ChatGPT learns your habits and starts spending on your behalf, the future of online shopping may belong to the bots.
Tag: consumption
China’s current food waste challenge is more of a production than a consumption problem.
American protectionism has returned, with tariffs that vary by country, but are permanent. There will be exceptions and specific negotiations but, in Trump’s intentions, they become one of the foundations of the American economy. The world must respond with this reality in mind.
Ten years after the launch of the Modi’s “Make in India” program, India’s industry problem has deepened — just like its dependence to China.
Chilean winemakers are promoting their celebrated wines in several key markets for consumer spending power: the United States and China are already saturated with every kind of wine. But now India must be a focus despite crushing tariffs.
Our battle to keep local stores open, despite the evolution of our consumption habits, may just be the expression of nostalgia of a rural dream that is gone. Or is it really?
The surge in toy sales sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has tailed off, and the industry is now in a serious crisis. LEGO, Mattel and others see a potential lifeline in a new target: adults who play. The “escape into the inner child” could become a market worth billions.
Bookshops’ shelves display an increasing number of books with a smaller number of pages. Data seems to confirm that books with more than 400 pages are increasingly becoming a rarity. Why are shorter books being published, and what does that tell us about how we engage in our free time?
Burkina Faso’s production of local chicken, nicknamed “bicycle chicken,” has been declining in recent years, with the traditional delicacy being slowly replaced by a cheaper imported version.
In the short term, a fall in consumption of material objects would be an economic and social catastrophe. In the long term, it is necessary.
The practice of gift giving exists in every culture in the world, and has for as long as recorded history. What does it tell us about the nature of human society?
The search for clean energy is essential in an age of alarming climate change. Lithium extraction represents a great opportunity, but the maltreatment of communities affected by this extraction must be considered if we want to interrupt the vicious cycle of wealthy countries exploiting resource-rich countries.
In Uganda, people grow coffee to export but rarely consume it themselves. Now a push to dispel myths about the beverage and introduce new ways to use the beans is changing that.
The disappointment with last month’s COP26 outcome was focused on the failure to deliver on the promise of eradicating fossil fuels, opting instead for a watered-down compromise that merely “reduces” reliance on the polluting energy sources that cause climate change. But the world leaders in Glasgow also missed another crucial opportunity: to squarely address the […]
Slow Food calls for an action plan to significantly reduce and improve the production and consumption of meat, dairy, and eggs by 2050.
Let’s not underestimate the impact on the planet of industrial, intensive agriculture, focused on exploiting machines, pesticides and fertilizers across wide tracts of land.
It’s time for dinner — what will you prepare? The factors in your decision may include any or all of the following: your appetite, your beliefs, budget, schedule, location … or maybe just your mood. What you might not realize is that the very choices you end up making tonight will also influence what will […]
Even in our sprawling, globalized world, it’s possible to produce nutritious, wholesome food without negatively impacting the planet or undermining its myriad cultures and farming traditions that rely on local resources: land, water, seeds and the many benefits of biodiversity. While this may seem idealistic as we’re told that a handful of multinational companies are […]
Technology itself is neither plague nor panacea for our sustainable, inclusive food future. It is always humans who choose which innovations to pursue, and how to use them. The revolution of digital technology presents this challenge in new and old ways, and our choices must be guided by clear morals that view food production and […]
Gaspard Koenig has returned after several months spent traveling across Europe on horseback. The journey included a conscious effort to limit his exposure to current events, relying only on the local newspapers and conversations.
Consumer habits shifted dramatically as people sheltered in place. In-person shopping is picking up again, but everything’s still in flux for sellers, who will have to adapt or say ‘adios.’
When it comes to human health and the planet’s well-being, certain activities are simply untenable. Researchers also know that self-regulation never works.
BEIJING — The exhibition was called “Secret,” and opened in the Wuhan Art Museum in April. And what was in the show? The personal information of the 346,000 citizens of the central Chinese city of Wuhan that the artist Deng Yufeng had bought on the black market. Previously treated with a special chemical, certain parts […]
PARIS — At the Ritz palace overlooking the Place Vendôme, the “Ritz Burger” beaufort cheese, fries and a green salad is sold for 42 euros. At the Crillon bar, the chef’s mini burgers are sampled until 6 pm, for a cool 28 euros. A longstanding symbol of junk food, the burger seems to have found […]
Responding to changing consumer habits, big box retail in Argentina have started converting outlets to offer an easier and cheaper shopping experience.
For a Paris sex therapist, the fight against sexual abuse requires action against online pornography and the sexualization of youth. The victims are men and women alike.
When a woman doesn’t drink, we all suspect her of being pregnant. But what happens when that’s true?
CHONGQING — Every day since 2014, a train leaves from the western German city of Duisburg. It winds its way across Europe and Asia to finally reach Chongqing, a megalopolis of 28 million inhabitants in southwestern China. Huge cranes there extract gigantic matchbox-like containers from the train. BMW cars made in Germany are taken from […]
To understand why design is important, take a look at Silicon Valley. Forty-two design firms in the U.S. technology hub have been bought up since 2004. About half these acquisitions were made this past year alone. The 25 startups that got the most venture capital financing were founded by designers. Google snapped up the two-person […]
New studies show teenagers in Europe and North America are consuming less alcohol and cigarettes than they did even a few years ago. But other problems have worsened.
GENEVA — Imagine a banker getting on a helicopter loaded with bank notes and flying over the whole country, raining money down on the population. This idea came from none other than Milton Friedman. In the late 1960s, as the economy was struggling, the iconic American economist believed that people would jump on the falling […]
It causes cancer, harms the planet and is cruel to animals, which is why meat consumption has steadily declined in the West. Some have become vegetarians or even vegans, but there is one much more modest alternative that is spreading.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s enormous appetite for seafood and its role as a hub for the global seafood trade is having an unfortunate impact on endangered fish species. Chinese cuisine prizes seafood, so it’s perhaps not surprising that per capita seafood consumption in Hong Kong averages 70 kilograms a year, about four times the global average. But the city is also a hub for trade into mainland China, where consumption is on the rise. All of that is putting a strain on endangered marine life and driving an unexpected sustainability push. On a busy Saturday morning at Hong Kong’s […]
SENDAI — Alcoholism and related problems are becoming serious in the three Tohoku prefectures severely affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. The deaths of loved ones or the stress of a prolonged life as evacuees have led to increased alcohol consumption, and some are newly diagnosed as alcoholics even 4 1/2 […]
AIX-EN-PROVENCE — Over the past two days, Hervé Pighiera has picked up 118 cigarette butts, 60 cigarette packs, 69 plastic bottles and 7.75 kilos of non-classifiable garbage, including a little dollhouse armchair made of wicker and plastic. Pighiera is on a mission to clean roadsides. On July 12, this smiling fellow in a straw hat, […]
-Analysis- MUNICH — Slaughterhouses and farms are becoming increasingly larger in size. Tracing the origins of an animal has become next to impossible as our sources of meat are increasingly transported across Europe, and the world. This not only affects the animals but inevitably us as well. The schnitzel on your plate was once a […]
The leading Brazilian artist defies our expectations with photographed installations, challenging a society too apt to consume images rather than examine them.
Chinese consumers still don’t trust goods made in their own country. The latest buy-abroad craze? Japanese toilet seats. Why the country must pull up its pants and stand proud.
Aware of the profound effect Christmas has on people, researchers have studied our reactions to everything from supermarket music to gender-specific gifts and delayed gratification.
BEIJING — While the clouds of the student protests are still casting a shadow over Hong Kong, the impact of the “Occupy Central” movement on the city’s middle- and long-term prospects is particularly concerning. A forecast from the University of Hong Kong predicts a sharp drop in growth from the 3.4% predicted earlier to 2.2% […]