Just as sports teams sometimes experience a “transitional year” from time to time, 2011 proved to be just such a year for makers of convenience meals and processed meats. The perception of these markets as relative “safe havens” for economically stressed consumers ebbed a bit as the economy improved.
The legislative push to enable school cafeterias to keep serving pizza and French fries will not save nearly as much money as some law-makers have suggested—if any, according to the Agriculture Department.