NORTH AUSTIN, TXEnjoy a glass of wine and a Saturday yoga practice to wrap up a busy workweek in beautiful downtown Austin. Vino Vinyasa at Wanderlust Wine Co. offers a safe and socially distanced yoga and wine to enjoy outside and lets you enjoy a creative practice for all levels.

The event will feature an hour of vinyasa-based yoga and fun wine facts, and ends with a comparative wine tasting of two wines, William Chris Vineyards ros and Pet Nat (sparkling) ros. Bring your mat and set it down in the grassy courtyard at Wanderlust Wine Co., a new wine bar offering wine on tap in downtown Austin.

Class participants will enjoy 10% off food from The Heel of the Boot food truck on-site and 25% select wines until 2pm. Social distancing will be enforced by ensuring mats are 6 feet apart, and masks will be worn when pouring wines to participants. Sanitized mat rental is available for $2 by emailing morgan@vinovinyasayoga.com. This event is open to ages 21 and over. For more information, and to register click HERE.

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Vino Vinyasa Offers Afternoon Of Wine And Yoga In Austin - Patch.com

Looking for more celebrity and entertainment news? Sign up for Yahoo Lifestyle Canadas newsletter! Kylie Jenner wore a pair of super soft booty shorts from celeb-approved brand, Alo Yoga.

Yahoo Lifestyle Canada is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

Kylie Jenner is back in the gym after enjoying a few days of sun and sand in Mexico.

Fresh off her luxe getaway with her sister Kendall and BFF, Stassi Karanikolaou, the 23-year-old Keeping Up With the Kardashians star shared a selfie to Instagram after breaking a sweat in her home gym.

ALSO SEE: Lululemon just dropped the most beautiful Lunar New Year activewear collection

I love an afternoon workout, Jenner wrote to her more than 211 million followers on Instagram while showing off her curves in a two piece set from one of her go-to activewear brands, Alo Yoga.

SHOP IT: Alo Yoga, $69 CAD ($54 USD)

The Kylie Cosmetics founder opted for a look from the Alosoft collection of velvety but breathable apparel that helps support you through even your toughest workouts.

Jenner wore the the Alosoft Lavish Bra ($69 CAD/$54 USD) and the Alosoft Aura Short ($71 CAD/$56/USD) in a soft zinc heather grey for her at-home sweat session.

The Lavish Bra features light to medium support and a street style inspired sweetheart and strappy design as well as a ribbed chest band so you feel secure while you move. The workout topper (or loungewear staple) is available in eight different colours including Alo Yogas latest colour drop, Electric Violet.

SHOP IT: Alo Yoga, $71 CAD ($56 USD)

Although shes been spotted wearing Alo Yoga leggings before, Jenner switched-up her workout style and slipped into a pair of the booty hugging Aura Shorts, instead. The ultra-soft shorts are designed to smooth, lift and contour the body with enough four-way stretch and a front smoothing panel to avoid any uncomfortable lumps and bumps.

Alo (which stands for air, land and ocean) is beloved by celebrities like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga, who have all been longtime fans of the eco-conscious brand that produces clothing without the use of sweatshops. The brand specializes in high-quality, technically-advanced yoga gear that takes you beyond the mat, transitioning into stylish streetwear. Each piece of Alo clothing is designed to support and sculpt your body for quality fit and comfort, and manage sweat so you can stay looking fashionable and sporty.

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Kylie Jenner hit the gym in a pair of booty shorts from this celeb-approved brand - Yahoo Sports

As any trainer will tell you that a good fitness routine includes elements of cardio, strength training, and stretching. In order to give your body what it needs, each of your workouts throughout the week should fall into one of these buckets. But with yoga HIIT, you can get all three of them in a single session.

HIIT yoga is exactly what it sounds like: A yoga session and a HIIT class rolled into one. The classes (frequently billed as yoga sculpt) are structured with a combination of high-intensity, cardio-based flows that will get your heart pumping and your muscles working, and slow-flow stretches to relieve any tension. Youll find equal parts burpees and childs poses, and your body will feel stronger and more limber by the time your workout is over.

In a yoga sculpt class we focus on warming and toning the body first with a few sun salutations, then we work toward sculpting with HIIT exercises that target each muscle group, says Emily Schwartz, a yoga instructor who offers virtual yoga sculpt and power yoga classes with OMM Yoga Studio. Then, we quickly increase the heart rate with a cardio series, followed by more muscle action sculpt exercises and core work for a fully effective and efficient workout.

The method is similar to the high/low-style training youll find in many traditional HIIT training classes, which involves alternating between high-intensity intervals and lower-intensity recovery sessions. When youre combining both high intensity and low intensity intervals, you are essentially challenging your energy processes in your body, FitHousetrainerStefanie Brown previously told Well+Good. During high intensity, you will feel your heart rate increase which then activates your anaerobic threshold, which is where you body burns what you consume for energy. During lower intensity, you might feel you are able to lower your heart rate and catch your breathe a little easier, which energizes your aerobicprocesses.

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When you add yoga into the mix, youre also getting the mind/body benefits that the modality offers on its own. Yoga sculpt differs from your traditional sculpt or HIIT class in that we set intentions and move through the body in continuous flow, says Schwartz. It encompasses the mind, body, and spiritual connection while also sculpting the muscles.

Want to try it out for yourself? Follow along with one of the flows below, then settle into Savasana to really give yourself the full treat of the experience.

Get ready to move with purpose (and speed) during this 30-minute flow. Its designed to spike your heart rate, which means youll be cycling through traditional poses in double time.

All you need is 10 minutes to get your stretching, strengthening and cardio in for the day. This workout starts with a few quick sun salutations, then will carry you through a speedy flow with awhole lot of core-building planks.

Structured more like a traditional HIIT class, this session will have you working through yoga-inspired, strength-based intervals that will build muscle and get you sweating, for real.

Got 15 minutes to spare? Use em to flow through this class, where youll find moves like knee drives, lunges, and jump squats mixed with down dogs and forward folds.

Want to amp up your yoga HIIT class? Grab a set of dumbbells to give this 30-minute flow even more muscle-building benefits.

If youve got a full hour to dedicate to your yoga HIIT session, Corepowers sculpt classes are the best thing you can do for your body. The session combines flows withintense cardio intervals, and integrates weight-based strength training through it all.

Oh hi! You look like someone who loves free workouts, discounts for cult-favewellnessbrands, and exclusiveWell+Good content. Sign up forWell+, our online community ofwellnessinsiders, and unlock your rewards instantly.

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Yoga HIIT Is the Best Way To Get Your Daily Dose of Strength Training, Stretching, and Cardio at the Same Time - Well+Good

Lenovo is currently running their Think Sale where you can pickup the ThinkPad L390 2-in-1 laptop on sale for just $660 over $900 off the standard retail price.

Lenovo's Think Sale offers massive discounts on some of their most popular models, with savings of up to 70% off select laptops for a limited time. Probably the best deal we've seen during the sale, Lenovo's L390 2-in-1 is getting one of its largest price cuts ever with over $900 in savings!

Now Starting: $660 | Was Starting: $1,600 | Savings: $940 (58%)Now at it's lowest price ever, grab Lenovo's ThinkPad L390 Yoga 2-in-1 starting at just $660! Powered by an 8th Gen Intel i3, 4GB DDR4 RAM, and a 256GB SSD, you're getting one heck of a machine at this price. Don't miss out on this incredible deal, it'll be gone before you know.View Deal

Lenovo offers some of the best laptops for students, work use and personal use. The ThinkPad line leads the pack in value and functionality, offering premium features and performance at incredible prices.

The ThinkPad L390 Yoga 2-in-1 offers one of the most versatile laptops around, providing plenty of power under the hood for almost any task while combining the versatility of a tablet into a laptop.

Powered by Intel's 8th Gen i3 CPU and coupled with 4GB DDR4 RAM and a 256GB SSD, you get plenty of power and storage out of the box. Handle everything from basic browsing and streaming, editing, and more with ease. The storage may bit a bit on the lower side for some, though.

That's why we do recommend with this laptop looking into a secondary external hard drive for your studies. While the 256GB SSD is fast and responsive, this may be a little bit on the low side for those with intense schedules. Thankfully, there are a ton of external hard drives on sale at Best Buy right now you can pick up.

Not sure which external hard drive you should grab? Head on over to our guide to the best external hard drives to find the one that's right for you.

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To the Western gaze, the leaping dance of the Maasai is an iconic signature of exotic, distant lands, where people adorned in entirely distinctive dress are festooned in necklaces as wide as the brim of a safari hat, robed in vibrant reds and blues, their bodies thin as the trees that surround them in the semi-arid ecology along the Great Rift Valley. In her two-minute video, We Are Here, curated at the center of her retrospective, This Place We Call World, which encompasses nearly four decades of work, Selma Grbz adapts the photogenic tradition.

In notes accompanying the piece, the curation by yk zsoy discusses the transformative potential of the ritual and its representation. It has the power to transport its observer not only into a worldview indigenous to the African Great Lakes, but also toward a shapeshifting mentality where reality and fiction coalesce and birth a singular order of being. The scenes naturalness contrasts with digital collaborations, a pointillist particle animation by Ali Emre Karaal and heaving mechanical sound engineering by Kerim Karaolu.

The video itself was shot by the poet Burak Acar, who Grbz traveled with to the Serengeti, ultimately inspiring her return from a three-year hiatus to the exhibition of her work. There is a moment that she reveals in an interview when a lone lion appeared in the grasslands, moving to the rhythm of the wind. She described the effect of the moment as a shock akin to what she felt on first seeing the Maasai, a spirit of independence that empowered her to create anew in direct dialogue with her prolific past.

With over 100 works selected by zsoy, a senior curator at Istanbul Modern, the show exemplifies the best intentions of the Women Artists Fund, foregrounding Grbz in the ongoing saga of making female Turkish artists more visible.

Grbz, born in 1960 in Istanbul, received her initial higher art education in the U.K. at Exeter College before returning to Istanbul to pursue a painting degree at Marmara University. Since graduating in the mid-1980s, she has gone on to enter the worlds most prestigious collections, including The British Museum.

One of the more impressive elements of Grbz, which jumps out in a way perhaps comparable to the upward momentum of a Maasai ceremony, is her attention to paper, specifically handmade varieties, as intimately related to the subject matter that appears on their surface. The fibrous material is organic and speaks of its adventure of having been made with a force and grace not unlike her fine approach to painting itself. Yet, the material discourse of naturalism as pure and alive is imbalanced inside the institutional airs of Istanbul Modern.

While respectful to the formidable role that Grbz has assumed in Turkish art history, the in-house curatorial practice of zsoy is about as old-fashioned as the cultural importance of a Western expedition to the African wilderness in the midst of 21st-century globalization. It is problematic to pose Africa as a distant, reliable muse for Turkish art, aligned with native tribes and untouchable lands, while increasing numbers of African migrants work the streets of Istanbul and Congolese photographer Sammy Baloji exhibits concurrently at Pera Museum.

Grbz maintains a palette of red, gold and black throughout her works, evoking a mythopoetic world of her own making, alongside the land of the living. While influenced by cultural motifs, such as Greek pottery, Japanese calligraphy and African sculpture, she is grappling with the visualization of the afterlife as it recurs before her alone, as a phenomenon coexistent in the sensual world, accessible through alternate states of mind. Death is a constant theme in her works, yet, it is as if she were painting its hints and whims from the other side.

The red sun blazes in the next world, its rays dangling over a golden sky, under which black skeletons dance with anthropomorphic plants. It is an active, spiritual realm in which the boundaries of life are long transcended, animated by the limitlessness of flight. There is no solid ground to speak of in such works, as From Where We Left Off (2019), made with ink on handmade paper, but rather vaguely, the explanatory texts that follow each work throughout the show refer to the anachronistic generality of her integrating Eastern and Western aspects.

In an increasingly color-conscious world where racial blindness is an excuse for ignorance and words have unprecedented potency to conjure histories of violence, the near-symmetrically perfect, ancient aesthetics of the piece Reflection (2018-2019) are cause for certain wonder. The unmistakably human figures are winged. One is black, the other orange, and both of their brains are exposed, further enunciating their departure from realism, toward a world where myth and art commingle.

But Grbz advances a stylization of figurative realism in relation to her early work in the Paris printmaking studio of surrealist Spanish artist Joan Miro, known for his wisps of fancy that delighted in the informality of color over shape. Grbz, however, is on the other side of the spectrum in terms of her approachability. Her works are representational, but they also bend reality, particularly gender expression. Tree Woman (2019), for example, diversifies human dualism in the same way that she points to the life in death, and the death in life.

The celebration of universal, transcendent unity is sometimes merely a lack of clarity, and such could be said of the curations differentiating between creative periods and approaches in the lifes work of Grbz, who explored such popular techniques as op-art in a series of ink portraits of women on handmade Japanese paper. Yet, these trials were not necessarily fulfilled of themselves, and seem to have been gateways for her to realize more mature works, such as her oil painting, Daybreak. Burden. (2011).

Another series of landscape works of gouache, made in 2006, appear almost irrelevant as they hang in their own hall, on thin paper, slightly off-center. In their naivety, however, is the redemption of the artists voice, as someone who has dared to integrate a foreign visual world into Turkish art history, which is too often circumscribed and pigeonholed by domestic issues. And she has come around, through the African wilderness, to such series as Creatures (2019), fictive, humanoid animals that she adapted for the video Chase (2020), set against observational photography of a female lion emerging out of obscurity, staring back.

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On evolution and art: A retrospective for Selma Grbz | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

These are challenging times, and we are being called to make decisions that not only affect our own lives, but the lives of others. To paraphrase a recent ad on television, Its not enough to do it alone, we must do it together. We have so many its today that we are often overwhelmed and dont know what decision to make. Part of that feeling is the impact our decisions have on others.

It is more and more evident that the world is at a crossroads: We can continue to work alone, or we can find new ways to work together. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that the solution to a healthy world can only come when each person in the world is healthy and protected. We can only reach that goal by caring for and working for others, as well as for ourselves.

The many protests, here at home, and in other countries, are calling us to have patience with one another, to listen to each other, to find the truth of the issues, and come up with mutually beneficial and just solutions. We cannot do it alone. We must do it together with mindful cooperation and trust. Working together we can and will find solutions.

At times like this our deepest spiritual faith sustains us. It is the underlying resource for helping us make these important and sometimes difficult decisions. What are the teachings of our faith? What does our faith tell us about working together? How are we to work together? The answers to these questions and our willingness to follow them are more important than ever for the world to survive.

This crossroads we are at right now is no less than the shifting of the consciousness of the world to a higher spiritual level. All species evolve, they dont devolve. We cannot go backwards; we must go forwards. For humanity that means our consciousness must evolve from doing it alone to doing it together. It is a conscious shift in perspective from the good of the one to the good of all.

Humanity already has one great resource to help us move forward. That resource is found in all religions. It is one common truth the Golden Rule. The words may be expressed differently in each religion, but the meaning is the same. We are to treat others as we wish to be treated. It is no coincidence that this important and basic spiritual teaching has survived throughout the centuries to help us in this time.

The Golden Rule has always been a good basis for making decisions. Will this decision reflect how I want to be treated? Is this decision loving, kind and positive? If the decision does not meet these guidelines, its time to reconsider. And it works for small decisions as well as larger ones.

We celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.s life this week and his passion for helping humanity evolve. He said, Its always the right time to do the right thing. He was not talking about the right that people expound upon when they want their own way. He was talking about the deeper meaning of the word right.

How do we know what is right? Websters Dictionary gives us this definition of the word: Something that is correct, just, proper and honorable. The Bible and other sacred scriptures explain that right is the truth of the divine working in consciousness. What is the truth of the divine? It is a knowingness about goodness found in the deepest part of our hearts, the sacred part. We often talk ourselves out of making the right decision. We reason, we bully, we insist, all the while trying to ignore what our sacred heart is telling us. And when we take action on that false decision, we usually suffer the consequences because we did not listen to the Voice of God.

We can no longer follow this old way. It is time for us to evolve and use our consciousness as God intended us to do. The Golden Rule can be our guide. Listening to the voice of God in our heart can direct us to right action. We are at the crossroads of humanitys evolution. We can either help each other to make the way easier or hinder the progress. There is no turning back. We must go forward prayerfully together with justice, honor, love, kindness, compassion and trust. The hope for the future is in our hands. Now is the right time to do the right thing.

Rev. Arlyn Macdonald is the senior minister of the Spiritual Awareness Center and Dean of the Spiritual Development Institute.

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RELIGION: Now is the right time | Opinion | montrosepress.com - Montrose Daily Press

Image: Alfred Russel Wallace, attributed to John William Beaufort (1864-1943) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Earlier this month, science historian Michael Flannery and political scientist John West discussed the legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) on the occasion of his birthday, January 8. The video is up now and is worth watching. Flannery and West note the irony that Darwins younger colleague, co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection, broke with Darwin over Wallaces later advocacy of intelligent design. An exaggeration? Not in the least. He came to recognize an intelligent control operating everywhere in life:

I find this control in the lowest cell; the wonderful activity of cells convinces me that it is guided by intelligence and consciousness. I cannot comprehend how any just and unprejudiced mind, fully aware of this amazing activity, can persuade itself to believe that the whole thing is a blind and unintelligent accident. It may not be possible for us to say how the guidance is exercised, and by exactly what powers; but for those who have eyes to see and minds accustomed to reflect, in the minutest cells, in the blood, in the whole earth, and throughout the stellar universe our own little universe, as one may call it there is intelligent and conscious direction; in, a word, there is Mind.

If you told me that comment had come from, say, biologist Michael Denton, whose latest book isThe Miracle of the Cell, it wouldnt surprise me. No modern-day proponent of design theory would differ with a word of it. In fact, it would be a fun game to play with your Darwinist friends: Read the quote to them and ask who said it. Some anti-science ID scoundrel or, worse, creationist? Wallaces birthday this year may have passed, but the time for learning about this Victorian Indiana Jones, as Professor Flannery calls him, is well spent in any year or month:

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Fun Game: Ask Your Darwinist Friends, Guess Who Said This? - Discovery Institute

This week, I take a look at what brands are prioritizing on the sustainability front this year.

Implementing more sustainable practices is on the mind of many beauty companies. But despite the public urgency around the environment especially when it comes to climate change brand goals are often set for years in the future. For instance, 2025 is a popular deadline for LOccitane Group and Unilever.

This is the problem with announcements. You need them to come with a plan, a monitoring process throughout and actions to help you reach your milestones, said Arnaud Meysselle CEO for Ren Clean Skincare. We had a huge goal of zero waste by 2021. We made this promise in 2018, and for us, transparency has always been a crucial part of the [process].

Of course, change cant happen overnight. But beauty executives and insiders expect more actionable activity on the sustainability front this year. Below, a look ahead.

Rethinking the end lifecycle of productsTo reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, some beauty companies, like Credo, are following Starbucks lead. Last year, the retail giant eliminated straws in favor of sippable lids. For its part, Credo will be ditching all single-use items, including face wipes and sheet masks, as of May 31, in accordance with its annual sustainability guidelines. This will extend to items for sale, as well as in-store items for testing and sampling.

What has been the awesome thing of the last year is that we have been intellectually challenged as an industry to innovate, said Annie Jackson, Credo co-founder and COO. Beauty has been stuck with old-school formats like testers and sampling, so to [be able to] stop and rethink how we do things is a mic drop.

Jackson admitted that single-use wipes and masks are big unit drivers for Credo, but said theyre at odds with its broader ethos. The retailer currently carries single-use wipes and sheet masks from RMS, Kaia Naturals, Bawdy and Pipette, among others. It is working with brand partners to focus on reusable innovations, like reusable cotton rounds, for instance, and store associates will be trained to speak to customers about the changes. We think reusable and refillable options are about to explode, she said.

Jackson added that, although this is a Credo-only initiative, she hopes that brands wont spin-off the single-use SKUs to other retailers like Sephora or Ulta Beauty. Credos shop-in-shops are still present in Ulta stores across the country.

How a product is created and where it goes are values to the mainstream consumer. They dont want a lot of plastic or waste. When you add that to already creating an efficacious product, it may seem like a tall freaking order, but you have to do it all, she said. The customer is demanding it.

LOccitane, too, is rethinking single-use items. The company discontinued all plastic spatula production for testers and products. Just two products still have them, but they will only be available until 2022, said Corinne Fugier-Garrel, director of packaging concept development at LOccitane.

For its part, Ren Skincare is also prioritizing recycled or reusable materials for its packaging. 2021 is the completion of our first chapter to champion sustainability in beauty. We are tackling packaging first, because [its responsible for] 70% of the beauty industrys waste, said Meysselle.

Ren will also move forward with changes to ingredients, products and in-store items, but its making the updates slowly so the consumer understands all components. The challenge in prestige beauty is to keep evolving the brand, and staying sustainable and visually attractive, while preventing waste that inevitably ends up in a landfill, said Meysselle. From a consumer perspective the changes are not very visible. The product experience is the same or improves, but we are explaining as we make these changes that [components] are now recycled and recyclable. For example, the companys Ready Steady Glow Daily AHA Tonic is set to debut in new, fully recyclable packaging.

Post-consumer recycled materialsWhile not new, PCR materials are gaining steam. In the last month, Refreshments, Ipsys new personal care offshoot, launched with 30% PCR plastic; Beautyblender came out with a sugarcane-based makeup sponge, as well as PCR-containers; and Farmacy debuted a new Whipped Greens cleanser made with PCR resin.

Sabeen Mian, svp and gm of Refreshments said that a fun, extra brand ethos is not mutually exclusive with sustainability.

With Refreshments, we wanted to create a personal care brand for the future, and a big part of that is our commitment to sustainability, she said. While we are certainly committed to delivering more convenience to our members, we also have a responsibility to the environment.

All of Refreshments packaging is composed of post-consumer recycled materials, and its hero product, the Luxe razor, has a reusable handle to curb disposable plastic razor usage. The company is also combining shipments for its members that are Ipsy subscribers to reduce packaging materials and is working on refillable packaging for upcoming product launches.

Fugier-Garrel said that for LOccitane the transition to PCR materials is a long journey, with continuous improvements possibilities.

We are happy to implement, day after day, better packs for the planet thats a positive evolution we are constantly working on, she said. Forty-percent of LOccitane bottles are made from 100% recycled materials that can be found in its Aromachologie and liquid soap collections, among others. Forty-seven percent of LOccitanes worldwide boutiques also offer in-store recycling services.

Climate prioritizationClimate change is a grave situation worldwide, and President Joe Biden has already emphasized the U.S.s changing role in the situation. In his first days in office, he rejoined the Paris climate agreement, revoked the Keystone XL oil pipelines federal permit and pledged to review many of the Trump administrations regulatory actions for high-emitting industries.

Melanie Bender, president of Versed, said these are important first steps for all companies, especially those in beauty.Beauty brands are obsessed with recycling. In the context of the climate crisis, its like worrying about taking out the trash when your house is on fire, she said. A cool climate future needs to be the top environmental priority for the government and businesses, alike. Thanks in part to the election, were starting to see more consumers prioritize climate action, and with that, more beauty brands will follow suit.

Versed became one of the few beauty brands to accomplish net-zero emissions last year. It also signed the United Nations Climate Neutral Now Pledge and open-sourced its Climate Action Plan to allow any brand to use its framework. In addition, it will be signing on with Climate Neutral, to certify its commitment, and join other brands like REI to drive collective action.

Beauty is an industry known to guard its trade secrets like the CIA, but that type of thinking runs counter to the shift toward purpose-driven, societal missions like sustainability. We can make far greater, more efficient progress by collaborating on sustainability, including sharing methodology, materials and vendors. Versed believes this collaboration is essential to achieving our sustainability mandate, she said.

Increased investmentMichel Brousset, founder and CEO Waldencast, expects investors to incubate and fund environmentally responsible businesses in response to the conscious consumer.

We are very interested in more responsible supply chain and ingredient provenance, he said. The values of Waldencast are based on purpose and human and social values: sustainability, responsibility, inclusivity. It is imperative that the industry progresses toward a more sustainable and improved way of sourcing, manufacturing and distributing. Conscious consumerism is growing, and is a major consideration during the customer buying journey.

Weve already seen that happen as luxury sustainable brand La Bouche Rouge raised approximately $3 million in funding last September.

Jackie Dunklau, principal at private equity fund Aria, compared upcoming discussions around sustainability to the now tablestakes conversation brands are having around clean and better-for-you ingredients. Aria recently made its first investment in Hero Cosmetics this month. The idea of sustainability is going to be at the forefront of consumers minds, like clean skin care and, now, clean makeup,she said. People want to buy products that you can upcycle or feel better about. They dont want to create more waste in the environment.

But Dunklau emphasized that sustainable practices alone arent going to draw the consumer to beauty products. Its not going to be the sole reason someone buys beauty, but if a customer is choosing between similar skin-care or makeup products, and one is more environmentally conscious, the conscious option will win.

Beyond the brand space, LOral Group also intends to contribute $50 million over the next three years toward impact investments, with a focus on projects that restore biodiversity.

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Beauty & Wellness Briefing: How far will sustainability efforts go in 2021? - Glossy

The National Chicken Councils members produce about 95% of the broiler meat in the US, and NCC advances industry policies on Capitol Hill, within the executive branch and the media.

Industry evolution:

In the middle of March, Americans, like consumers in other parts of the world, found empty grocery store shelves, including in the meat case, as consumers hoarded food, toilet paper and other essential items.

About 44% of chicken production goes into food service. Thus, one of many industry challenges was taking products that would normally go to food service and diverting some of that meat to retail.

When we send items to food service, a lot of times they're going in 20-pound bags or 40-pound boxes," she said. "One of the initial challenges the industry had was diverting products, getting appropriate packaging material and getting the appropriate labels to get things to retail in a timely fashion to fill those shelves and feed Americans.

Looking at changes over time in food spending, the blue bar (chart above) shows a drop down in food service. The orange bar shows grocery store spending.

We did see a significant increase in grocery store sales and a drastic decrease in people going out to eat, which wasn't unexpected, she explained. Restaurants closed and you're going to need to start cooking at home, and people are very familiar with cooking chicken, so that was a common commodity that people were looking for.

Chicken and hamburger were the two most sought after proteins. In March and April, there was a drastic increase in grocery store/retail sales. This included an increase in meat department sales and fresh foods, including fruits and vegetables. Over the last few months, there has been a 9.1% volume increase on chicken purchasing, according to Peterson.

Throughout the pandemic, restaurants have worked to diversify, not only their menu, but their carry out options. Some foods don't carry out very well, so those restaurants have struggled a little bit more than others. Restaurants has also learned how to package certain food stuffs in way to ensure that when it gets home, it's almost as it would have been if you could have eaten at the restaurant.

Early on, the US industry had challenges with who was in charge, with direction coming from many different groups.

We would have state health departments who had a different perspective on what our industry needed to be doing with regard to maintaining the safety and health of our employees than did local health departments. The CDC then came out with their set of recommendations in April, she noted.

You have the governor calling on CEOs of chicken companies. You have OSHA with certain standards and coming in and wanting to do inspections at plants. We had USDA and we have the Food Safety and Inspection Service - we have those inspectors in our plants all the time. USDA was working hard to help make sure we had the appropriate staffing available so that we could keep operating. Trying to weave between all of these different groups who had different asks and asks that changed over time as we learned more about the spread of COVID was certainly a challenge.

This was the first time that I can remember where we actually had some food insecurity issues. People lined up for miles and miles to buy chicken.

In late April, the Trump Administration issued an executive order that essentially gave the former US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Purdue, the powers of the president in order to make sure that meat and poultry processors could continue to operate, provided they were meeting CDC and OSHA guidelines.

While never executed per se, the order was designed to help companies fulfill their contracts and continue providing meat and poultry to consumers, according to Peterson. USDA worked very hard to ensure the industry could keep operating while also maintaining the safety of their workforce.

Of critical importance, Peterson said was ensuring the industry is doing everything they can to protect employees.

One of the things that sets the meat and poultry industry apart is that we already do a lot of things and had done a lot of things to ensure the safety of our employees, she said. Granted, we needed a lot more PPE than we had in the past, but donning PPE with something that you do that when you go into a processing plant.

In April, the CDC and OSHA came out with some interim guidance for the meat and poultry industry focusing on two areas.

Our industry has a unique challenge because if you look at the number of employees per thousand square foot of space, meat processing is at the very top; we have a lot of people within our establishment doing work, she said. We are quite automated, especially in first processing, but in second processing, there are a lot of people, depending on what product you're making, who are cutting up chickens.

"Some of the things that we implemented as an industry and some of the things that we had done well before CDC and OSHA came out with their guidance, was putting barriers in place so that people could come to work on the processing lines and not have to worry about getting sick from somebody next to you or spreading any potential viruses around. The PPE is something that we had already done, but it's been PPE on steroids, I would say.

Taking employee temperatures and extra sanitation focusing on common touchpoints and common areas was also set up. There were challenges procuring PPE that occurred and times when FEMA took product that was allocated to member organizations.

We have a very diverse population within our establishment speaking well over a dozen different languages within one establishment itself, so making sure that we could adequately communicate to everyone has been really, really important, she noted.

Social distancing - maintaining six feet apart because plants have not been set up to accommodate this. However, barriers have been installed to the right and left the employee, and in some cases in front of the employee when people are facing each other, for example in a de-bone line.

Temperature monitoring early on, there were some inaccuracy issues, but its gotten better. When people come in from outside, they're already cold, so it can be difficult to get an accurate reading. Getting an internal temperature is different than an external temperature like a forehead scan. However, temperature monitoring has made employees more comfortable to come to work.

Testing some member companies have made testing mandatory, while others have voluntary testing. There are also differences within people's religion and/or beliefs that may influence whether they want to get tested, so employers are conscious of those differences.

Education - being able to communicate to everyone is very important. CDC has offered resources to assist with this.

With two vaccines approved in the US, there have been 22.7 million doses administered so far.

When we talked to the CDC earlier in December, they had said that meat and poultry workers should be getting their vaccines in late January. We're in late January, and as far as I'm aware, none of our members have gotten the call that says, okay, it's time, she said. One thing we are talking with our members about is preparing for the vaccine.

Food and agriculture workers are essential frontline workers, which is part of the total group of about 30 million essential frontline workers. Peterson is hopeful that members will get access to a vaccine for employees within the next several weeks.

Peterson said 10 months in, the changes that have been made in processing, may become the new norm. CDC and OSHA are expected to update their guidance to the industry. So, time will tell.

Peterson does expect that COVID will change the future of automation, virtual audits and enhanced imaging systems in the industry.

There are is a lot of opportunity to make current technologies better and to help us do some things, so we don't necessarily have to have somebody standing there doing a particular job, she said.

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2021 IPPE: How has COVID-19 impacted the US broiler industry? - The Poultry Site

27 Jan 2021 --- In the confectionery market, increasingly milk-free and gelatin-free products are hitting the shelves, answering the demands of health-conscious consumers who still want to indulge in sweet applications. As highlighted in a new report from Innova Market Insights, the plant-based confectionery space is snowballing.

Innova Market Insights number two trend for 2021, Plant Forward, signifies the evolution of plant-based concepts beyond the core dairy and meat alternatives categories. In 2020, no fewer than 67 percent of all new products with plant-based claims were launched outside of these pioneering sectors, the market researcher has revealed.

Click to EnlargeInnova Market Insights says the plant-based confectionery space is snowballing.While total confectionery launches rose at a CAGR of less than 2 percent between 2016 and 2020, introductions of those carrying vegan claims increased at 17 percent CAGR. More dynamic still were confectionery launches under the plant-based banner, with introductions more than doubling in 2020 alone.

Moving to mainstream A review of vegan and plant-based confectionery NPD also demonstrates the shift of animal-free products further into the mainstream.

While vegan claims were once predominantly used as secondary or tertiary claims combined with other free-from, organic or health positionings, they are now coming to the fore as a primary focus.

Mars introduction of vegan Topic and Bounty bars in the UK this month demonstrates the growing importance of the vegan message, says Lu Ann Williams, director of innovation at Innova Market Insights.

Although the bars are also positioned as gluten-free, vegan is the most important claim on the packaging, while the Vegan Society logo is also prominent.

Big names brands are also unveiling their animal-free launches in line with Veganuary, a UK organization encouraging consumers to go vegan for the month of January.

Some confectionery producers are taking formulation and marketing cues from the established dairy and meat alternatives categories.Click to EnlargeThe Vegan Society logo is also prominent on packaging, according to Williams.

For example, in plant-based chocolate, some of the newer products use terms such as mylk or m!lk to reflect their dairy-free recipes, while others incorporate nut or oat milk as ingredients.

Meanwhile, in gelatin-free sugar confectionery, veggie terminology is being used on some occasions.

Whats happening in the plant-based arena? Launches of plant-based and vegan-friendly products have significantly increased across all sweet categories to keep pace with growing consumer demand for healthy and indulgent products.

This comes as the burgeoning interest in plant-based ingredients pushes plant-based eating from trend to food revolution status.

Iconic and indulgent brands like Magnum and Galaxy introduced new plant-based products with indulgence at heart. This is growing the category from its niche into the mainstream.

Last August, indulgent chocolatier Lindt launched a vegan chocolate range made from oat milk. The launch was part of the Swiss chocolate and confectionery companys HELLO range and promised to be vegan and exquisite.

Last September, a descendant of John Cadbury and founder of British chocolate specialist, Love Cocoa, James Cadbury, launched his latest venture the UKs first oat milk chocolate range.

Click to EnlargePlant-based confectionery and chocolate NPD demonstrate the shift of animal-free products moving further into the mainstream.Motivated by his own dairy-free journey, James created a creamy plant-powered chocolate using a secret recipe which utilizes completely different production techniques to formulate HiP (Happiness in Plants).

Also in September 2020, chocolate and cocoa giant Barry Callebaut extended its Plant Craft range of vegan and dairy-free indulgent chocolate, cocoa and nut products for food and beverage manufacturers.

In February 2020, Barry Callebaut launched a 100 percent dairy-free milk chocolate coined M_lk Chocolate as part of Plant Craft, which has been developed to satisfy the growing demand for plant-based indulgence, particularly among Millennials and Generation Z. It was part of a broader portfolio of Plant Craft products ranging from chocolate, cocoa, nuts and fillings to decorations.

Edited by Elizabeth Green

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Ticking the plant-based box: Vegan-friendly confectionery gathers pace, says Innova Market Insights - FoodIngredientsFirst