Why food is taking over your life

There is an entire generation of devotees whose stories & crazy new food concepts take digital form

Starbucks peddles pink unicorn frappucinos. Ikea’s food operations go from a fun way to keep up shoppers’ stamina to a fast growing division offering much more than meatballs. Amazon.com enters the hyper-competitive meal-kit market. Losing customers to supermarkets, Whole Foods Market faces pressure from activist investor Jana Partners, which hires food writer Mark Bittman as a consultant. Malls replace anchor stores with food halls. American teenagers start to spend more on food than apparel.

All these stories are part of the same phenomenon. As my colleague Tyler Cowen recently wrote, food — and, I would add, the business of food —