#Consumer Staple Products

[alphst]

The J M Smucker Company (SJM) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

$SJM Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript #earnings #markets #investing

The J M Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) Q4 2023 earnings call dated Jun. 06, 2023 Corporate Participants: Aaron Broholm — Vice President, Investor Relations Mark T. Smucker — Chair of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer Tucker H. Marshall — Chief Financial Officer Analysts: Andrew Lazar — Barclays Bank PLC — Analyst Peter Galbo — BofA Securities, Inc. — Analyst Ken Goldman — J.P. Morgan…

[daisies-on-a-cup]

do not let western doctors make you scared of white rice!!!!

[trade-hut-direct-diy-store]

DEWALT Rigger Gloves

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[thesophistiicate]

ten habits to adopt for a beautiful life 💭

+ curated shopping: rather than over-consume in fast fashion and trends, buy fewer, high-quality items. frequent vintage shops, boutiques, or markets where you can find unique, timeless pieces.

+ focus on wellness and exercise: consider activities that are beneficial for the body and calming for the mind, such as yoga, pilates, or long walks in nature. choose activities that allow you to connect with your surroundings and maintain balance.

+ mindful eating: prioritise healthy, whole foods and cooking meals from scratch. organic produce, artisanal products, and perhaps even locally sourced ingredients could be staples in your kitchen. eating is a mindful practice, enjoyed at a leisurely pace.

+ cultural engagement: regularly visit museums, art galleries, and theatres, or participate in cultural events that inspire and enrich their creative spirit. value learning and exposure to the arts as a way to keep life vibrant and intellectually stimulating.

+ reading and continuous learning: develop a well-curated collection of books, including classic literature, philosophy, and art, and dedicate time regularly to reading and reflecting on what you've learned.

+ minimalist technology approach: stay up-to-date with necessary technology, but maintain a minimalist approach to its use. limit screen time, avoid social media distractions, and instead prioritise face-to-face interactions or hands-on activities.

+ intentional socialising: carefully cultivate your social life, with a focus on deep, meaningful connections rather than frequent, casual interactions. you likely enjoy hosting intimate gatherings at home, where you can experience conversation, ambiance, and connection.

[biglisbonnews]

Amazon is trying to make shopping easier with one tiny button A popular feature that was rolled out over the past year is quickly gaining traction on Shopify and other shopping sites. https://www.thestreet.com/retailers/amazon-shopping-way-easier-with-one-tiny-button

[zvaigzdelasas]

US rice exports to Haiti, which account for the bulk of supplies of the country’s key food staple, contain unhealthy levels of arsenic and cadmium, heavy metals that can increase risks of cancer and heart disease, according to a recent study by the University of Michigan.

Haiti is among America’s top buyers of rice, alongside Mexico and Japan, and cheap imports are more affordable than local options in the Caribbean nation, the poorest state in the western hemisphere.

According to the study, average arsenic and cadmium concentrations were nearly twice as high in imported rice compared to the Haitian-grown product, with some imported samples exceeding international limits.

Nearly all imported rice samples exceeded the US Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation for children’s consumption. [...]

The study, which attributed the dominance of imported rice to lower import tariffs and long-term contracts signed during [US-supported] political turmoil in the late 1980s and 1990s, said Haiti imports nearly 90 per cent of its rice, almost exclusively from the US.[...]

When researchers ran the study in 2020, they found that Haitians on average consumed 85kg of rice per year, compared to 12kg in the US

23 Feb 24

[hellenhighwater]

Hi Hell, I wanted to get your thoughts on something. My friend who has been vegetarian for close to 30 years is thinking about becoming vegan. His main reason is that the pain and suffering of an animal in the large majority of the animal product industry is not worth the enjoyment he gets from cheese, milk, etc. He hypothesizes that most people are not vegan due to lack of education about the industry’s methods, and because eating meat is so normalized. I mostly agree, but something about what he’s saying makes me feel bad. Maybe because I don’t see myself ever becoming vegan, due to how much I love certain foods, but I like to think of myself as an empathetic and moral person. So I think I just feel quite selfish.

He is a very analytical and logical thinker, and says he wants to find more anti-vegan arguments before deciding for sure, but can’t seem to find many. What do you (and your followers) think? I was thinking you aren’t vegan, but I don’t actually know.

This is very much not my lane, but if you want my two cents then for me it comes down to a few things.

One: there is a basic mass of food that any human needs to consume in order to stay alive. That can be plants, it can be animals, it can be animal byproducts. For the a significant proportion of commercially produced food, there is a negative impact. It's hard to quantify; in some cases it is certainly direct, quality of life issues for animals. In other cases it's more broad environmental impact from commercial farming, or quality of life for the human laborers involved in harvesting etc. It's hard to come up with any objective measurement for harm when comparing individual animal suffering vs human quality of life vs large scale environmental issues. There's plenty of information out there on some of the vegan diet staples and how increases in farming things like quinoa have enormously detrimental effects on their native communities, if that's something your friend is not already aware.

Two: There is a degree of this that is just...unavoidable. Things eating other things is the way living creatures survive, and on a systematic level there's not a ton we individually can do to change things--and on a practical level, there's only so much you can afford to spend on food, and organic, cruelty free stuff is more expensive. There is a level of privilege in being able to choose to spend your money in that way that is not always an option for everyone.

I'm not vegan. I'm not vegetarian. I care deeply about animals, and I'm aware of what commercial husbandry looks like--it's pretty terrible. I still eat meat. I try to do so as ethically as I reasonably can.

I don't have an issue with eating other animals. It's a part of nature. To me, I see the obligation more to do our best to try to get meat (or byproducts) that have been raised as well as we can manage. Free range eggs are pretty easy to come by, if you live in the country. Same with locally made cheeses and butters, even farm fresh milk--some places have self-serve milking that allows cows to roam in pastures and then be milked at will. Price and availability will vary by where you are, but it's more and more common; as more and more people start to care about how the people and animals involved in making our food are treated, better options become more available.

It also should be noted that the animals involved in farming are almost universally completely domesticated. There's no alternative for these animals and their progeny except for life in human care. These breeds require human aid for their own health and safety, because we have been breeding them for (in many cases) thousands of years to rely on us and to develop traits that will not aid them in the wild. If everyone decided, tomorrow, to become vegan, then these animals would need to remain in human care for however many thousands of generations it would take to breed them back to the ability to survive without us, or we would have to sterilize them en mass and terminate these breeds through lack of reproduction. It is not an option to just release these farm animals into the wild. Domesticated animals require human care. Some of them, like pigeons, have gone feral when we abandoned them, but they are not like their wild cousins, and it shows.

Because of the selective breeding involved in domestion, most of these animals are producing byproducts--eggs, milk, honey, wool, etc--in quantities that they do not need. While some species have been bred to do that to their own detriment, most heritage breeds are fully capable of producing more than they need of these things, and there can be true symbiosis between these animals and their human caretakers. Some of these things they need to have removed for their own health. It's an ancient bargain--we keep them safe, and warm, and healthy, and protected, and they give us that which they have in abundance. The problem isn't the animal product, it's how it's produced commercially.

So yeah--veganism is one option, but it is, in my opinion, a narrow scope at an issue that is far more nuanced. I think it's equally ethical to aim for a diet that focuses on local, ethical farming practices--for growing crops, for caring for meat animals, for beekeeping, for chickens and sheep and whatever else we need. We've spent longer than any of us will live making these animals part of our world--discarding them and what they can give us is not going to benefit them. We just have to learn how to treat them respectfully.

[squinch-depraved]

more slimecicle for you little freaks he's so fun to write

"i swear you won't even know i'm there," charlie pleaded with you from the bed. he watched as you sat at your desk, working on a project you needed to finish before the night was over.

"between my thighs? yeah, charlie, i'm sure," you said with a roll of your eyes.

"please," he asked again. his voice was dripping with desperation, making it hard to say no.

but you were strong, determined to finish your tasks on time. "baby, you know i love when you get like this, and ordinarily i'd let you, but i need to stay focused," you replied sweetly. you heard him get off the bed and listened as his footsteps led him to kneel down next to you in your chair.

he looked up at you with wide, lustful eyes and took your hand gently. "please," he begged. he looked pathetic. the fact that it was you he was craving, you he wanted to taste so bad? it overrode any shred of reason and made your brain short circuit.

"charlie, baby," you sighed, taking back your hand and using it to cup his face. "can you give me, like, twenty minutes? to be productive? and then you can sit under my desk while i wrap it up, how does that sound?"

his face lit up as he nodded fervently, his eagerness to please you apparently more consuming than his desire to devour you. you patted his head, smiling softly at him before turning back to work on your task. "gonna set a timer?" he asked quietly after a moment.

you huffed, feigning annoyance, and pulled out your phone, setting and showing him a timer. he nodded again and adjusted himself, shifting on his legs as he waited patiently for the time to run out.

five minutes in, he was fiddling with a hair tie you lent him months ago. he wore it every day, it reminded him of you and how infatuating you were. it had become such a staple in his everyday wardrobe that he felt naked whenever he was without it. you glanced at him, noticing how he wrapped the elastic around his fingers again and again until unraveling it and repeating the process. you guessed it was helping him cope with not being located between your soft thighs.

halfway through, you softly let him know how much longer he had to go. he hummed quietly in response, moving to sit in a different position. he tried not to draw attention to himself as he squeezed his thighs together, embarrassingly desperate for your touch, but you noticed out of the corner of your eye and smiled. he was already making it hard to concentrate on this, and he wasn't even doing anything.

fifteen minutes down, he was leaning against your desk, head tilted back ever so slightly. you tried so hard not to stare at the tent between his legs; you only had five minutes left to get as much done as possible. he was surely daydreaming about you at this point, whimpers leaving his mouth whenever his groin twitched. he always looked downright pitiful when he got like this, and you adored how bad he wanted you. nothing ever made you feel as desired as charlie did.

when the timer went off, you still had a sizeable chunk of work that needed to get done. but, you had made a promise, and he jumped up at the alarm. pawing at the chair you were in, he mumbled, "please, please," until you sighed and gave in, scooting back to let him crawl under the desk. he shuffled in excitedly, not even grunting in pain when he hit his head on the underside.

you gasped softly as he pulled your bottoms off, leaving you bare for all of two seconds before he planted a sloppy, open mouthed kiss to your core. he spread your thighs open a bit more and shoved his face in, burying his tongue deep in you while his nose brushed up against your clit repeatedly.

you closed your eyes and let the noises spill from your lips, forgetting momentarily about the work that needed to be done. he just kept going, licking and sucking, and after a while of constant stimulation, you wondered if he was even breathing. a bit later, you remembered you weren't done, and you tried to get back to doing work, but the never-ending barrage of kisses to your dripping cunt made that impossible.

"god, fuck, charlie, this is why i said no," you grumbled. "need to finish this shit so bad and i just can't with you doing this."

he made a noise into your pussy, sending vibrations rippling through your body. your hips stuttered forward, thighs closing against his face and trapping him there. he moaned again, apparently enjoying the suffocation, and wrapped his arms around your legs, pushing them closer against him.

you were loud at this point, work long forgotten as you squeezed your legs against his head, cooing out praises. "ohhh, good boy, charlie," you sang. "fuck, you make me feel so fuckin' good. what a good boy f'me." he somehow became more ravenous and pushed you closer towards the edge, moaning and whimpering into your heat as he worked tirelessly to make you cum. it was all for you, always, every time. he loved making you feel good, he felt sometimes it was the very reason he existed.

when you came, you tangled your hands in his hair, pulling tightly and bringing him impossibly closer. he relished in your screams, savoring the "good boy!" you let out one last time before releasing all over his face. he kept going for a bit, testing you, seeing how much overstimulation you could take, before finally pulling away when you told him to.

you scooted back to let him out from under the desk, but he didn't emerge until a few minutes later, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. when he finally stood up, a dark stain stood out on his clothed crotch, evidence that he had enjoyed this just as much as you. you teased him for it, offering to help, but he just shook his head.

"all i needed was to taste you," he panted before leaning down to kiss you. the taste of yourself on his lips was intoxicating, and you hopped up to start a shower for the both of you so you could have a cozy night in bed, the work you so desperately needed to finish sitting abandoned still on the monitor.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The flotsam and jetsam of our digital queries and transactions, the flurry of electrons flitting about, warm the medium of air. Heat is the waste product of computation, and if left unchecked, it becomes a foil to the workings of digital civilization. Heat must therefore be relentlessly abated to keep the engine of the digital thrumming in a constant state, 24 hours a day, every day. To quell this thermodynamic threat, data centers overwhelmingly rely on air conditioning, a mechanical process that refrigerates the gaseous medium of air, so that it can displace or lift perilous heat away from computers. Today, power-hungry computer room air conditioners (CRACs) or computer room air handlers (CRAHs) are staples of even the most advanced data centers. In North America, most data centers draw power from “dirty” electricity grids, especially in Virginia’s “data center alley,” the site of 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic in 2019. To cool, the Cloud burns carbon, what Jeffrey Moro calls an “elemental irony.” In most data centers today, cooling accounts for greater than 40 percent of electricity usage.

[...]

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes. At 200 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, data centers collectively devour more energy than some nation-states. Today, the electricity utilized by data centers accounts for 0.3 percent of overall carbon emissions, and if we extend our accounting to include networked devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets, the total shifts to 2 percent of global carbon emissions. Why so much energy? Beyond cooling, the energy requirements of data centers are vast. To meet the pledge to customers that their data and cloud services will be available anytime, anywhere, data centers are designed to be hyper-redundant: If one system fails, another is ready to take its place at a moment’s notice, to prevent a disruption in user experiences. Like Tom’s air conditioners idling in a low-power state, ready to rev up when things get too hot, the data center is a Russian doll of redundancies: redundant power systems like diesel generators, redundant servers ready to take over computational processes should others become unexpectedly unavailable, and so forth. In some cases, only 6 to 12 percent of energy consumed is devoted to active computational processes. The remainder is allocated to cooling and maintaining chains upon chains of redundant fail-safes to prevent costly downtime.

[reality-detective]

Bees and Honey 👇

🐝Some interesting facts about bees 🐝

Here are 20 interesting facts about the importance of honey and bees:

1. Did you know that honey never spoils? Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old and still perfectly edible!

2. Did you know bees are essential for growing many of our foods? They pollinate about one-third of the food we eat, including fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

3. Did you know honey has natural healing properties? It can help soothe sore throats and even speed up the healing of wounds and burns due to its antibacterial qualities.

4. Did you know bees produce a tiny amount of honey in their lifetime? A single worker bee produces only about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her entire life, but together they make a lot!

5. Did you know bees communicate through dancing? They perform a "waggle dance" to tell other bees where to find the best flowers.

6. Did you know honey can help your brain? It contains antioxidants that may support brain health and improve memory.

7. Did you know beeswax, made by bees, is used in many everyday products?** It's found in things like candles, lip balm, and even some types of food packaging.

8. Did you know honey can be a natural energy booster? It provides a quick source of energy because it's packed with natural sugars.

9. Did you know there are over 300 types of honey in the United States alone? The flavor, color, and aroma depend on the flowers that bees visit.

10. Did you know that beekeeping helps many communities around the world? It provides income, supports agriculture, and helps improve food security in many regions.

11. Did you know honey can be used as a natural preservative? Because of its antibacterial properties, honey has been used to preserve fruits and other foods for centuries.

12. Did you know that some bees can recognize human faces? Studies have shown that honeybees can remember and recognize human faces, much like they remember different flowers.

13. Did you know honey can improve your sleep? A spoonful of honey before bed can promote relaxation and better sleep by raising insulin slightly and allowing tryptophan to enter the brain.

14. Did you know bees are colorblind to red? Bees can see ultraviolet light, which humans can't, but they can't see the color red. Instead, they see it as black.

15. Did you know honey can help with seasonal allergies? Consuming local honey is believed by some to help build immunity to local pollen and reduce allergy symptoms.

16. Did you know that royal jelly, produced by worker bees, is fed to all bee larvae? However, only those destined to become queens are fed royal jelly throughout their development.

17. Did you know honey has different medicinal uses in various cultures? For example, in Ayurvedic medicine, honey is used to treat digestive issues, and in ancient Egypt, it was used to treat wounds.

18. Did you know bees have a built-in GPS? They use the position of the sun, the earth's magnetic field, and their own memories of landmarks to navigate and find their way back to the hive.

19. Did you know honeybees are the only insects that produce food eaten by humans? They are unique in their production of honey, which has been a staple in human diets for thousands of years.

20. Did you know that honey can vary greatly in taste and texture? The type of flowers the bees pollinate affects the flavor, color, and texture of the honey. Some honey can even be creamy or spicy!

[gothhabiba]

As the waves of Jewish immigration intensified and the desire (overt or covert) to become a replacement to the Arab-Palestinian people increased, the Zionist leadership advocated a policy of separation on all social, political and economic fronts. One of the most visible manifestations of this separation was the Zionist campaign for the purchasing of Jewish only goods, known in Hebrew as Totzeret Ha’aretz—literally “the produce of the land.” This resulted in a clear differentiation between the permeation of Arab-Palestinian culture into Jewish life and the barriers placed on social, economic and political integration and interaction. In the words of Zerubavel, “politically, the Zionists ignored the Arabs, but culturally, they romanticized and tried to imitate them.”

For example, Dafna Hirsch, in her biographic study of hummus, describes how it was initially considered part of the local Arab-Palestinian food culture and repertoire in the 1930s, worthy of adoption due to its nutritious value. However, in the 1950s, through the process of industrialisation, mass production and marketing, it was appropriated and nationalised, and its Arab origins were supressed. The Arab-Palestinian origins of the product were omitted and marginalized and its connection to Jewish and Jewish-Israeli traditions, especially to the Mizrahi-Jewish Diaspora, emphasized. For Jewish-Israelis, hummus became a national dish, the eating of which was part-and-parcel of daily life, either purchased from Jewish-Israeli food companies, such as Telma, or consumed at home or at Mizrahi-Jewish restaurants.

The hummus example in this regard is not unique; I will demonstrate these processes by deconstructing one of Israel’s most well known dishes, the Israeli salad. There might not be a more popular dish in Israel than the Israeli salad, sometimes also referred to as Salad Katsuts (chopped salad). The salad is based on chopped vegetables (normally tomatoes, cucumbers and onions) and fresh herbs (mostly parsley but sometimes also mint) and dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. A recent book, Fresh Flavours from Israel, by Jewish-Israelii food writer Janna Gur, states that “Israelis must have their salad at least once a day.” It is an accompaniment to every meal, whether eaten at home or outside. In fact, you would be hard pressed to have a meal anywhere in Israel without it. No Israeli cookbook from the 1960s onwards is truly complete without providing a recipe for it. This is true with regards to those written for Jewish-Israeli and foreign audiences. To the unsuspecting viewer, the Israeli salad is the epitome of Israeli food culture: it is fresh, simple, healthy and [symbolizes] the strong relationship the nation has with its agricultural produce. The salad, therefore, serves as both an internal and an external banal symbol of Jewish-Israeli identity.

What are the origins of the Israeli salad? Reading through literary accounts of growing up in Israel, the salad became a staple food product in the Kibbutzim canteens, from there it moved to the Israeli army’s mess halls and to Israeli homes. The fact that the salad is mentioned mostly as a chopped vegetable salad by Israeli authors describing living in Israel in the 1930s and 1940s demonstrates that it did not arrive with the wave of Jewish immigrants from North Africa and the Arab world after the state was established in 1948. It was also not prevalent in the diet of Central and Eastern European Jewish communities, from where most immigrants came. On the other hand, there are a number of accounts, mostly by travel writers, such as Masterman and Grant in the early-1900s and that of the Mary Eliza Rogers as far back as 1865, that describe the preparation and consumption of a chopped vegetable salad in Palestine. Rogers describes the salad as accompanying most meals served by the upper and governing classes in Palestine, at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. In other words, it is either that early Zionist immigrants to Palestine independently invented the salad, or, as I argue hereafter, they imitated, adopted and later appropriated and nationalised an existing local custom.

– Ronald Ranta, “Re-Arabizing Israeli Food Culture.” Food, Culture & Society 18(4):611-627 (December 2015). DOI: 10.1080/15528014.2015.1088192

[alphst]

Aurora Cannabis Inc (ACB) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

$ACB Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript #earnings #markets #investing

Aurora Cannabis Inc (NYSE: ACB) Q3 2023 earnings call dated Jun. 14, 2023 Corporate Participants: Ananth Krishnan — Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations Miguel Martin — Chief Executive Officer Glen Ibbott — Chief Financial Officer Analysts: Michael Lavery — Piper Sandler — Analyst Frederico Gomes — ATB Capital Markets — Analyst Pablo Zuanic — Zuanic & Associates —…

[flushedangel]

🎀Welcome To The Desire Diaries🎀

From fashion must-haves to beauty essentials and home decor, this series will showcase a curated selection of products that are currently on my wishlist.

Victoria’s Secret Slippers

I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect cozy slippers, and of course, I went to Victoria’s Secret to look for some. They have the classic pink and white stripes and add a touch of chic to my loungewear. They would be great to wear during the VS show. Especially if it moves back to December next year, they would be the perfect fuzzy slippers to wear on a winters night to watch the show!

{Inspiration}

[above photos from Pinterest, dm for credit if these are yours!]

3-tier Storage Trays

I am always looking for cute ways to display and store everything, I think this storage tray is perfect, cute, and very versatile. It seems perfect for displaying makeup, skin care, bath products (bath bombs, bubble salts, bubble soap, etc.), or...you can use it for its intended purpose...deserts. Like I said, very versatile.

{Inspiration}

[above photos from Pinterest, dm for credit if these are yours!]

Batiste Dry Shampoo

For me, dry shampoo is something I have only started using recently. It's the only thing that can add volume to my hair, especially when I part my hair to the side. I have yet to invest in a big bottle, I've only bought travel sized bottles to put in my backpack, and I've only heard good things about Batiste. If you have tried their products, let me know how you feel about them, and if you have any other recommendations of their products!

Philosophy Body Shower Gel

Philosophy, take all my money. I don't buy them often, because of the price, but it's always a staple in any of my wishlists. Bonus points for the ones with recipes, which I have yet to try. But I am curious, have you ever tried a Philosophy bottle recipe? If so, how did it turn out?

{Inspiration}

[above photos from Pinterest, dm for credit if these are yours!]

Yves Saint Laurent: The Complete Haute Couture Collections

Despite not having a coffee table, I am a collector of coffee table/display book. However, I do like cute books that I will actually read/look through. Recently I've only been consuming fashion brand’s archive looks, currently on my wishlist is this YSL collection book.

{Inspiration}

[above photos from Pinterest, dm for credit if these are yours]

[trade-hut-direct-diy-store]

Airmaster PTC Mini Fan Heater 500W

👷Build Better: High-Quality Hardware & Tools Inside!👷👏Hey there, DIY lovers! Airmaster PTC Mini Fan Heater 500W🎁 Price Only 👉 £37.99🔧 Visit - https://tradehutdirect.com/products/airmaster-ptc-mini-fan-heater-500w-airptc5-5027825978173DEALS & OFFERS - Signup and get 5% discount code + Free Shipping on all productsThe Airmaster PTC Mini Fan Heater is perfect for personal use/home office. Its ceramic element provides quick efficient heating. Easy to use thanks to its one heat setting and LED display. It also features a 12 hour timer. Suitable for rooms up to 5m . Specifications: Input Voltage: 220-240V (50Hz).Output Rating 500W.Dimensions: 1,155 x 190 x 90mm.IP Rating: IP20.Cable Length: 1m. 🏬 Shop now! 🔨🔩 (Please note:All prices & promo code are subject to change without notice and are not guaranteed.)

[serpentface]

a sampling of domesticated arthropods

(focused on those domesticated and/or used by qilik peoples in the western half of the supercontinent)

BROOCH BEETLES- About 8 species of beetle bred in captivity selectively for color morphs (some shown here) and dozens of wild species used for the same purpose. Upon pupation, they have a metal clasp adhesed to their abdomen to which a chain or ribbon can be attached and the beetle worn as living jewelry. This practice is widespread, especially among qilik peoples, though the exact origins of the practice and the established domesticated species is unclear.

JEWEL TICKS- a captive-bred species of tick with bold, colorful patterning. They are induced to bite the exposed skin on a wearer's face, where they will feed for about a week before falling off. This is a form of self-decoration among the Chit-Sut-Susit primarily, and has caught on as a beauty trend among Crown Cynozepali. Captive-bred jewel ticks rarely carry or transmit diseases to avian or other reptile hosts, so the risk of disease is fairly negligible (though not unknown).

KING LOCUST- A species of grasshopper bred to be fat, slow, and flightless. They are herded and grazed like tiny sheep to be harvested as food. 

CAVIAR ANTS- A domesticated species of ant bred to produce massive quantities of eggs (via up to two dozen queens per colony). Their eggs and larvae are a staple food for many qilik peoples, and their farming can become lucrative business around major cities. A well tended captive population has the majority of its eggs consumed and stays at a constant population size, and their queens and drones are wingless and rarely capable of forming new colonies without intervention by their tenders. Abandoned or feral populations are ecologically devastating. Acres of forest may be stripped of anything edible before an uncontrolled population collapses.

SILK-ORCHARD SPIDER- A colonial spider species kept for silk production. These spiders are bred to produce substantial quantities of silk, covering entire trees in the process. Small-scale production can occur without active intervention, so long as the environment is buggy enough to nourish a colony. Large scale production (such as a silk orchard) requires active feeding to maintain large colony sizes, typically by placing maggot-filled animal carcasses in the tree's branches so the emerging flies are caught and eaten). The harvesting of their silk is more labor-intensive than silkworms, but the finished product is an incredibly strong fabric that can be made into an ultra-light armor. 

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What does the seller at the Forks grocery store think of the Cullens? Do they make strange Products/Merchandise? Acting strange/creepy?

Well.

We get a hint from a) what we see in their house b) how we see the Cullens act at school c) Edward's complete forgetting of how much humans actually eat a day.

First, we know that Esme does go out to buy food and pretend to be human and that they make sure their kitchen is stocked so that people in a very small town don't realize that the Cullens never actually eat. Well done Cullens. We also know Esme cooks as a hobby and she's very good at it (a shocking thing for Bella). Once Bella entered the picture, Esme makes things like pasta for her.

So, they do at least buy food and more importantly it's things Esme can actually do something with and they taste good. So, they're not entirely getting nonsense.

However, then we see what the kids get up to at school. Bella notices the Cullens on the first day and they are anorexic city. They have the bare minimum food they felt they were required to purchase, not eating any of it, and then throwing it all out thinking they're fooling everyone and being very very clever. They think they're getting away with it because the Forks students don't remark on it as it's part of the general weirdness of the Cullen package (Bella too thinks she's exceptionally observant because she's the only one who seems to notice the Cullens are strange :O)

Later, Edward multiple times observes Bella, and is very confused on how much she's supposed to eat. He knows her buying just a soda that one time is not correct but he's also not sure about that. At the Italian dinner he genuinely doesn't know if Bella should eat more or less ravioli.

Basically, at least the kids have no idea how portion sizes work or how much humans consume a day. Now, they're not Esme, so she might be better but Esme's also cooking food no one eats as a hobby so here's my suspicion of what happens.

Esme gets her baking ingredient staples: eggs, butter, milk, flour and restocks regularly. Similarly, she's getting her cooking essentials and restocking about as much as one would expect: vinegar, salt, olive oil, pepper, etc. So far, so good. Where I suspect her problem will be is that Esme will buy things for the various things she wants to try cooking but not necessarily what a mother of a ridiculous sized family would be buying to supply meals every day. They're also likely very weird things as Esme wants to try this or that, which are things most people don't actually eat all the time if at all. Also, cost's not a factor for her, so if Esme wants to make lobster she's making lobster.

So, I imagine a few things, Esme severely underbuys for what she should be compared to if they were real people, she's buying cooking supplies + very strange things and also very expensive things. This, combined with the kids coming off very eating disorder, and it makes it seem like there's something weird going on with the Cullens in terms of eating disorders/weight, but mostly that they're rich and weird and not people who don't actually eat food at all.

Of course, it also being purchased by a crystal demon lady who terrifies you despite looking like she should be the sweetest most beautiful person on the planet doesn't help.

It's just the Cullen aesthetic though.