This Bible-Era Solution For Saving Food Is Making A Comeback

Audrey Berman is no stranger to the farming life.

Over the last three years, Berman has worked on various farms in New York’s Hudson Valley with the intention of one day starting her own farm. But it wasn’t too long before she started to notice disheartening trends.

“We always had to plant more than we could actually harvest ourselves,” Berman told The Huffington Post. “And the demographic we were selling [our food] to was a little more wealthy and well-to-do while, at the same time, good food wasn’t accessible to everyone and a lot of that had to do with affordability. It started to bother me.”

She began to research what she could do about it. And that led to the launch earlier this year of Long Table Harvest, a food recovery group.

Led by Berman and co-founder Laura Engelman, the group works with 16 farms in the Hudson Valley to collect their surplus fruits and vegetables — which would otherwise go to waste — and distribute them to food pantries, community organizations and other charities throughout the region. 

A certain amount of surplus is practically inevitable on farms. Farmers plant more crops than they’ll need for their buyers to protect against losses from pests, weather and other issues. Oftentimes, it’s cheaper for farms to let the surplus rot in the fields rather than pay for the labor to harvest it.

Each Monday, Berman and her small team travel to their donor farms to pick up market leftovers and other extras farms have to offer. They fill up their van and drop off the proceeds at their recipient sites.

In June, the organization was picking up about 940 pounds of produce a week. Two months later, that number has grown to about 1,100 weekly pounds of summer staples like watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and corn. 

“It’s all really high quality, all really beautiful and the people receiving it are all excited to get it,” Berman said.

Groups like this often operate under the radar and struggle to make ends meet. Their work ― known as gleaning ― is an ancient practice, one that dates back at least to the days of the Old Testament.

It is written in the Bible that Ruth would glean the fields of the well-to-do farmer Boaz, collecting any produce left after harvest was completed and redistributing it to the poor. The practice is said to have continued in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, too.

Today, gleaning is experiencing a resurgence of interest as Americans become aware of the estimated 70 billion pounds of food the country wastes each year. Some of this loss is due to surpluses on farms. As a result, recovery groups like Long Table Harvest have popped up across the country ― the National Gleaning Project lists more than 400 food recovery organizations ― and are likely saving many tons of food from being left to rot in farmers’ fields or sent to landfills.

While there is no national estimate for how much food these groups are diverting to people who need it, some organizations reclaim hundreds of thousands of pounds each year. Oregon’s Salem Harvest, for example, gleans 300,000 pounds of fresh produce annually.

It’s safe to assume these organizations, collectively, are preventing millions of pounds of produce from being tossed each year.

Long Table Harvest

Long Table Harvest's van gets filled many times over during the busy summer months when bumper crops and other factors can leave farmers with surpluses.

Funding this work is a challenge, however. Berman and her Long Table Harvest team worked diligently applying for grants and fundraising ahead of their launch; an Indiegogo campaign raised over $11,000. But their operation has been limited in size, with just one van and one paid staff member, because they haven’t been able to secure major funding.

While financial struggles are not unusual for nonprofits of all kids, food recovery organizations appear to be facing unique challenges. Among them is that there is little federal or state-level grant funding available for this work, though the farmers who donate their surplus to food recovery groups can receive tax incentives in many states.

One initiative offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is the Community Food Projects competitive grant program, which was funded most recently at the level of $8.6 million. Though gleaners are eligible for this grant, which focuses on meeting the food needs of low-income communities through food distribution and community outreach, it is not specifically catered to food recovery. 

Some states, like New Jersey, do offer grants specifically geared toward gleaners, but these programs are not particularly common. 

Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images

Lovin' Spoonfuls' Meg Kiley loads donated produce onto a truck during a 2013 pickup from Whole Foods. Their group picks up surplus fruits and vegetables from stores and farms.

Most organizations rely overwhelmingly on individual donors, fundraising and corporate support to sustain their operations.

The Ithaca, New York-based Friendship Donations Network, a gleaning group, noted that while it does receive support from local foundations, it has never received state or federal funding and derives about 70 percent of its operating budget from individual donations. 

Another prominent food recovery group, the Boston-based Lovin’ Spoonfuls, said it currently receives no government support and also depends primarily on individual donors, events and grants from local groups.

That funding just isn’t enough. Food recovery is “chronically underfunded at every step,” Dana Gunders, a staff scientist specializing in food waste at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told HuffPost earlier this summer.

The lack of financial support is also reflected in gleaning groups’ heavy reliance on volunteers to gather surplus produce from participating farmers. Though well-meaning, these volunteers typically aren’t particularly accustomed to the task at hand and don’t tend to work all that efficiently. 

“Gleaning is good, but it’s not the most efficient way to get produce off the farm, even for donation, in terms of getting large volumes,” Gunders added. “Volunteers picking stuff are not trained and not nearly as fast” as farmworkers, she said.

In addition, gleaning groups often struggle to gain the attention of media and potential funders when compared to flashier food waste solutions.

“There’s a lot of excitement around people who are making apps or making a big splash in terms of media and promotional campaigns,” Berman said. “I’m really trying to do the work and connect the farmers with our recipients at our distribution sites and I’m not out there proselytizing the work. I’m trying to figure out the balance to that, but it’s a little disheartening.”

Though the practice of gleaning is far from groundbreaking, Jordan Figueiredo, the anti-food waste activist behind the Ugly Fruit and Veg campaign and a petition drive asking Walmart to more widely sell cosmetically imperfect produce, agreed that it’s deserving of more support.

“Overall, I think technology is not the answer [to food waste],” Figueiredo said. “I see those articles all the time — ‘The App That’s Going to End Food Waste.’ No one app is going to do that or make a big dent, even. Overall, it’s about valuing [food] enough so that we’re paying attention to the easy, old solutions like gleaning and putting money into them.”

Despite all the obstacles faced by groups like hers, Berman is optimistic that change is happening as Americans begin to value food more — and are adopting that mindset in their neighborhood grocery stores and kitchens.

“The biggest impact we can have is with ourselves and the decisions we make as individuals. How we live our life, what we buy and [do] not buy, what we cook and don’t cook,” Berman added. “If people say, ‘Hey, I’m a part of what seems like this big problem, but I can start with myself,’ I think that would be really exciting.”

_____

Joseph Erbentraut covers promising innovations and challenges in the areas of food and water. In addition, Erbentraut explores the evolving ways Americans are identifying and defining themselves. Follow Erbentraut on Twitter at @robojojo. Tips? Email joseph.erbentraut@huffingtonpost.com.

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• This Guy Spends $2.75 A Year On Food And Eats Like A King
• The Food Your Grocery Store Doesn’t Want You To See
• Meat Eaters Should Have Been Listening To Vegetarians All Along
• Farmer Forced To Dump Insane Amount Of Gorgeous Cherries
• Al Capone’s Brother May Have Invented Date Labels For Milk

States With The Fastest Growing Economies

This article was originally published on 24/7 Wall St. 

The U.S. economy grew 2.4% in 2015. This is the most the economy has grown in more than five years, and is a slight improvement on 2014’s 2.2% growth.

The economies of all but two states grew in 2015, some substantially more than others, and for a variety of reasons. California and Oregon each grew by 4.1%, more than any other state. Alaska and North Dakota contracted, while several states saw increases of less than 0.5%.

The professional and business services industry, the information industry, and the real estate, rental and leasing industry contributed most prominently to the nation’s growth last year.

Click here to see the states with the fastest growing economies.

Click here to see the states with the slowest growing economies.

In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Clifford Woodruff, an economist with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, explained that the biggest drain on state economies last year was the mining sector. Indeed, the mining sectors of 34 states declined last year, including declines of at least 10% in 20 of these. He went on to say that the national decline in oil prices has likely contributed to this drop in the sector.

The impact of a suddenly weak energy industry was most apparent in North Dakota. The state had been one of the fastest growing in the country, both in terms of population and GDP over the past few years, as the development of the Bakken shale oil formation led to a substantial boom. The state had the largest economic growth of any state in four of the five years through 2014, including a 21.7% increase in 2012. In 2015, the state economy contracted by 2.1%, more than any other state.

On the whole, populations grew substantially more in the states with the fastest-growing economies, and stagnated or declined in the worst performers. Population growth exceeded 0.4% in only one of the 10 states with the weakest economies in 2015. All of the 10 states with the strongest economies surpassed the national population growth rate of 0.8%.

Woodruff explained that population growth does not necessarily lead to GDP growth, as states can import goods from other states or countries without producing more goods locally. He added, however, that it makes sense that the two figures usually move in step. “Obviously, the more people that there are, the more products, the more food, the more houses they’re going to need.”

Based on figures published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed 2015 real GDP growth rates in all 50 states. The real gross domestic product measurement accounts for the effects of inflation on growth. GDP figures published by the BEA for 2015 are preliminary and subject to annual revision. Real GDP figures for past years have already been revised. Population data are from the U.S. Census Bureau and reflect estimated growth between 2014 and 2015. We also used data on poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Both 2014 and 2015 unemployment rates are annual averages and are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

These are the states with the fastest (and slowest) growing economies.

10. North Carolina
>2015 GDP growth: 2.7%
> 2015 GDP: $442.5 billion (9th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.0% (14th highest)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.7% (17th highest)

North Carolina’s economy grew at a 2.7% pace in 2015, the 10th fastest growing state economy. This was an improvement from 2014, when the state’s economy grew by 2.1%, which was 21st in the country that year. This economic growth pushed the state from the 10th largest economy in the country to the ninth, replacing Georgia. The finance, insurance, and real estate as well as the professional and business services industries contributed significantly to the state’s economic growth — expanding by 3.5% and 6.3%, respectively, in 2015. The state’s professional industry has recorded a 4% or higher growth rate in five of the past six years.

9. Nevada
>2015 GDP growth: 2.8%
> 2015 GDP: $126.2 billion (18th smallest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.9% (3rd highest)
> 2015 unemployment: 6.7% (2nd highest)

Nevada’s economy grew at a 2.8% pace in 2015, slightly faster than the national 2.4% growth rate. Growth was largely driven by the 7.4% expansion of the finance, insurance and real estate industry, the largest in the state by economic output. The mining industry, which contracted by 13.8%, was one of the biggest drags on the state’s economy. Like all states with rapid economic growth, the number of people who call Nevada home is going up. The state’s population increased by 53,000 in 2015, a 1.9% increase.

Despite relatively rapid economic expansion, Nevada’s economy remains relatively weak. The state’s 6.7% 2015 unemployment rate is the highest in the country and far higher than the 5.3% nationwide rate.

 

8. Washington
>2015 GDP growth: 2.9%
> 2015 GDP: $397.3 billion (14th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.5% (7th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.7% (17th highest)

Washington’s economy grew at a 2.9% pace last year, surpassing the 2.4% national growth rate. One of the biggest contributions to the state’s economy came from its retail sector, which expanded by 9.4%. According to the National Retail Federation, a retail trade association, the retail industry is Washington’s largest private sector employer, directly supporting about one in every five jobs in the state. Other major contributions to Washington’s economic growth came from its information sector and its finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing industries.

7. Florida
>2015 GDP growth: 3.1%
> 2015 GDP: $789.8 billion (4th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.8% (4th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.4% (22nd highest)

Florida is one of just seven states where GDP grew by at least 3% in 2015. The Sunshine State’s GDP, which remains the fourth largest in the country, increased to approximately $790 billion. Population tends to increase more rapidly in states with more robust economic growth, and Florida is no exception. The state’s population increased by 1.8% in 2015, the fourth largest growth in the country.

6. Utah
>2015 GDP growth: 3.3%
> 2015 GDP: $131.2 billion (19th smallest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.7% (6th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 3.5% (5th lowest)

Utah’s economy grew at a 3.3% pace in 2015, faster than all but five other states. One of the largest contributions to the state’s GDP came from its finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing sector, which expanded by 4.5% over the year. Nationwide, the sector expanded by a much slower 1.8%.

Utah’s rapid economic growth may have helped maintain low unemployment in the state. Just 3.5% of Utah’s workforce is unemployed, much less than the 5.3% national 2015 unemployment rate.

5. Montana
>2015 GDP growth: 3.5%
> 2015 GDP: $41.1 billion (4th smallest)
> 1-yr. population change: 0.9% (15th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 4.1% (11th lowest)

Montana’s economy expanded from $39.7 billion in 2014 to $41.1 billion in 2015, a 3.5% growth rate. Over roughly the same time period, the state’s jobless rate dropped from 4.7% to 4.1%. Economic growth was largely spurred by expansion in many of the state’s largest industries, including manufacturing, which grew at a rapid 12.5% pace. The mining industry was the biggest drag on the economy, contracting by 6.1%. 

4. Colorado
>2015 GDP growth: 3.6%
> 2015 GDP: $288.8 billion (18th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.9% (2nd largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 3.9% (10th lowest)

Colorado’s economy grew at a robust rate for the second straight year. The state’s GDP growth rate of 4.1% in 2014 was third in the country. In 2015, Colorado’s 3.6% GDP growth rate was fourth largest. While there are exceptions, larger economic expansions tend to coincide with greater population growth. Each new resident will consume more goods and generate more economic output. Not surprisingly, Colorado’s population grew by nearly 2% in 2015, second fastest in the country and well above the national population growth rate of 0.8%.

The state’s finance, insurance, and real estate industry as well as its professional sector contributed substantially to Colorado’s economic growth, expanding by 4.6% and 5.0%, respectively.

 

3. Texas
>2015 GDP growth: 3.8%
> 2015 GDP: $1.48 trillion (2nd largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.8% (5th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 4.5% (18th lowest)

The Texas economy grew by 3.8% in 2015, faster than any state other than Oregon and California. Texas has nearly one-third of the nation’s crude oil reserves, and its economy is heavily dependent on the price of oil. As oil prices have fallen in recent years, the economies of many of the most oil-dependent counties in the state also suffered. While the statewide unemployment rate fell from 5.1% in 2014 to 4.5% in 2015, the jobless rate in many of the state’s top oil-producing counties increased. Still, economic growth in the state was led by the mining sector, which grew at a rapid 12.4% pace. By comparison, the U.S. mining sector as a whole grew at a 5.1% pace in the same period and actually declined in most states.

2. California
>2015 GDP growth: 4.1%
> 2015 GDP: $2.21 trillion (the largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 0.9% (16th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 6.2% (7th highest)

California’s $2.2 trillion GDP is the largest in the country. Its 4.1% economic expansion in 2015 was also the fastest in the U.S., tied only with Oregon. Growth was driven primarily by the professional and business services industry as well as the information industry, which grew by 7.0% and 10.3%, respectively.

The size of the state’s economy may not be surprising — with 39.1 million residents, California is also the most populous state in the country. As it is, there are not enough jobs in the state to accommodate the workforce. California’s 2015 unemployment rate of 6.2% is nearly a full percentage point higher than the national jobless rate of 5.3%.

1. Oregon
>2015 GDP growth: 4.1%
> 2015 GDP: $199.4 billion (25th largest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.5% (9th largest increase)
> 2015 unemployment: 5.7% (17th highest)

Oregon’s GDP expanded by 4.1%, at the same pace as its neighbor to the south. State economic output increased from $191.6 billion in 2014 to $199.4 billion in 2015. Despite rapid economic growth, unemployment in Oregon remains higher than it is nationwide. The state’s 5.7% jobless rate is nearly half a percentage point higher than the national 5.3% unemployment rate.

Manufacturing, Oregon’s largest industry, had among the greatest impacts on the state economic growth in 2015, expanding by 5.7%. Manufacturing is likely to have a continued positive effect on the economy. In May 2016, the state legislature pledged $7.5 million for a manufacturing innovation center to train the next generation of industry workers.

Gun Stocks Are Up Sharply. You Know Why.

Gun stocks trended sharply higher Monday morning, a day after the deadliest mass shooting in American history killed 49 people and wounded 53 more at a gay nightclub in Orlando. 

Given the increased frequency of these types of attacks, at this point, the sad correlation between mass shootings and gun manufacturers' stock prices surprises no one -- not even the gun manufacturers themselves.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

AR-15 rifles are displayed at the NRA annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 20, 2016. On Sunday, a shooter in Orlando used an AR-15 to kill 49 and wound 53 more.

In a letter to shareholders early last month, Sturm, Ruger & Co. CEO Michael Fifer noted a "significant spike in demand" that "was strongly correlated to the tragic, terrorist events in Paris and San Bernardino."

A shooting early last December at a social services center in San Bernardino, California, left 14 dead and 21 wounded. A month earlier, terrorists in Paris killed 130 people and injured hundreds in coordinated attacks.

"[In the past decade] there have been some significant ups and downs in demand, as political rhetoric and threats have spurred demand above the underlying normal rate of demand," Fifer wrote. "These spikes in demand have been followed by periods when demand retreated as the threats to gun rights failed to materialize to the degree that caused the spike in the first place."

True to form, in trading Monday, Sturm, Ruger & Co. was up 8.6 percent:

Google Finance

Smith & Wesson also jumped in early trading, opening up 10 percent before relinquishing some of the gains as the day continued:

Google Finance

"The No. 1 driver of firearms sales is fear," Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets, told Bloomberg in December, after the San Bernardino shooting. “Primarily, fear of registration restrictions, banning and things like that.”

Ruttenbur added that people may also fear for their personal safety.

Apparently that fear has become a dominant force. There are more guns in America than there are Americans.

Fundraising Websites - Crowdrise

Gawker Media Files For Bankruptcy

Gawker Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The filing lists the company's assets as between $50 and $100 million and says its liabilities are between $100 million and $500 million.

Gawker is currently appealing a $140 million verdict in favor of former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who sued the company for invasion of privacy. In 2012, Gawker published excerpts of a video showing Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, having sex with the wife of his then-best friend. Last month it was revealed that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel was personally financing Hogan's lawsuit.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Gawker said it had reached an asset purchase agreement with media company Ziff Davis, but other bidders can offer a higher price as the company goes through an auction supervised by a bankruptcy court. 

The Ziff Davis bid is reportedly between $90 to $100 million, according to The New York Times.

Gawker Media's statement: pic.twitter.com/Ntf37UnUlP

— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) June 10, 2016

"In the event we become the acquirer, the additions of Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Kotaku would fortify our position in consumer tech and gaming. With the addition of Jalopnik, Deadspin and Jezebel, we would broaden our position as a lifestyle publisher," Ziff Davis told employees in a memo announcing the agreement.

The bankruptcy filing is an effort to prevent the company from having to pay out the $140 million in damages, Recode reported.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman defended the New York-based outlet on Twitter.

Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our nation. Like them or not, sad to see NYC media giant @Gawker forced to the brink.

— Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) June 10, 2016

Bollea, meanwhile, expressed gratitude.

What a beautiful day,and the good doesn't prevent the better! In the present I AM always grateful,only good happens to me. HH

— Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) June 10, 2016

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a legal remedy that a distressed business can pursue to restructure its debts in the hopes of saving itself. A bankruptcy judge supervises a plan to make the company financially viable again, including renegotiating its debts.

The company can continue to operate as normal while seeking bankruptcy protections, but it must get the court’s permission for some decisions.

Many large corporations, such as American Airlines, have successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Crucially for Gawker, filing for Chapter 11 triggers a stay on all litigation, meaning the company would not have to worry about paying the $140 million penalty or defending against other lawsuits while they go through the process. That could give the company the time and resources it needs to prepare its appeal.

And if Gawker Media fails to reach an agreement with its creditors during bankruptcy, it could be liquidated entirely, which would likely also result in a significant reduction in the payment Bollea receives.

For these reasons, the status of being in bankruptcy actually strengthens Gawker's bargaining position against Bollea. It is "very likely" Bollea will settle for a lower payout during the bankruptcy period, posited John Pottow, a bankruptcy law professor at the University of Michigan.

CEO Nick Denton, a former Financial Times and Economist reporter, founded Gawker Media in 2002. The group now owns eight different websites, including Deadspin, Jezebel and Gizmodo. The sites receive a combined 64 million monthly readers in the U.S.

"Attracting fans and critics alike for their inimitable delivery of news, scandal, and entertainment, the Gawker Media properties are heralded as everything from 'deliciously wicked' to 'the biggest blog in the world,'" the brand's website reads.

The company has built a reputation of calling out public figures for their misdeeds. That approach has led some to accuse it of "spewing hatred" and "bullying," Gawker editors wrote this week in a piece that defended the outlet's "lengthy published record of news, essays, investigations, satire."

Gawker sold a minority stake to investment company Columbus Nova Technology Partners in January, in part to raise money for the lawsuit.

This is a developing story. Check back for details.

Michael Calderone, Willa Frej and Daniel Marans contributed reporting.

How Clothing Designer Eileen Fisher Came To Embrace The Masculine

Sometimes growing a brand means rethinking your leadership style.

Eileen Fisher ran into this problem as her eponymous clothing line approached $300 million in annual revenue. The company grew so big that she recently realized she needed to revise how it's run.

Fisher spoke to The Huffington Post's executive editor for impact and innovation, Jo Confino, at the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego this week in the video below.

The clothing brand founder talked about the difference between what she called masculine and feminine leadership styles (around the 5:40 mark). Her company has recently become more masculine, she said.

"The feminine is more listening and receptive kind of mode. And I feel like that has sort of helped me hear others, and work with others, and create a collaborative and intuitive kind of environment," she explained. 

"I think we've done really well with this sort of feminine model, but we've kind of hit a point where we're too big almost and we need more structure. I never use the word 'structure' -- and 'strategy.' Those are sort of masculine words to me," Fisher said. 

By dubbing the two management styles masculine and feminine, Fisher noted that she didn't mean to suggest they align with actual gender: There are masculine and feminine traits in everyone. The masculine side values efficiency, she said.

Lately, Fisher said, the company has brought in more men. One man in particular started talking about the differences between masculine and feminine leadership styles. She said she hadn't thought about management that way before. 

"I always saw things moving organically and fluidly and intuitively and all of that. But now we have to be efficient and we have to be effective and we have to be focused and we have to make decisions more clearly," Fisher said. "And we have to have more definition." 

Parents Say Panera Gave Allergic Girl Peanut Butter In Her Grilled Cheese

A Boston-area family is suing Panera Bread, claiming their highly allergic 5-year-old daughter was given two dollops of peanut butter in her grilled cheese sandwich despite repeated warnings to the restaurant of her allergy.

In a lawsuit filed against the chain last week, John and Elyssa Russo of Natick, Massachusetts, claim their daughter had to be hospitalized overnight after the family ordered a meal online on Jan. 28, The Boston Globe reports.

The Russos say they specifically noted their daughter's peanut allergy on the online order form, and so were mystified as to why the extra ingredient had been added to her meal.

“Is this somebody doing this on purpose?" John Russo later asked a manager at the Natick Panera, in his own telling. "Because it’s two freakin’ tablespoons of peanut butter on this sandwich and it’s a grilled cheese."

The Russos didn't realize there was peanut butter in the sandwich until the girl had already bitten into it. She vomited and broke out in hives later that evening, the family says.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

A restaurant manager reportedly apologized for the mistake and blamed it on a "language" issue.

Russo said the manager apologized for the mistake and blamed it on a “language” issue.

A Panera spokesman declined to comment directly on the suit when reached by The Huffington Post Monday.

"Panera takes the issue of food allergens, including the reported incident at our franchise bakery-cafe, very seriously,” the spokesman said in an email. “We have procedures in place across the company to minimize exposure and risk for our guests and associates. We do not comment on pending litigation."

The suit was filed in Massachusetts' Middlesex County Superior Court on Thursday.

Anti-'Socialism' Diner Owner Accused Of Fraud 'Needed A Safety Net'

Customers at the American Diner in Liverpool, New York, know exactly where owner Michael Tassone stands politically.

Even the coffee is stirred to the right.

Fox News has called Tassone's eatery "the most politically incorrect diner in the Empire State -- and possibly the nation." It's not hard to see why: One of the breakfast items is a "Dictator Obama" special. You get eggs and toast for $3.59... plus an additional $27.99 "tax."

There is also the “Anti Michelle Obama, Don’t Tell Me What To Eat or Feed My Kids Burger,” a 16-ounce beef patty with bacon, cheese and a side of fries for $11.99.

The menu includes a list of various statements above the burgers: "Everyone Doesn't Get The Same Size Trophy"; "Defeat socialism and communism"; "Actually, I did build MY business"; "Gov't & Taxes are the problem"; "We don't like Political correctness or special interest."

But Tassone, 48, is facing accusations of hypocrisy after pleading guilty to defrauding the government of more than $23,000 in benefits between May 2009 and April 2011, Syracuse.com reported last week.

Tassone admitted to offering a false instrument for filing, a misdemeanor. He paid $23,354 in restitution to the county.

Tassone was originally charged with welfare fraud and Medicaid fraud in 2011, according to McClatchy News. Prosecutors said Tassone and his wife, Michelle, failed to disclose income on their application and received benefits they weren't eligible for.

For his part, Tassone says the truth is more complicated.

He said he and his wife applied for Medicaid and welfare years ago, before he opened the diner.

"We were between jobs and I needed a safety net for my sick wife," Tassone told The Huffington Post. "I qualified, but there was a technicality. My wife didn't check the right box."

"It wasn't welfare fraud," he said, "which is why it was only a misdemeanor." 

Michael Kasmarek, the senior assistant district attorney for Onondaga County, agrees that calling it "welfare fraud" may not be completely accurate, since there is a separate statute for that crime.

"Putting that label on it is problematic, but the conduct did violate those statutes," Kasmarek told HuffPost. "We negotiated down to the misdemeanor because he paid the money back prior to the plea and [because of] a lack of criminal history."

Tassone said he only agreed to the charge because he had no more money for attorney's fees and didn't want to risk being tried by a jury of people who are "not of my peers and risk losing the business and putting seven people out of work."

He accused the district attorney's office of going after him because of his beliefs.

"Guys like me are a target," Tassone told Syracuse.com in March. “Because I speak the truth.”

Kasmarek said that no one in his office was aware of the business or of Tassone's political views until the restaurant received national attention for its quirky menu earlier this year.

The American Diner currently has a three-star rating on Yelp, based on 49 reviews.

One reviewer, who gave the place four stars, said, "I even was shocked by the menu because there was so many political remarks that it made me feel awkward but no denying the food was good."

Tassone said he may make his views clear on the menu, but his diner is a place for open discussion.

"We have a lot of fun here," he said. "A lot of liberals order the Michelle Obama burger."