Plus: The Case For Public Grocers, And How The Food Industry Is Addressing MAHA |
| Did you catch my latest story on Uncle Nearest founder Fawn Weaver fighting for control of her Tennessee whiskey brand? A federal judge placed it under receivership earlier this month over defaulting on $108 million in loans, which gives an independent individual the legal power to make sure Uncle Nearest’s creditor Farm Credit Mid-America, a cooperative bank, gets repaid, which could include selling assets like real estate or through restructuring. Founded in 2017 by Weaver, Uncle Nearest was created to celebrate the formerly enslaved Nearest Green, who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. The decision has created a major crossroads for the 8-year-old business, which Weaver had intended to bequeath to the descendants of Green. My story includes details from Uncle Nearest’s 2024 annual report as well as its 2024 consolidated financial statements, which I obtained. Readers have found the details illuminating as many clamor for more information as to what’s going to happen to Uncle Nearest. |
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 | | JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES |
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| In an Instagram post, Weaver, who is under a gag order, said the team remains “unshaken and unmoved” by the lawsuit: “I’m a steady leader. Unflappable. This is a blip on the radar. What we’re building is so much bigger than the current news cycle—so don’t be concerned or dissuaded,” she wrote. “Distributors and partners often buckle under this kind of news cycle. Ours are doubling down—because you’re standing 10 toes down with us.” In legal filings, she and her husband Keith have called the allegations “lies.” I had previously written about Weaver in a magazine story for Forbes’ 2024 edition of America’s Richest Self-Made Women list. Weaver debuted with a net worth of $480 million, thanks to an Uncle Nearest valuation of $1.1 billion. In that profile, she made her ambitions for the distillery clear, even as critics warned that she was expanding too fast. “I’m going to build it large as hell,” she said of Uncle Nearest. “When I pass it on, I don’t want it to be a $10 billion company. I want it to be a $50 billion company.” But as the brand’s financials weakened along with the spirits market downturn, Weaver did not make the 2025 list. Weaver has “shed light on a story that has helped us seek a more complete history of distilling’s legacy,” Drew Hannush, the author of The Lost History of Tennessee Whiskey, told me. “She is a force of nature. I just think she had some things get in her blind spot. Hopefully she can course correct,” he added. “She has been very out front about getting that story to the public, and so if you lose that voice, I don’t know how it survives without her as the face of the brand.” And since my story was published, there’s more that has transpired: The judge ruled against Uncle Nearest and the Weavers, who asked to start settlement mediation, and instead decided that the receivership would continue. The judge also appointed a receiver, and chose the suggestion of Uncle Nearest, not the bank’s. We’ll find out more soon, and I’ll share the news with you as soon as I have it: I know there are a lot of readers out there who care about what happens to Uncle Nearest. In the meantime, I’m wishing you a relaxing Labor Day Weekend! |
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| Founder Fawn Weaver may lose control of her cult Tennessee whiskey distillery after a judge mandates a receivership—unless a white knight investor bails her out. |
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| The Case For Public Grocers: In this Civil Eats op-ed by Raj Patel and Errol Schweizer, the case is made for public grocery stores—not as an ephemeral progressive concept, but as a model that’s already working well in many places, including every branch of the military. These public grocers serve an estimated 1 million Americans daily, with prices discounted often as much as 30% compared to conventional retail. And as someone who shops at the publicly subsidized Essex Market (to fill in from what I get from my CSA) in New York City’s Lower East Side, I can personally attest to the access and food security that this market provides me and my neighbors. “Government-run, nonprofit grocery systems can better respond to food-price inflation, corporate consolidation, and inequality.” Patel and Schweizer conclude: “If the private market cannot or will not deliver affordable, nutritious food to all its citizens—and it has proven that it won’t—then the public sector must.” |
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| Food Dyes Watch: Then there’s this deep dive from the Wall Street Journal on Ferrero’s $3.1 billion acquisition of Kellogg, and how, according to public filings, after assessing Kellogg’s financial and political MAHA-related issues, Ferrero cut its deal offer by about $75 million. As Jesse Newman and Owen Tucker-Smith write: “Executives at big processed-food makers are trying to determine how much of what Kennedy and MAHA want will actually happen … Their challenge is to balance his push for what he sees as healthier food with their need to make products that consumers will buy. Some companies have assembled special teams to navigate MAHA, drawing up lists and ‘heat maps’ to track ingredients coming under scrutiny, and assessing which ones they might have to remove or label. Executives have compared dealing with MAHA to battling the mythical Hydra—cut off one head and two more spring up.” |
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| No New Logos: And for some lighter news, there’s Cracker Barrel and the controversy that emerged after the country store restaurant chain unveiled a new logo, cutting out the “Old Timer” character Uncle Hershel. Amid mass outrage, and even President Donald Trump weighing in (“Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER Again!” he posted on social media), the restaurant announced it will no longer roll out the modernized logo. Forbes’ Breaking News team has chronicled all the details of the saga. |
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| How am I maximizing my tiny New York City-sized freezer space to preserve as much as possible of this summer’s harvest? I’ve been loving Souper Cubes freezer trays as a way to flash-freeze anything from basil or parsley chopped up in oil to summer tomato sauces and charred jalapeno salsas. Once my haul is sufficiently frozen, I pop out the goods and store them together in freezer bags, saving my Souper Cube tray for the next culinary adventure. |
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| Calling all Fresh Take-ers in the Buffalo and Toronto area! I’d love to meet you on Wednesday, September 17—I’ll be doing a talk with the food-focused bookstore Read It & Eat about my book Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed and the Fight for the Future of Meat. The event will be hosted by Caitlin and Tom Moriarty at Moriarty Meats, who will be providing regional specialty sandwiches—boeuf on weck—to fuel us through an evening of live butchery demonstration, an author Q&A, and book signing. See you there! Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. 1652 Elmwood Ave. Buffalo, NY Get your ticket here. |
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| A BLT sandwich screams summer to me, and I’ve been making as many as possible while the CSA tomatoes are plump and juicy and bountiful. |
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| Thanks for reading the 156th edition of Forbes Fresh Take! Hit reply to let me know what you think. |
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