These days, it feels like all we ever really talk about is food. David Chang gets name-checked more than Tom Brady around the office watercooler, new restaurants are a constant topic of discussion, and everyone wants to tell you about how awesome the sunchokes were that they found at the farmers market last weekend.

Yet do we ever really talk about food? Like, the uncomfortable rumors about the shady stuff that goes down at our favorite restaurants? Or the unpopular truths that aren’t really polite dinner conversation, but you’re dying to say out loud? Too often these issues get swept under the rug by the media, the restaurant world, and people who just don’t want to deal with it.

So we thought new year, new approach: It’s time to stop pussyfooting around and start talking about what’s really on our minds. Needless to say, these are complicated topics, and we can’t do them justice in the space of one list. But they are opinions and issues that we find ourselves circling with friends who work in the industry or follow it closely, and we think they’re worthy of discussion.

If you’re a kale-loving, politically correct “foodie” interested in CSAs, molecular gastronomy, and not getting your bubble burst, run away now—shit’s about to get real.

Written by Chris Schonberger (@cschonberger), Foster Kamer (@weareyourfek), and Nick Schonberger (@nschon)