The food system is being reimagined today and farmers can benefit by thinking about how to improve their ability to take advantage of opportunities in the process, says Rob Dongoski, Partner and Food and Agribusiness Leader at Ernst and Young. He says the food system will be based around the following three tenets.
- Consumer Centric
This transition was underway and received a big boost from the COVID-19 pandemic. Dongoski anticipates the transformation will be significant in the next five to 10 years. Consumers are increasingly listening to what product marketers are telling them rather than scientists. “Marketers are winning the communication battle because they are better funded,” he says.
Part of what’s at play is significant changes in consumer demographics. Dongoski says the most populous generations in the workforce today are Millennials and Gen Z. “While Boomers and Gen Xers think about cars and houses as status symbols, Gen Z and Millennials think, ‘I grocery shop at Whole Foods. I cook at home. I go to the farmer’s market.’ Their experience with food is very different,” he says.
- Planet Friendly
“Farmers are land stewards as land continues to be the largest asset on their balance sheet,” Dongoski says. “As their stewardship practices become more understood by consumers, I think it will bring new light to the definition of sustainable food.”
Still, Dongoski does believe farmers have opportunities to be more conscious of practices that are planet friendly. “There are many opportunities to care for livestock differently, for example,” he says. “The pendulum can shift to extremes, but I do think we can be smarter.”
- Connected System
“When I think about the future of food, I believe the food system will look retro,” Dongoski says. “The future is a place farmers and consumers have been before.”
Decades ago, he says, consumers had a butcher and a baker on the corner, and milk was delivered to their home. Consumers knew their food producers and processors. In the future, that personal connection won’t be based on geography, instead it will be based on data.
Today consumers get glimpses of farmers’ production practices in grocery store aisles and on menus, as stores and restaurants feature names, photographs and information on the farmers who produced the food. That’s how consumers will have insights into farming/ranching operations and practices, which will influence consumers, according to Dongoski.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
Some of these trends seem to be timeless, like “consumer centric”. Other trends Mr. Dongoski mentioned are more generational but will have a major impact on the food and agriculture system. Eventually all food will be customized for preferences, like taste, texture and even nutrient content. Bio-engineering will be the catalyst behind these types of developments.
Similarly, food will be tracked and traced from the time it enters the farm, such as seeds or calves, and so on, until it reaches the consumer’s table. Stricter health standards and governmental oversight will help drive this trend, but farmers and industry processors and distributors will also be an important part of the mix.
You can use this type of information to discuss the future of agriculture with your farm/ranch customers. Make sure you know who they are by asking that very simple question – “ARE YOU A FARMER OR RANCHER” as soon as they walk into your dealership!
