OTTAWA — If 2018 was the year of disruption, 2019 is about shifting behaviour, says a trends report from Nourish Marketing.
Andreas Duess, a partner in the Toronto firm, told the Canadian Federation of Agriculture that observers are watching shifts in all types of behaviour related to agriculture and food.
For example, there is a shift from mindful to virtuous consumption, he said.
“The plastic straw is sort of the canary in the coal mine,” Duess said.
Consumers want convenience, “but they also want the halo,” he said.
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A shift from the rise of plant-based diets to the conscious carnivore and ethical protein is occurring.
Consumers are cutting the amount of meat they eat. While Dalhouse University research found 60 percent of Canadians said they would eat meat, milk and eggs if animals were treated humanely, less than a third of people believe they are.
Duess said so-called blenditarians are replacing beef with mushroom mixtures, and laboratory meat is a trend to watch rather than scoff at. A company in Singapore intends to hit the market in the next five to 10 years with a lab-raised replacement for lobster and shrimp.
This company will sell itself as an ethical choice because there are no animals involved and no environmental issues. They will also be able to produce at far lower costs, Duess said.
On the human side, he said there is a shift from physical to emotional well-being, pushed by the conversation about mental health.
“We have an aging population,” he said. “That population is looking at food as a source of mental wellness and also physical wellness.”
The legalization of cannabis has given rise to a strong push for CBD as a cure for just about everything, and edibles, once legal, will be emotional products rather than food.
Len Kahn, a marketer working with Nourish, said farmers’ and consumers’ interests in food are converging. The two separate worlds of production and consumption are becoming one, he said.
Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, farmers and consumers have had a simple deal, he said.
“We (farmers) are charged with producing a wide variety and abundance of nutritious, readily available, affordable food. We didn’t talk about it, we just did it,” he said. “Consumers buy it, enjoy it and don’t ask too many questions.
“That’s changed. Consumers still want all of the above … but now they want to know where their food comes from, who grew it, what’s in it, was it raised humanely?”
The idea of social licence to farm is still strong and farmers have to continue to step up and be assertive, Kahn said.
He encouraged farmers to take ownership of issues as this trend continues.
“We’ve always played defence,” he said, referring to animal agriculture in particular.
Finally, he said the trend toward discussing mental health is important.
“No amount of CBD makes up for a drought or a flood,” he observed. “Take care of each other and be prepared to advocate for our industry.”
