The children now attending our high schools and elementary schools are referred to as Generation Z.
According to an article in Supermarket News, these young people are more likely to be dedicated to a meat free diet over their lifetime. This prediction was made by Culinary Tides, which tracks and predicts U.S. food trends.
President Suzy Badaracco justifies the prediction based on the reality that Gen Z consumers are the first to be born into sustainability, where awareness of the environmental impact of production and consumption practices have had national attention throughout their lives.
Read Also
Proactive approach best bet with looming catastrophes
The Pan-Canadian Action Plan on African swine fever has been developed to avoid the worst case scenario — a total loss ofmarket access.
As instinctive as it may be to dive into a stoic defense of agricultural production and the ignorance of youth, maybe a deeper evaluation of up-and-coming consumer preference is warranted.
As comfortable as we are in our understanding and our ability to produce sustainable products, does Gen Z share that understanding and awareness of our abilities? Given that I hope to continue to produce cattle for beef consumption when Gen Z’s purchasing power is ramping up, I’d like to know more.
The spring 2014 issue of Wake Up Quarterly, which was produced by Omelet, a Los Angeles based advertising agency, was dedicated to a strategic intelligence report on Generation Z. Included in the content was a feature on the generation’s relationship with food and their search for new experiences that will expand their cultural and personal understanding of the world around them. Does this growing percentage of North American spending power spell opportunity for Canadian agriculture?
If so, reaping the rewards of such an opportunity will likely depend on our ability to recognize the customer’s demands as an opportunity rather than treating their demands as ignorance. The choice to provide sustainability-minded consumers with enough of a comfort level to earn their business will require effort, but what are our other alternatives?
Such a notion is supported by Morgan Aceino, senior brand strategist and author of the Wake Up Quarterly article, Adolescent Appetites, Reshaping the Relationship with Food. Aceino says that the time is now for marketers to recognize and meet Generation Z’s desire for exploration through food.
There appears to be a huge population of young North Americans with a desire for exploration of food production culture, considering that few of them are being raised within the culture of agricultural production. Are we prepared to share our culture of production through the food we want to sell them?
We had better be.
