04/01/08 Local Foods Part 2

Local Foods Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. My wife and I tend to be fairly healthy eaters. We love to find fresh produce and meats whenever possible and use very little in the way packaged or canned foods. The fresher the products, the better and that usually means finding a local source. We are not alone. According to new research by the Hartman Group a growing number of people are choosing locally produced foods from a health perspective according to Laurie Demerrit is the President and COO of the Hartman Group. DEMERRIT: What we're finding is that increasingly consumers are looking not just for what a product can do to them, what it means to them. And so it's no longer just about the functional benefit  you know - it will keep me full, it tastes good, it has antioxidants. You know I kind of want to know the story behind this product. I want to understand about how it was raised, where it was raised, by whom and so they're looking for those emotional connections. Demerrit says that this is true for branded products that have started taking advantage of the local angle as well as unbranded products. DEMERRIT: And that's why we see so many consumers taking advantage of things like farmer's markets where they can hear that story and meet that producer and so there's a richness there, a narrative  that they really enjoy being a part of that but more and more frequently they're finding that that experience is very valuable in terms of what that product means to them. And therefore obviously in many cases they're willing to pay more for those products as well. It is interesting to note that in the late 50's and early 60's we were embracing things like TV dinners and boxed meals where it was quick and easy. Now, more and more we are going back to home cooked meals. DEMERRIT: A lot of what our research is focused on lately for our clients is the fact that consumers are turning away from some of those things that 30 years ago they absolutely embraced. You know like you say in the 50's and 60's it was all about consistency of food product; mass production, convenience and not that convenience isn't important today but we're seeing a harkening back to maybe the way things used to be. It's not just nostalgia, we call it re-appropriation. So it's taking these things from the past that are really important and reinterpreting them for the way consumers live today and there certainly is a movement in our culture towards that within this decade. Demerrit says there research is being used by a number of companies looking at the consumer markets. DEMERRIT: We're believers in really trying to understand where the consumer is headed and what is on the horizon and so much like we were doing 5 years ago a lot of work in organic, we're now doing a lot of work in local and looking ahead it might be around raw food, seasonal food, biodynamic; who knows where the consumer is going to take us. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.