Food Tells a Story

 Cargill Foods does a lot of business with Idaho producers and their management is now saying that food has to tell a story. Does that make sense? I think it will when you hear the explanation. I’m David Sparks and that story’s next. Food companies are hearing from their consumers a lot. The consumer has heard all kinds of horror stories, for example,  about what China is putting in its milk, about the salmonella outbreak in peanut butter last year, parents are being told to examine the calorie content in their packaged foods because of the obesity epidemic in children. So, not surprisingly consumers have demands. Chris Langholz - President of Cargill AgHorizons - notes that these demands ultimately have an impact on production agriculture: “The consumer is telling food companies around the world, whether it’s an American company like Kellogs or General Mills or a Unilever in Europe, or a food company in Japan, they’re sending strong messages back that the food that they’re purchasing, they want to have certain health, taste, they want a story around sustainability, they want to know the story of the food…where did this food come from? The food has to tell a story today and that story begins on that farm.”

The biggest demand for that story - according to Langholz - is actually right here at home in the U.S. - particularly when it comes to health claims