7-10 IAT Informed Consumers

 Ask a kid where their food comes from, and you might be surprised by their answer.

 I can’t tell you how often I have heard this. When a child is asked where you think your food comes from they very glibly say, “from Albertsons… Or Winco… Or any of a number of grocery chains.” And what that means is that children are far removed from the whole agricultural process. In fact, these days, greater and greater proportions of people are generations removed from the farm. Panelists at the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance’s latest Food Dialogues event in Chicago agree there’s a massive challenge to continue educating consumers about agriculture and where their food comes from because that’s the information consumers crave. Jayson Lusk is an Ag Economist  with a great analogy to how people feel about food production. “Why is food so different? Many of you probably have a smart phone in your pocket. I have one. I don’t know anything about how it is made and have no desire to go into the plant and find out. It just works and it’s nice. Nobody is worried about the fact that consumers don’t know how their phones are made. What about food? Same thing?” Another way to think about it is the informed consumer also votes. When agricultural issues come up in the political arena, it would be nice if our voters were informed.