Consumers Are Affecting the Food Chain

Many farmers and ranchers today realize and are aware that consumers’ expectations surrounding their food demand transparency. Alltech Chief Innovation Officer Aidan Connolly says there has been tremendous advances in agricultural technology over the past several decades. Today consumers are affecting the food business as never before.
Connolly: “I think maybe as a consequence of our tremendous strides forward, we’ve made food extremely cheap. The average American consumer spends around 8 percent of their income on food. But now they are looking for more and that more includes things like — they want to know more about where their food comes from; they want more transparency; they are looking for sustainability; they are looking for evidence that we are conserving water and that we are conserving resources. They are also asking questions about what we are putting in the food, how we are processing the food. How we get the food to them; are we recycling; what are we doing in respect to what we are if we collect information on consumers what are we doing with the data. I think it is a little bit scary for farmers is that they imagine a conveyor belt of just question after question after question. I understand that concern but the fact is that is part of the way that consumers are changing and if we react to that we can make a very sustainable profitable business — if we ignore it and put our head in the sand then we will be run over.”