Future of Food Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. The Future of Food is something all ag producers need to keep a constant eye on. In this high-tech, digital age we live in, the food landscape can change in the blink of an eye.So, Mike Lee, co-founder of Alpha Food Labs, says when he sits down with a new client, there’s one crucial and telling question, well at least one, that he likes to ask them …
LEE … “We asked them, how would you put yourself out of business before somebody else did, right? And, it’s an uncomfortable question to answer, right? Because, especially if you’ve been doing something for a really long time, you think that, hey what’s wrong with this? You know, this is great. This is how we’ve always done it.”
Lee says we currently have two companies that are a perfect example of that …
LEE … “You look at Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger, they’re getting all the headlines right now. These are not old companies. They’ve only been around seven years, six years? So, in that short amount of time they’ve been able to do a lot of impact. You know, you can’t get caught flat footed.”
And, Lee says when the dust settles on all this convenience …
LEE … “What’s going to be left is how high-quality is your product. Because, in a world where I can easily switch, I don’t have to settle for the food that’s in front of me. I can bring up my phone and get it delivered to me. I can get any quality I want. That brings more people to the party and that basically raises the bar for how good you have to be, in terms of flavor, nutrition, your story.”
But in the end …
LEE … “I never take the approach of; I’m going to give a man a fish. I need to teach people how to fish because the fish that I give you today is going to be obsolete tomorrow.”
Lee says as an industry, we need to open our eyes and see the changes before they come.