Sustainability Beyond the Labels

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Consumers want to know more about where their food comes from and how it is produced. Food companies keep coming out with labels to appeal to these consumers, but many of them are at best confusing and at worst greenwashing or fear-mongering. Dr. Paige Stanley sees big opportunities for value-added beef, but marketers will have to be more clear and transparent to get consumers to purchase.

Stanley… “Can we convey the value of, you know, this beef and the way it was managed and its impact on soil carbon in terms of a label and get people to pay some sort of premium with the understanding that that premium would then incentivize more people to do it because they can see that their product is selling for more. I tend to be skeptical of that because I think to rely on the concerted actions of, you know in the U.S. 330 million people to do something in terms of climate seems unlikely, and also, you know, I think we’ve met market saturation in terms of our labeling scheme so I think every additional label feels a little bit like white noise, like what does this actually mean. If you talk to consumers about what they think the labels mean, it’s often not what it actually means and in terms of what they’re actually willing to spend their money on, often they say these things are important, things like sustainability or all-natural organic or whatever and yet often at the counter, they don’t choose to buy those things.”

That’s Dr. Paige Stanley, interdisciplinary scientist, and rangeland grazing expert.