Consumers Want What Agriculture Can Provide

Jun 29, 2012

Food Trends Discussed at Annual C and M Seeds Wheat Industry Day

Customer’s changing lifestyles are creating new demands for agriculture to meet. The 21st Annual C and M Seeds Wheat Industry Day shed light on some of the new consumer food trends that are being noticed on the consumer demand side of agriculture and food. One of the featured speakers at the event Gary Fread enlightened the audience about three key trends:

· Asian vegetables

· Consumers seeking healthier food

· Food produced in a more “environmentally” fashion

Asian vegetables are on a demand to meet a growing marking for immigrants who prefer food from their homeland. Consumers are also seeking out healthier lifestyles to help lose weight and prevent diseases so fresh fruit and vegetables are on the rise, while other consumers are interested in purchasing local food that appears to be grown in an “environmentally” way.

There is tremendous opportunity for Canadian farmers to fill this void and become significant player on the export market. Agriculture will always be evolving to adapt and meet the local consumer and global demands. With the projected population increases from seven billion to eight billion in the next two decades food will continue to be in high demand with much of that necessity coming from developing countries.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.