Without harming our planet, our current food system could feed up to 3,5 billion people. With 8 billion mouths to feed as of today, we can’t continue our current way of producing, distributing, and consuming our food. There is a big need to transform the global food system, getting us ready to sustainably feed 10 billion people.
We see the big trends in food become reality. These innovators set the first steps to redesign the food system forever. And there are plenty of opportunities left to impact the global food transformation. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get you started and accelerate the future of the food. We’ve collected food for thought for you to create new value in the food system, contributing to the change that is so needed.
It is hard to get out-of-the-box when you are in it for years. But we have to. Food producers, processors and distributors need to be innovative to stay relevant in the future food system. Alright. Creative hat on. Let’s get you into ideation mode.
One of the ways to get your ideas out-of-the-box is to take innovations and trends and apply it to your own business. To do this you can ask yourself challenging What-if questions. This gives you the opportunity to see what you should or could fundamentally change in your business model. To spice up your imagination we have created fake covers of magazines in 2035 to imagine what the future of food could look like.
So let us look at current food and technology trends and see what those could mean for your business. What if...
Most people are creatures of habit. We buy the same products and pick the same meals over and over. Making meat alternatives the new normal means exponential growth for those products, resulting in exponential impact too.
Make such change, and you directly contribute to the ‘new’ system. Plant-based, in comparison to animal-based meat, is more sustainable. It uses less land, needs less water and leads to less greenhouse gas emissions. And bonus, it is mostly considered healthier too. This change fundamentally changes your value proposition, so do not forget the consumers. How crucial is it for your customer that it is actual meat? How can you still fulfill your customer needs with alternatives? Your customers need to transform and accept the alternatives.
And if you do not work with meat? Look at sustainable alternatives for your own products and see how you can normalize those.
Recently, vegan burgers already became cheaper than meat in The Netherlands, a possible driver to stimulate change in buying behavior and a step towards normalizing plant-based meat.
Other than plant-based, we see other alternatives being developed or hitting the market too, such as lab-grown meat and insect protein. Both are less harmful for the environment. The Aspire Food Group is making the steps into the world of advanced insect farming, where they are changing food and nutrition insecurity.
Dutch municipality Haarlem is the first city in the world to ban meat and fossil advertising in public space
*Image is based on an ad by Burger King Austria
For most products we consume, we only pay the market price. But push yourself, what would be the impact on costs if you would cover social and environmental costs too?
Just raising your price to cover the social and environmental impact of your products is not enough. When your competitor does not do the same, it is commercial suicide. That is, if governments do not force businesses to do so, to create an equal playing field. Until then, you need to add additional value for your customers.
The True Price movement wrote a manifesto for stores to implement a true pricing principle, meaning the real market price plus social and environmental costs of a product. They kicked off with the coffee and chocolate industry, to change the underpayment of employees and the impact of climate change.
Tony Chocolonely is a purpose brand with a mission to banish slavery from the cocoa industry. Consumers know they pay more to compensate underpaid workers, but get guilt-free chocolate in return.
In South Korea they make residents pay for the food they waste. Today they recycle 95% of their food waste, compared to 2% in 1995.
In simpler form, you pay extra for your unfinished dish to discourage food waste in many all-you-can-eat restaurants.
Becoming more transparent is all about trust. Do you dare to share what is going on in your kitchen? What would that mean to your customers, and your key partners? Full transparency is only possible when you involve all parties. You cannot do that alone. It forces you to work only with partners you can trust. The cool thing is, just starting this conversation with your partners directly sparks collaboration and innovation. Would you pick the same suppliers and partners if everything were transparent?
Verstegen Spices & Sauces combined two trends, conscious information-hungry consumers and fair pricing, to create a better and fair food system within the nutmeg chain. The newly gained transparency provided insights that drove them to change their chain to increase trust and ensure fair pricing.
Cermaq Salmon made all the information of the salmons they grow available for consumers in the French market through the IBM Trust Food Platform. In collaboration with Labyerie they make their process completely transparent.
Nestlé setup a blockchain platform to trace milk from farmers and producers. Through the platform the consumer can find the reliable information of their bought products.
Food supply chains are complex. A lot of parties are involved, and data is shared from link to link, but has no overview. This complexity has a (in)direct effect on the food safety risks as well as food fraud. Ever wondered what AI could do for you, with the data you have? What value could machine learning add to your company?
How would data help you to prevent food waste? Or predict the needs of your customer? Do you dare to let data guide your decisions, or even make the decisions for you? Let data help you, and your customers, to make more conscious decisions.
Companies Lumen and Nutrino leverage data science to improve your life. In this case by collecting personal data to translate in sustainable and personalized diets.
Gobble connects consumer behavior, purchase histories and food preferences to predict demand on fresh food. By getting the industry more demand-driven by making use of data there will be less food wasted and less environmental impact.
Electric Noses are used to track contaminated food. It is a sensor-based quality assessment for fruits and vegetables. Through online monitoring (real-time) food safety risks will be reduced.
What if food can only be bought locally?
What if it was forbidden to spill any food throughout the value chain?
What if consumers buy all their food online?
What if value chains will be shortened by digitalization?
What if we robotize the machinery on the farmlands?
We hope this helps you in changing perspectives. We are curious to see where you come up with in your business. If you need help to (re)design your business model, we are obviously here for you. Just give our colleague Demian a call.
