The only thing that is constant is change, and nothing seems to change any faster these days than the food market.  What people like, what they want, and what they buy is constantly evolving.  Mike Lee, co-founder of Alpha Food Labs, says the future of food is getting harder and harder to predict around one or two things because we are completely fragmented and tribal as a society, meaning there are more need states that there ever have been out there than ever before.

 

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So how do the big food companies play into that mix?

 

“They’ve lost billions of dollars of market share over the past six years to smaller companies who can kind of find a good-sized food tribe that maybe somebody used to call niche before, but actually built a business off of that and say, I’m not going to try to be everything to everyone. I’m just going to please this group of people because I understand them really well.”

 

Like everything else, Lee says digital is one of the largest variables out there.

 

“My advice to growers is, you know, pick the thing in the community that you think you can service the best. How can you give a ten out of ten experience to a small group of people, not a four out of ten experience to everybody, because the difference is these smaller groups have much more power than they used to both in power and in influence.”

 

Lee says 21st-century eaters demand foods that fulfill needs at the intersection of health, sustainability, and flavor experience.

 

 

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