First, the National Restaurant Association just published their list of what's hot in 2016 - and look at how many of the trends line up with our mission to support healthy, local, and sustainable. #1 is "locally sourced meats and seafoods", local produce is #3, and environmental sustainability is #6. "Hyper-local sourcing" (we think this means produce grown on site at restaurants) is projected to be up 5% from 2015 to 2016. Kale salads, on the other hand, are expected to decline 10% in popularity in the coming year - I wonder what the next "it" vegetable will be!
On the other hand, this article by Tamar Haspel in the Washington Post shows some data to indicate that consumers may not actually care as much about sustainability in the food system as we thought. According to a study done at Rutgers University, when people were asked an open ended question: "What would you like to see on food labels that isn't there already?", only 6% say they'd like to know where the food is from. Haspel asserts that nutrition, or "what's healthy", remains the strongest driver for consumer food choices.
We asked KVCC students who took Introduction to Sustainable Food Systems (AGF 110) last fall what their priorities were for buying food for themselves and their families. They rated convenience, price, locality, organic certification, nutrition, and taste on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being most important. As you'll see below, taste and nutrition are most important to our students. Food being local is about as important as it being convenient and more so than it being low in price or certified organic.
What do you think about these trends and studies? And what's most important to you when you choose food for yourself and your family?
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