What We Want To Eat

View Details

What’s Happening at SIAL 2022
Dillon and I can’t believe it’s the end of Season 1 of What We Want to Eat. In the past three months, we had the pleasure of speaking with amazing people in the food and farming industry. We’ll be back in May with Season 2. If you’d like to be one of our guests, please drop an email to macala.wright@emeraldx.com or dillon@realfoodrealpeople.org.

Seminars and Cook Demos at SIAL 2022

The conference and seminar series is now live on the SIAL website. Over the course of three days, there are 16 talks and seven cooking demos. Here are some of the seminars Dillon and I are excited about.

The Future of Organics

Presented By Alexis Carey, Associate Director for International Trade Organic Trade Association and Tom Avinelis, Co-Managing Director, Agriculture Capital

Teas of the World

Presented by Gail Gastelu, Owner, Publisher of The Tea House Times

Benefits of Animal-Product Traceability

Presented By Steve Sands, President of PFG Protein Brands

Investing Wisely in CBD Products & Cooking with CBD Oil

Chef Glenn Cybulski

Find the entire speaker series and cooking demonstrations schedule here.

View Details

In this episode, we speak to Dan Miller of Steward, an agriculture lending company that provides alternative financing to regenerative farmers and food producers. In this episode, we discuss:

Providing loans to small to medium-sized regenerative agriculture businesses
Financing urban and rural projects
Funding secondary income streams, such as agritourism, in order provide additional on-farm revenue
Growing interest in creating stable local food systems that increase the access to food for local community members.
Funding local, shared processing plants
Why it’s important to fund and provide access to capital to human-scale food producers

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh, and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

View Details

In this episode, we speak with Rosella Mosby, the head of Mosby Farms that grows organic and conventional produce for grocery stores, food distributors, and food banks throughout Washington. In this interview, we discuss:

Farming 30 Minutes South of Seattle
Being The First Female Farm Bureau President
Farm Bureau Isn’t Commodity or a Good ‘Ol Boys’ Club
Local Food Systems
Growing Organic & Conventional Veggies
Supply PNW Grocers, Restaurants & Food Banks
Legislation & Regulations Harm Farmers
New Laws That Could Hinder Farmers Supply Food Banks
100,000 Pounds of Ugly Produce Goes to Food Insecurity
Agriculture is the Second Largest Industry in Washington, Not Tech
The Future of Feeding People at Scale

View Details

The pandemic turned food on its head. From the fields to the shelves, companies big and small faced shutdowns, shortages and countless challenges. All of these disruptions notonly had a massive impact on food brands and manufacturers,

When it came to customers, brands and manufacturers saw their customers’ behavior, values, and wants change overnight. For example, as store shelves were bare and people feared for lack of food availability, once struggling concepts, like buying in bulk online and meal delivery subscriptions, became critical parts of daily lives.

The Food Industry saw surprising changes in behavior as new aspects of food became important to consumers. Now, as we move into 2022, the four biggest trends we’re seeing.

Trend No. 1: Food as Medicine: Consumers are looking to food as medicine in order to better manage their health.

Trend No. 2: Cooking at Home Becomes Experiential: Consumers continue to embrace cooking at home and creating experiences. They are also looking for convenience.

Trend No. 3: Sustainability Is Important: Consumers continue to become more aware of their food purchase habits and how they may affect the planet. They are demanding more sustainable practices.

Trend No. 4: Food Facts and Personalization: Consumers are educating themselves on what they are eating, turning to new, factual sources of information. They are also embracing more flexible, personalized ways of eating thanks to technology.

So what’s coming next? Here’s an in-depth look at the four largest trends we think will be influencing how people purchase food in the U.S. in 2022.

Download The Report

View Details

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Frank Mitloehner, director of environmental research at the CLEAR center and professor in Animal Science at UC Davis. The CLEAR Center brings clarity to the intersection of animal agriculture and the environment, helping our global community understand the environmental and human health impacts of livestock, so we can make informed decisions about the foods we eat and while reducing environmental impacts.

Dr. Mitloehner is committed to making a difference for generations to come. As part of his position with UC Davis and Cooperative Extension, he collaborates with the animal agriculture sector to create better efficiencies and mitigate pollutants.

He is passionate about understanding and mitigating air emissions from livestock operations, as well as studying the implications of these emissions on the health of farm workers and neighboring communities. In addition, he is focusing on the food production challenge that will become a global issue as the world’s population grows to nearly 10 billion by 2050.

Show Notes

1:00 - Meet Dr. Mitloehner
2:10 - Where Greenhouse Gases Come From
2:21 - Agriculture is 10% of Greenhouses, Animal Ag is 4%, Not 30%
3:00 - How Methane Works
4:09 - How Large Food Brands & Manufacturers Can Reduce Their Carbon Footprint
4:32 - Starbucks, Farmers & Supply Chain
4:51 - Nestle, Farmers & Supply Chain
5:17 - Emission Reduction and Biogas Conversion
6:20 - Low Carbon Fuel Standard Credits
7:34 - Building Soil Health and Sequestering Carbon
8:31 - Soil Carbon Sequestration Requires Ranches and Farms
9:52 - Helping Farmers & Making Agriculture A Part of The Solution
10:08 - Sequestering Carbon: Approaches For Producers
12:06 - Government Incentives on Low and No Till Farming
12:52 - Incentivize Producers to Explore Regenerative Agriculture
14:30 - There Is No “Plan B”, We Are In Trouble

Bonus Conversations

15:00 - Fake Food Is A Fairy Tale
16:27 - Your Food Preferences Are A Private Choice
17:02 - Price Fixing and Obstacles to Sway Eating Habits
17:50 - The Dichotomy on Plants vs. Animals
18:58 - Only 1% Of The Total Population Is Vegan
19:30 - Veganism’s Greatest Challenge Is The Retention Rate
20:20 - Telling People “Not To Eat Meat” Doesn’t Create Change
21:17 - Plant-Based Meat Isn’t New, It’s Just Has Better Products
22:22 - What Happened When A Fast Food Chain Added Plant-Based Burgers To The Menu
23:04 - There’s No Significant, Factual Research That Show Consumers Are Reducing Meat Consumption
24:18 – IMHO, Lab Grown Meat Is A No Go
24:48 - The Scientific Community & The Process For “Growing Meat”
25:19 - You Go To The Slaughterhouse For Stem Cells
25:34 - How We Get Fetal Bovine Serum
26:05 - The Process Is More Energy Intensive Than Current Practices
26:26 - Keeping Lab Grown Meat Involves Antibiotics Because You Can’t Keep It Pathogen Free

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

View Details

In this episode of What We Want to Eat, Dillon Honcoop talks about the founders of the Alexandre Family Farms in Crescent City, California.

Today, dairy farmers and dairy operations face many challenges. Many of those are related to consumer perceptions surrounding milk, and if dairy products are healthy to eat. In this interview, the Alexandre Family explains the process in which milk proteins affect the human body, how their milk is different, and how they take great care in educating their consumers on how dairy affects their bodies.

The family also speaks about their farms being organic, regenerative, carbon neutral, and how they’re spent over 25 years following all these practices. What’s more, they speak openly about being “Big Ag” and how they have managed to check all the boxes while managing multiple farms with over 4200 dairy cows, 35,000 chickens and 4,300 organic acres.

Transparency, storytelling, smart distribution, and personally answering customer questions have led their premium A2 milk and dairy products to be distributed in over 1600+ natural food, and high-end grocery stores, including Whole Foods.

Listen to the episodes to hear firsthand how they are managing to manage consumer perceptions, create exceptional products and succeed in an industry that is constantly consolidating.

Show Notes

1:15 - Meet the Alexandre Farm
1:48 - 25 Years as Organic and over 25 as Regenerative
2:35 - How Can Dairy Farmers and Producers Create More Sustainable Practices?
4:00 - Getting Products into Consumer Hands, Transparency & Storytelling
5:30 - Create Premium Dairy Products & Brands
6:03 - People Want Something Better
8:05 - Using Social Media to Give a Face to the Farm
8:37 - What is A2 Milk? History and Evolution
9:25 - Lactose Allergies, Milk Proteins and Understanding Reactions
12:33 - Working with the Media, Doctors, and the Right Health Influencers
13:00 - Creating Other A2 Dairy Products - Cheese, Yogurt and Powdered Milk
14:42 - 0 to 1600+ Stores: Developing Distribution for A2 Dairy
17:00 - Choosing the Right Distributors
19:38 - Consumer Perceptions of Big Diary
20:15 - You Can Be Big and Tick All The Boxes
22:00 - The Consumer Dollar - Where It Goes
23:06 - Wildlife and Natural Habitat Diversification via Dairy Farms
24:15 - Animal Welfare - Our Animals Are Our #1 Priority
24:45 - Are Dairies Are Carbon Neutral, and We’re Working on Making It Better
25:15 - Dairy Soil Health over 30 Years
26:25 - Our Cows Are Healthy and Our Consumers Are Healthy
27:00 - Learn More About Us, We’ll Personally Answer You

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh, and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

Listen to the Full Episode Here

View Details

In this episode, we talk to Anne-Marie Roerink, the founder of 210 Analytics about consumer spending on grocery and food in 2021 and how their spending habits are shifting in 2022. Here’s what’s happening when it comes to grocery store sales.

What’s Coming in 2022

In 2022, inflation is impacting how consumers are spending. Also, post-pandemic stockup behavior is still an influence on their buying behavior. It’s important to watch what is happening in each category. In 2022, the #1 thing stores, grocers and food establishments must focus on is delight. Creating experiences that bring out of their homes will become critical to keep sales moving.

If you’d like to learn more, contact Anne-Marie on LinkedIn, or download the reports she’s made available to our members below!

2021 Sales Data

Grocery Store Meat Sales Data

Frozen Food Sales Data

Seafood Sales Data

Produce Sales Data

Bakery and Deli Sales Data

Plant-Based Food Sales Data

Show Notes

0:57 - Meet Anne Marie
3:16 - Trends in Meat
4:30 - Trends in Plant-Based Meat and Dairy Alternatives
4:45 - Consumers Are Wanting to Eat More Plants, But Not Necessarily “Plant-Based” Products
5:55 - Plant-Based Food Innovation Is Related to Taste and Experience
6:25 - Consumers Are Flocking to Fish and Seafood
8:45 - Produce Prices and Consumption
10:15 - Consumers Want Convenience
11:15 - Vitamins and Supplements Are Doing Well
11:30 - Consumers Are Entertaining at Home
11:58 - New Sales Levels for Premium Food Items
14:17 - Elk and Bison Sales Are Up 600%
14:30 - Innovative Packaging Is Driving Experimentation
14:47 - What to Watch in 2022
16:53 - What’s Happening with Online to In-Store Behavior
18: 25 - Grocers and Retailers Must Win at First-Click
18:54 - Consumer Shopping Patterns By Grocery Store Type
20:08 - Dollar Stores and Supercenters Are Growing
20:42 - The NUMBER ONE THING GROCERS MUST FOCUS ON IN 2022

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh, and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

View Details

In this episode, we speak with Bridget Ellion Coon, a fifth generation cattle rancher and beef marketer. Bridget and I discuss everything from land use to labels to direct to consumer sales.

What Consumer May Not Know About Raising Meat

Bridget is working hard alongside the producers and associations she works with to help dispel myths and supply chain oversimplifications she sees happening on a regular basis when it comes to the meat people buy. The food system is complex. The consumer beliefs around value and livestock raising practices are hard for many people to understand depending on where they find information.

From how animals are fed to how meat is labeled in stores, makes education hard for many producers. For example, grass-fed vs. grass and grain-fed. How cattle are fed depends on climate, not all ranchers have a 12-month grass growth cycle. The idea of “grass-fed only” has many nuances. So consumers thinking that grass fed and finished beef is better is misleading.

Challenges in Marketing Beef

The biggest challenge in marketing beef is related to the rise in direct-to-consumer sales. COVID’s processing bottleneck and ideas of running out of meat made meeting the demand for meat very challenging. DTC explored, and with the demand, came a new set of challenges for producers who sell animals.

One of the most interesting discoveries Bridge made was that consumers don’t know how to cut more than two cuts – ground beef and steak. Buying a quarter, half or whole animal made cut knowledge and educating consumers on how to cook the cuts a top priority. Across the board, she found that producers must do a better job of educating their customers, but also, the customers need to educate themselves.

When it came to DTC and buying beef online, she found that helping people understand how much beef they were getting in a shipment required education. She had to show them how much space their meat order required. Selling online presented a big learning curve for many producers offering it. But once they got a handle on educating consumers on weight, product type, cooking, and visual appeal, they saw online sales skyrocket. And now they’re translating their findings back into the store environment.

To learn more on how to successfully understand marketing beef, listen to the full episode.

:57 - Meet Bridget
3:16 - Building Ag Policies in Washington
4:16 - Raising Meat and Seattle’s Expansions
6:30 - Land Use: Farming vs. Livestock
9:33 - What You May Not Know About Raising Beef
13:45 - Meat Flavor Profile
18:37 - Marketing Meat and COVID’s DTC Demand
23:15 - Better Educating Consumers
28:40 - The Evolution of DTC Beef

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh, and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

View Details

When it comes to creating climate friendly solutions and developing better food systems, how we manage unused and unsellable food is a large part of the conversation. While there are lots of ideas, there aren’t as many viable solutions for recycling or upcycling expired food or food waste. In recent years, several companies have begun to address creating these solutions and putting them into practice.

One of them is Wyatt Industries, created by Luke Dynes. Wyatt Enterprises has developed and patented technology that may help take large scale “food waste” to almost zero. Last year, Wyatt Industries recycled three million tons of food, turning it into edible feed for livestock. Yes, Luke has created a solution to one of our world’s biggest problems. Food waste isn’t just a consumer problem, it’s a production and manufacturing problem as well.

Take Food Waste to Zero

Creating Wyatt Industries was a business decision, but it was also about keeping viable food products out of landfills. Listen to the full episode to learn more. To learn more about Luke Dynes and Wyatt Industries, connect with him on LinkedIn.

Show Notes

1:30 - Meet Luke Dynes
1:47 - Creating a Company That Recycles Food Waste into Food for Livestock
6:18 - How The Process Works
8:45 - Wyatt Industries’ Processing Capacity
10:00 - Processing Interstate Food Waste Due to Labor Shortages
11:30 - The Majority of Food Waste Comes From Food Before It’s Sold in Stores
12:15 - The Difference Between Pre-Consumer Food vs. Food Waste
14:22 - How Much Food Wyatt Industries is Keeping Out of Landfills
15:17 - Yes, We Can Recycle Food at Scale
18:00 - Livestock Can Eat This and It’s Nutrient Rich
20:52 - The Term “Food Waste” is Misleading
21:33 - We Created This Company To Keep Viable Food Out Of Landfills
24:19 - Upcoming Subsidies in the Food Waste Sector
25:08 - The Ag Community Can’t Afford to Waste Anything
27:55 - How Food Companies Can Recycle Non-Sellable Food and Produce

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

View Details

In this episode, we speak with Kate Ruffing, the head of Innovation at a Flashpoint Consulting located in Bainbridge Island, Washington. Kate started her career in food over 20 years ago, working at Kraft Foods (now Kraft-Heinz), and then Starbucks. Kate has spearheaded food innovation for large companies and developed successful B2B brand extensions into other areas of food (lodging, food service) for over a decade.

Upleveling the Starbucks Food Experience

At Starbucks, Kate was tasked with upleveling the food experience, so that it would be considered on par with the coffee experience. To create amazing baked goods and food selections people wanted to eat, she had to start by understanding the consumer. That meant she had to watch people in their stores and see firsthand how they interacted with the food products Starbucks already had. What she saw in their customers’ in-store behaviors spoke volumes.

What she found was that there weren’t a lot of people attaching food items to their beverage orders. When she delved deeper into why that was, what she observed was that Starbucks wasn’t disrupting their coffee ritual in a way that was meaningful enough for their customers to attach food items to their purchases.

To learn more on how to successfully understand consumer needs and desires, listen to the full episode and download the transcript.

Starbucks and Food Innovation
Understanding Consumer Behavior
Creating Products People Love
Brand Authenticity and Transparency
What’s Coming Next
Don’t Be Afraid to Fail Fast

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

View Details

In this episode, we speak with Wilson Lau, Vice President of Nuherbs, a company that offers bull availability of single ingredient herbs and botanicals from around the world to food brands and manufacturers. In addition to over 300+ single ingredient herbs, they also offer bespoke and customized extracts and formulations.

Show Notes

0:33 - Meet Wilson
1:42 - 3 Biggest Supply Chain Issues
4:30 - Stabilizing Your Supply Chain
6:23 - International Farm Relationships & Ingredient Availability
8:08 - Developing Functional Foods
10:53 - Formulating with Western and Eastern Herbs
11:45 - Sustainability and Harvesting
12:50 - Stigma Surrounding Herbs and Botanicals Grown Internationally
16:03 - 2022 and Beyond: What’s Coming Next

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

View Details

The Borg family raises 60,000 chickens for Costco at any given time. Their family also raises 1,000 head of beef and also plants corn, soy and alfalfa that's used for animal feed. Debbie explains how her family's farming practices, how they've been no till for almost 30 years, how they take care of their soil, and she shares why they run their farm the way they do. She shares her insights on sustainability, growing in short seasons, and how geographic locations impact how her family can farm.

Show Notes

0:32 - Meet Debbie Borg and Her Family
4:11 - Raising Chickens For Costco
4:58 - Costco’s Contracts in Nebraska Allowed Younger Generations to Come Back to The Farm
7:35 - Costco’s Contracts Provided Financial Security For Young, Female Farmers
8:32 - Chicken Challenge and COVID-19
9:50 - Animal Welfare, Climate Change, and Big Ag
12:45 - Climate Smart Agriculture
14:00 - The How and Why of Corn and Soy in the Midwest
18:02 - Growing Food At Scale, Please Trust Us

Subscribe to What We Want to Eat in Google Play | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon

To learn more about the latest trends in meat, dairy, fresh and grocery products, register to attend the SIAL America show in Las Vegas.

What We Want To Eat: Recent Episodes

SIAL America