Farmers remain captive to fickle consumer food fads
Prairie farmers find themselves in the enviable position of producing something that people can’t live without.
There are times when they and their competitors produce a surplus of a particular commodity, and then the price goes down.
At times, the cost of production can be more than what producers earn from selling their crops and meat, and when that happens, farming can become extremely challenging.
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But by and large, food is not like designer shoes. People don’t stop eating just because the economy goes south.
Sure, they might buy less expensive brand names and cut down on restaurant visits, but they still have to eat.
It provides a level of stability unknown in many other businesses.
However, like many other aspects of society, the consumption of food can get caught up in fads and crazes. When that happens, farmers can watch demand for a particular product take an unexpected nosedive.
Wheat growers ran into that a few years ago when many consumers stopped eating wheat after being convinced that gluten was a poison.
Three years ago, the Canadian National Millers Association said that per capita consumption in Canada fell to 60.2 kilograms per person in 2019 from 69.2 kg in 2000.
This was attributed to decades of fads such as the Atkins Diet and the Keto Diet and books such as Wheat Belly and Grain Brain.
Wheat production remains a viable business in Canada, but these numbers show how fickle consumers can affect demand.
There are concerns that a trend away from drinking beer in North America might do the same thing to the malting barley sector.
And while meat consumption remains robust in this country, there are always worries that the constant flow of propaganda from anti-livestock agriculture activists could someday cause significant damage.
The latest example comes from a recent report out of the United States.
Americans are eating less sugar, which has had a dramatic impact on the country’s sugar beet growers.
Refined beet sugar prices are down 33 per cent from a year ago, their lowest level since 2019, and a sugar glut is expected to last until at least next year.
This is part of a trend that started in the 1990s with the widespread adoption of artificial sweeteners, but the move away from sugar has escalated recently.
The rising popularity of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic is considered a major culprit, as is a campaign by the U.S. health secretary against sugar and ultra-processed food.
A recent study found that Americans are spending six per cent less on candy and chocolate and 10 per cent less on sweet bakery items.
Some would argue that this is a positive development for human health, but it’s effect on American sugar beet growers shows what can happen when consumers drastically change their food consumption patterns.
A crop that was once seen as a shield against volatile prices in other agricultural sectors is now is in serious trouble.
There are few answers for coping with the fickle nature of consumer consumption, other than to respond with education when consumption shifts are the result of misinformation.
Other than that, farmers need to remain aware that while the need for food is constant, the types of food that consumers eat can change on a dime.
Karen Briere, Bruce Dyck, Robin Booker, Paul Yanko and Laura Rance collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
Source: producer.com