Commodity Shuttle: What is the consumer and food of the future?

The maxim used by many Brazilian producers that “the world will have to eat from our hands” needs to be reassessed.

It is necessary to understand the future of food, who will be the consumer who will come, and the role of producers in this universe.

Sandra Mian, food engineer at B.Ahead, says the world will consume exactly what it consumes today in the future. A varied diet, with proteins, but it is necessary to understand the megatrends.

Is plant based a fad or will it be a trend? One thing is for sure, according to her, sustainability and health issues will be part of consumer decisions.

Initially, it is necessary to learn about the consumer of the future. It will be in the least developed countries, which will continue with population growth, and in lesser numbers in developed countries, where the population does not grow.

They will be in Asia, mainly in India, with a predominance of Hindus, who do not eat beef. Practitioners of the Muslim religion gain space, and they do not consume pork.

According to Mian, 80% of the world’s population will be in cities, China is aging rapidly and 24% of the world’s population will be over 60 years old.

Food producers and suppliers need to prepare for these changes, says Mian.

For the engineer, the consumer of the future will be more educated and will be in greater numbers in Asia and Africa. Purchasing power will be greater, and women will play an important role in purchasing decisions.

Producers and industries will produce for a variety of consumers, from different regions, different creeds, diverse genres and diverse tastes and requirements.

It will be necessary to prepare for this consumer who will be in the cities and will demand innovative, healthy products with production that respects environmental conditions.

There will not be a solution that comes out of the box, but production must be thought of in chains. It will be essential to zero all losses in the production process and, through the advancement of technology, to track all production components.

For Mian, food will increasingly be produced on urban farms; will come from integration with forests and from regenerative agriculture.

There will be a search for ancestral breeds of animals, with lower tolerance to diseases, and seeds used in the past, resistant to drought and diseases.

Algae and mushroom farms will be more present in agricultural activity. In the case of algae, in addition to protein, they provide biofuels, fertilizers and sequester greenhouse gases.

Lessons from the past are extremely important, says the food engineer.

On the creation of meat in laboratories, Mian takes a critical position. A lot of money is being invested, and production will be in the hands of a few companies. In addition to the ethical problem, many producers will be eliminated, says Mian, who participated, this Thursday (14), in Digital Agro, from Frisia, in Curitiba.