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SFA News Daily asked three SFA Leadership Award recipients about the trends they see on the horizon for the coming year.
Q: What will be one of the big trends of 2021?
Bryon White, co-founder of Yaupon Brothers American Tea Co. and winner of a Leadership Award for Citizenship
I believe and hope a major trend will be in indigenous and endemic agriculture. By that I mean the development of products from foods that are found in close proximity to where consumers live. Today’s consumers crave authenticity. They want to be engaged by the supply chain and even be a part of it. Producing food products from local and native foods gives these products provenance that customers can easily understand. They can peel back the layers and redevelop a trusting relationship with the products they buy, and thus the makers who produce them. COVID has given new meaning to ‘local’ and I think this trend is here to stay.
Channy Laux, founder, Angkor Cambodian Food and winner of a Leadership Award for Citizenship
With the 2020 stay-at-home orders many consumers have been driven to cook dishes that they craved from their favorite ethnic restaurants. This cooking experience has boosted their confidence to try their newfound skills with unfamiliar dishes, including dishes that they read about or viewed on social media posts. In 2021, consumers will be looking for nutritional and quality speed scratch ingredients and recipes from different cuisines around the world. What consumers learned, cooked, and tasted during the pandemic will change how they stock their pantry and what they demand from their local markets as well as restaurants for many years after restrictions have been lifted.
For families with young children, cooking during the pandemic has been educational and often a fun family activity. This trend will continue with increased demand for ready-to-cook kits containing the whole meal from a culture along with a writeup introducing the culture and its fun facts. There will be increasing demand for ethnic flavors from foodservice operators. As more ethnic restaurants open, corporate food courts and school lunch will include these flavors of the world as well.
Briana Warner, president and CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms and winner of a Leadership Award for Business Leadership
Food as social change: People are starting to realize that, with every meal or snack, they are making a choice about how they want to affect the world. It is no secret that our food system is hastening climate change, inequity, environmental degradation, and hunger. But there is a change afoot – and now people have more and more options to buy food that actually improves the planet and helps people thrive – both on the supply chain and consumer level. BIPOC and female food growers and producers are making a mark, making their voices heard, and increasingly rising above the barriers that have historically damaged and hindered them and their businesses. Regenerative agriculture and aquaculture are starting to be considered viable – and desirable – ways to grow food. People are more aware of bad farming practices and unfair supply chains and are making choices to support businesses that are boldly in favor of doing well by doing good. The U.S. is going through many political, economic, and social reckonings and I see people’s food choices becoming a vehicle through which people can feel that they are making positive change in their everyday habits.
Related: SFA Names 2021 Leadership Award Winners; Restaurant-Level Products, Value-Based Shopping Top 2021 Trends.
from Food Trends https://ift.tt/3rn1TrG
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