MARCH 2020 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Food trends challenge farmers to keep pace Can farmers reinvent themselves to keep up with shifting consumer tastes? But as dairy producers in


Once upon a time, in the


little Greek farming village of Elias, the farmers grew and sold their tomatoes, families grew and the children married, and generation followed generation.


Sometimes, the products don’t even need to be similar – just cheaper.


This dilemma is one facing


Viewpoint by PETER MITHAM


But more recent decades


brought hard times. The young people left for the cities, the hard work of farming was left to those who remained, then a financial crisis brought harder times. One day, two of the young


people returned, intent on sharing what made their birthplace special with the world. The tomatoes were loccal heirlooms and by preparing a product steeped in centuries of tradition, the pair were confident that those who remained could find meaningful work and Elias might have a future. Or so the storyline of last


year’s film, When Tomatoes Met Wagner, goes. (The film was Greece’s official submission to the Oscars.)


The tomatoes sold well but scaling up the business was hard. The product was unique, but the packaging left distributors unimpressed and there was no champion for it in the marketplace that would justify the price. Sure, organic, heirloom tomatoes are appealing, but people will only pay so much in a marketplace filled with similar, cheaper products.


several products and categories in the shifting and oft-times fickle realm of food trends. Production of many crops has outpaced demand, threatening to reduce them to commodity status. Standing out from the crowd has


become harder as everyone else tries to do the same, even at the local level. Price is often the sole remaining point of distinction, and most consumers will choose a cheaper product every time. A few cases in point come


to mind. California’s wine grape


growers continue to suffer a hangover from 2018, the state’s largest vintage in history. Meanwhile, consumer demand slowed as several competing products tapped into demands for low-calorie, healthy products. Thousands of tons of grapes went unpicked last year and vineyards are being pulled out for other crops. (Some estimates suggest 30,000 acres should be pulled.) Highbush blueberries, which have enjoyed steady growth in acreage in BC, are facing a plateau in demand, too. Speaking at the Pacific Agriculture Show, the new head of the US Highbush Blueberry Council discussed the need to boost the berry’s profile among consumers who face myriad options when it comes to fruit. Here at home, demand is


increasingly served by cheaper imports, adding to the pressures growers face. While growers have been encouraged to replant to new varieties that give customers what they want, the crop will need to be able to command higher prices in the market – something that’s tough to achieve when cheaper alternatives are available. And then there’s dairy, whose share of the domestic market has been given away in successive trade deals at the same time as consumers have embraced plant-based alternatives and certain activist groups have harnessed this trend for their own purpose of ending animal agriculture. The triple threat of globalization, competition and – as some have called it – terrorism mean that even a supply-managed commodity like milk faces challenges. A system designed for


orderly marketing does nothing to achieve orderly consumption. Time was that the Canada Food Guide might have achieved this, but even it reflects the shifting preferences of consumers. Producers of all stripes have


excelled at producing food – both conventional and organic. Many have also developed direct sales programs, value-added products and the like that have secured a loyal following and a niche in the market.


particular have discovered, even a healthy choice can fall out of favour. Sure, demand for milk is increasing, but the driver of demand is value- added products rather than milk, cream and other products.


A small but influential number of consumers are instead choosing milk-like beverages made from oats and nuts. (Mxlks, as Agrifoods International Cooperative calls them.) Starbucks is reported to be considering making dairy-alternatives the only option for consumers; half- and-half will be wholly gone, effectively marginalizing dairy. Blueberries aren’t likely to become pariahs, though wine by its nature will always be vulnerable to shifts in consumer and moral


5


sentiment – including those driven by health concerns – towards alcohol. However, all products are vulnerable to flat growth, downward pressure on prices and rising costs, the latter a pressing concern at the moment as land, labour and regulations add to expenses and squeeze margins.


Just as the tomato growers


in Elias found it tough to sketch a happy ending for their venture, producers in BC face similar challenges trying to tell a compelling story. Celebrities and consumers


won’t always champion what we take pride in producing. We need to listen to what they’re saying, then tell our story with facts, flavours or experiences in a way that delivers the kind of happy ending consumers will buy.


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