written by Amy Beeler Herman, Amy Beeler Herman Communications

Consumers want to know where their food comes from according to the four panelists who took part in the food trends panel during the 2010 NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference in Minneapolis, October 5-6. NAMA selected some highpoints to share from each panelist’s presentation.

Dan Halstrom is the senior vice president of marketing and communication for the U.S. Meat Export Federation. He emphasized a focus on global trade is essential to the viability of US meat production. “Free trade agreements like NAFTA help farmers gain access and add revenue to the farmer and industry,” Halstrom says. “The meat export market is ours (US) for the taking,” he says. “If the US does not supply meat to the world Brazil, Australia and other countries are quite capable of producing good products.” The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.usmef.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. meat industry. It is funded by USDA; the beef, pork, lamb, corn and soybean check off programs, as well as its members representing nine industry sectors with interests in livestock production.

Carol Bagnoli heads the consumer insights strategy group at General Mills. She says consumers are focusing on health issues and interested in a health trend toward simple, natural foods. Beyond ingredients, consumers want to understand how products are made. “The further down the chain the better,” Bagnoli says. “In the consumers’ mind that is more natural.”

Rose Mitchell is the senior vice president of governmental relations for Hy-Vee. She sees tremendous growth in organic products and says the top three produce items are each organic: grapes, bananas and baby carrots. Hy-Vee is adding dieticians to the staff of each store to help customers with diet choices. Dieticians are also featured in product displays and aisle signage to promote healthy products. The innovative grocery chain introduced a nutrition value or NuVal product score to help consumers identify the health value of each product in the grocery aisle. Not only do the scores, from 1-100 with a high score being more healthy, make the shopping trip quicker but also help “the consumer get a large mix of generally healthy food in the shopping cart at checkout,” Mitchell says. Hy-Vee advertising features a homegrown food print campaign highlighting farmers within the grocer’s eight-state trade area. “Consumers want to see a name and face and each ad tells the story about a food producer,” she says.

Jim Compart is president of Compart Family Farms and also the president of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association. With generations of experience breeding and marketing the high-value Duroc breed, Compart Family Farms developed a branded pork program. Like the certified Angus beef initiative, the Comparts select breeding stock and utilize science-based feeding programs to produce healthy, flavorful pork. The genetically branded program delivers on an expectation of quality and taste and targets foodservice outlets. “Compart pork is served in 5-star restaurants across the US,” Compart says.