Dlott on Food Foresight panel, says consumer demand could drive sustainability
Donald Trump has made no secret about desires to rollback a wide range of regulations. While the extent to which he can be successful long term is still to be determined, there are important questions to consider as the regulatory reins are loosened.
Among them, in what way might state-level regulations, as varied as they might be, step in where federal oversight is withdrawn? Will pressure from activist or special interest groups be loud enough to spark change in the name of the environment or animal welfare? And -- importantly -- will consumers be willing to pay the price for products grown to certain standards of sustainability, animal welfare or other criteria they determine to be important to them?
These were a few in a battery of questions raised in the 2017 Food Foresight trend discussion about whether or not the marketplace will emerge to fill voids left by future regulatory rollbacks. While the answers are to be determined, savvy organizations should consider new or strengthened market forces that may emerge as a result of environmental, social, and economic regulatory relief.
Food Foresight panelist Jeff Dlott, president of SureHarvest, a division of Where Food Comes From (WFCF), believes consumers will be willing to pay more for products with measurable sustainability attributes and that marketplace demands could supersede regulations, creating competitive advantages for companies and industry sectors that use technology and innovation to advance beyond regulations.
“Some areas of deregulation will likely not align with what consumers are increasingly demanding, particularly in the areas of resource management and social responsibility,” says Dlott. “Loss of confidence in regulations as a means toward delivering sustainability, paves the way for advances in smarter food systems that include management systems driven by smart, connected devices, ubiquitous internet access, and artificial intelligence.”
“Better, cheaper and faster smarter systems can deliver transparent and authentic outcomes to the marketplace and, in doing so, farmers and ranchers can reap big data-driven benefits previously the exclusive domain of very large corporations. These benefits include operational efficiencies, customer loyalty and, ultimately, profitability derived from smarter systems,” Dlott said.
