Regenerative: don't get left behind
If you grow crops, raise animals, process or package any food - here's why regenerative should be on your radar
2-min read
When the lead article in the Wall Street Journal Off Duty section is about regenerative food claims, it’s safe to say the term “regenerative” has moved beyond a passing fad.
If you grow crops, raise animals, process or package any food – here’s why regenerative should be on your radar.
Investment in regenerative will continue
This is not a boutique trend. In 2019, General Mills announced a commitment to advancing so-called regenerative practices on 1 million acres of farmland by 2030; PepsiCo followed suit in 2021 with a pledge to do the same across its entire 7-million-acre agricultural footprint. Nestlé SA said recently that it would invest $1.3 billion over the next five years to help farmers transition to regenerative practices.
Consumers want good tasting food that they can feel good about
Consumers vote with their wallet. According to the average conscious consumer (those that care about sustainability) the most egregious foods to the environment are animal-based proteins. But the latest data shows plant-based meat is on the decline.
Dollar sales of plant-based meat were flat in 2021 over 2020, which was a record year of growth.
According to this report by the Good Food Institute, plant-based meat options are not living up to taste expectations. Consequently, conscious consumers will look for animal proteins that make sustainability claims such as regenerative.
Regenerative includes ethical animal products
The term regenerative is intended to encapsulate and satisfy all the concerned feelings about food and provide the conscious consumer with assurances. For animal products, raising animals regeneratively means all these things for the land:
· improving soil health
· sequestering carbon
· increasing water tables
· improving wildlife habitat
· fostering biodiversity
Regenerative also means this for animal welfare.
Just being organic is not enough for the conscious consumer.
Organic started out as a movement to include better farming practices, but along the way it was reduced to only mean the absence of certain pesticides and GMOs. Regenerative is taking the place where organic left off, and the term has come to mean something to consumers.
Organic, natural, and sustainably labeled products are watching from the sidelines as a new cropping of regeneratively labeled products grab consumer’s attention.
The labeling difference is that regenerative is about what you ARE doing vs other claims are touting the absence of something.
“Free-from” isn’t going to cut it going forward.
Consumers want to know what proactive measures you are taking towards low-to-no-impact on the environment and animal welfare. Regenerative promises to lay a foundation for those actions.
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