consumer trends

Farm King Transparency Special guests Farm Kings (@FarmKings) join the #AgChat conversation about transparency in agriculture and how they approach their show on GAC. How should farmers and ranchers approach telling their story? How can one handle the trolls? And what actually is involved in making a TV show?

What Do Consumers Think? Jarrod Sutton, National Pork Board Assistant Vice President, Foodservice, Retail and Channel Marketing, provides insight on the business side of selling meat. Some of the factors that play into meat pricing is how consumers perceive products and how they feel about animal welfare plus agriculture sustainability efforts. Jarrod also shares some of the conversations he is involved with in and around the food retail companies, trying to understand their efforts to bring reliable and usable information to consumers.

Consumer Views on Animal Welfare Purdue's Dr. Candace Croney recently presented thoughts on sow housing and other welfare issues at the Midwest Pork Conference in Danville, IN. She shares highlights from her presentation and discusses those animal management areas which are overshadowed by the current debate [audio].

Back Yard to Large Scale From the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, this chart shows how pork production is gearing itself to support the Chinese consumer demand for pork [larger chart].

SwineCast is across the beltway from Washington, D.C. this week for the National Pork Producers Council Legislative Action Conference. Over a hundred producers are talking with legislators on topics important to you. We'll be sharing key presentations from the conference but here's a teaser for you. NPPC's Vice-President for Domestic Policy, Audrey Adamson, joins us to discuss where her focus will be in coming months. Can you speak to these issues when asked by your legislator what's on your mind?

And ever had that sinking feeling you get when you see or hear something you KNOW can't be good? Beef producers got that as 'Pink Slime' grew into the issue that wouldn't die. Kansas State's John Gonzales shares what it is and what it does. 

Dr. Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics, provided an update on the state of the meat and poultry markets. His main take away is that the demand continued to struggle late 2011.

The bad news is that these "annual" numbers for 2011 have been getting worse and worse as the year has progressed.

Steve reminds us that the indexes only describe how demand is changing, not why a change is occurring. He believes consumer incomes and spending was the major negative force in the domestic market in 2011.

Charts below from Paragon Economics, using USDA data.

Andy Dietrick, Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc., presents Food for Thought, an initiative aimed at engaging Hoosiers in discussions about food and how it defines and reflects Indiana's culture and humanity in general.