More from the IFTF meeting on Global Health….

Food production is a 200 year old paradigm dominated by producers. Food producers are going to have to deal with increasingly active bio-citizens. More than 70% of Americans identify themselves as environmentalists, while only 5% actually act on that in their shopping choice. And even being an environmentalist consumer is difficult, even if there is transparency about where the food came from, how it was grown and what resources were devoted to it. One site (experimental) is iBuyRight which will allow people to scan products with their cell phone and know all about what that food came from.

If health gets to the center of how we treat food, then this bio-citizenship trend may impact everyone  That make make the boundaries of the corporation more porous. That will make things like socially responsible investment mainstream, we may see more impact on trust and branding of products, which may provoke more regulation. Food is no longer social, it’s more and more political, and changing behavior is going to be a major struggle. So can we improve the way individuals behave, but we also need a wider system change (or at least need to develop one). Lots about individual responsibility versus system change.

My comment: All these theories and information are getting lots of attention, but all the indicators (eating, obesity, fat/sugar consumption, etc, increased pollution, etc, etc) are all getting worse….and all the advertising/marketing is mostly going the wrong way.