Just when it seemed people were growing more detached from farming, "Generation Yum" delivers a surprise

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Jan 08, 2019, 09:30 ET

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Young people are living up to the "Generation Yum" label coined by author Eve Turow with their connection to the people, places and practices that raise our food—according to new research from Cargill.

"I'm thrilled that people are deepening their understanding of agriculture," said Hilary Maricle, co-owner of Maricle Family Farms in Nebraska, U.S., and mom of five. "By creating harmony between farmers and consumers, we can help people appreciate where their food comes from—and how innovative practices are creating healthier, more sustainable farms."

In its latest Feed4Thought survey, Cargill found that twice as many young respondents (18 – 34) in the U.S. and China reported knowing a livestock or seafood farmer compared to those over 55—with similar trends in Mexico and France. And while 81 percent of 18-to-34-year-old Chinese participants said they have visited a livestock or seafood farm during their lifetime, only 50 percent of their older compatriots had. Young respondents in every country surveyed were more likely to have visited a farm than those over 55, despite the fact that, globally, there are fewer farmers to know or visit today than there were a generation ago.

Generation Y (born between the early 1980s and about 2000) is also acting on what they learn about farming practices. Almost three times as many Gen Y participants (52 percent) said they had changed their eating habits for sustainability reasons in the past year versus older U.S. respondents (19 percent). Mexico, France and China showed a similar age correlation—with 80 percent of young Chinese reporting changes. Having kids at home made participants in all four sample countries more likely to make values-based changes.

"We know people increasingly care about animal welfare, the healthfulness of foods and sustainability," said Marina Crocker, head of Cargill Animal Nutrition market insights. "By pairing Cargill's understanding of what our customers need with state-of-the-art analytics about what people want, we can anticipate and serve emerging consumer expectations in the solutions we provide our customers."

This could mean anything from using blockchain to link U.S. consumers with the family farmer who raised the Honeysuckle White® turkey they purchased to implementing full traceability in Cargill's cocoa supply chains by 2030 as part of our Cocoa Promise. It could be running a sustainable beef pilot in Canada to connect customers with certified products or helping farmers improve cows' productivity, sustainability and well-being by using Cainthus facial recognition technology to monitor individual feeding, drinking and activity.

"The digital revolution has arrived in agriculture," says Scott Ainslie, vice president and group director for Cargill's animal nutrition premix business. "This will offer our customers a completely different way of making decisions and marketing their products. For example, they could use real-time data collected from on-farm sensors to inform nutritional programs, detect heat in dairy cows or determine the best harvest date for pigs and broilers. All this improves the health, well-being and productivity of their animals."

Over 80 percent of survey respondents said the way an animal is raised is important, and almost half of them were willing to pay more as a result. Chinese survey participants (59 percent) were the most open to paying a premium based on factors such as animal feed and housing; Americans (31 percent) the least. But "Generation Yum" respondents in the U.S., as well as their Chinese contemporaries, were more willing than their grandparents to pay for their preferred practices. Generational shifts aside, there was one thing participants of almost every age, gender, income bracket, household size and nationality agreed on: The top responsibility of a livestock or seafood farmer, according to respondents of this global research, was producing safe food for consumers.

About Cargill
Cargill's 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive.

We combine 153 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

About Cargill Animal Nutrition
Cargill's animal nutrition business has more than 20,000 employees at more than 275 facilities in 40 countries. Fueled by our innovation and research, we offer a range of products and services to feed manufacturers, animal producers, and feed retailers around the world, helping put food on the plates of nearly one billion people around the world every day. Cargill's animal nutrition business offers a range of compound feed, premixes, feed additives, supply chain and risk management solutions, software tools and animal nutrition expertise that is unmatched in the industry. For more information about Cargill Animal Nutrition, visit: http://www.cargill.com/feed.

About Cargill Animal Nutrition's Feed4Thought Survey
Feed4Thought is a regular consumer survey effort from Cargill Animal Nutrition that explores key perceptions and opinions about important topics in the animal protein supply chain. The online survey for Cargill Animal Nutrition was conducted by ORC International. The survey was conducted in November 2018 and polled a demographically representative sample of 4,008 adults, in the U.S., China, France and Mexico.

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SOURCE Cargill