New Food Trends #5: Getting the Skinny on Food Sources

Are we eating the right things? Is this healthy? How was this food grown? These are just some of the questions consumers are asking themselves. Humans have always needed assurances, whether through knowledge or religion, and it's no different with food. We need to know we're not eating poisons, that animals were treated humanely, or that there will not be any harmful side effects down the line. We want it all; an improved economy, animal protection, and a never-ending food supply, and that's why there's a new trend to get the skinny on food sources.

In an organic nutshell, people want to know where their food comes from. Sure, it's more expensive to trace food from growth, through delivery, to your table, but that's why many call it the “new luxury food.” We're willing to pay a little extra to ensure that fish doesn't have mercury in it, or that we're eating hormone-free beef. Our produce must be pesticide free and chickens must roam the range freely. It even extends to Fair Trade practices. We want provenance in our food.

In a larger way it's about branding, where we know that a certain brand has come from a particular source, or was prepared according to specific guidelines. We're even seeing branded beef now, where we know what the animals ate, how they lived, and how they were slaughtered. You'll begin to see a lot more of this type of branding and accountability.

According to The Food Network, “We might even begin tagging our food so we can follow it from source, to purchase, to table.”

We've become used to being removed from our food source, to being unconcerned where it comes from and how it was grown or manufactured, but this new trend is an effort to get us closer to what we eat, to somehow grant us greater control over how our food is produced. We'll not only be directing the types of foods we have access to, but what type of information will be provided to us to help us make intelligent choices, choices that are not only for our health, but for our environmental concerns, and our concerns over how animals are treated.

We want to know and understand everything about what we eat, where it came from, how it was grown, and if it's really good for us. And this time we won't settle for anything less than full disclosure. Nor will we settle for foods that don't meet our exacting requirements and demands. That's why the new trend is to get the skinny on food.

(In research conducted by The Food Network, International Food Futurists, and Culture Waves, list of the top 10 food trends was developed. It is from this project that this top trend comes .)