Industry
Future of Beef Revisited : Consumer Issues and Demand
By Kris Ringwell , NDSU Extension Service
After four decades of engaging consumers and integrating producers , I still ponder .
The sensitivity between consumers and beef producers is increasing , but the sensitivity may not always be on the same tracks . Consumers register their opinion at the checkout counter through product selection and validate their expressed opinions by how they shop and how much they pay .
With the expansion of the internet , the opportunity for consumer validation , along with the expression of any disappointment with a meal , or a particular product or service , never has been greater . The internet expands the ability to monitor consumers , allowing businesses to stock what and when a product is most likely to sell .
Is the situation the same for cattle producers and the cattle they sell ? No . So perhaps the balance between consumers and producers has yet to be determined .
How this reality connects to the producer who is selling the cows and calves is probably a loose fit , yet consumer thoughts need to be integrated with production expansion or contraction . After all , that is what drives the business .
In 2006 , I reviewed an article by Helen Jensen (“ Consumer Issues and Demand ” published by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association in the online Choices publication , http :// www . choicesmagazine . org , Volume 21 , No . 3 , 2006 ). She noted several very real impacts for small and middlesized operations that loom in the future in regard to the consumer and demand .
Have these impacts changed in the last 12 years ? Did these impacts actually become
PHOTO BY : SARAH ANNE JOHNSON , OH
176 | JUNE / JULY 2018