Coke, mcDonalds, General Mills and others are watching their sales decline year after year. Big has become "bad" as the consumer demands transparency from companies that are designed to obscure their sourcing and practices.
We are heading toward the biggest changes in food production in 100 years.
A third conveyed what her industry feared would be the largest casualty of the public’s “mounting distrust of Big Food”—that shoppers would turn away from them for good. “We understand that increasing numbers of consumers are seeking authentic, genuine food experiences,” said Campbell Soup Co. CEO Denise Morrison, “and we know that they are skeptical of the ability of large, long-established food companies to deliver them.”
And here’s one number to capture that skepticism: An analysis by Moskow found that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion in market share since 2009. “I would think of them like melting icebergs,” he says. “Every year they become a little less relevant.”
“Their existence is being challenged,” says Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo of the major packaged-food companies. In some ways it’s a strange turn of events. The idea of “processing”—from ancient techniques of salting and curing to the modern arsenal of artificial preservatives—arose to make sure the food we ate didn’t make us sick. Today many fear that it’s the processed food itself that’s making us unhealthy. Indeed, nearly half of the respondents in a recent Bernstein survey say they distrust the food system. Shoppers still value the convenience that food processing offers, says Moskow, “but the pendulum has definitely shifted in their minds. They have more and more questions about why this bread lasts 25 days without going stale.”
To line up with a goal of less greenhouse gas production (and, hopefully, more sequestration) General Mills and others will need a supply chain that uses less petrochemical inputs. Right now tractors use the dirtiest form of diesel, not legal for roadway use. 40% of the ground on earth is farms and those farms are pumping out carbon and methane. With electric tractors and changes in meat production we can make a huge difference in greenhouse gases.
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