organic produce trend consultant

caution: a bit of a rant ahead (but at least i'm inspired to blog again!)

it's not a new notion--"you are what you eat." and i've long looked askance and perhaps a tad judgmentally at what the person ahead of me in the grocery line places on the belt, but now it's confirmed by a study conducted by a danish "future researcher" (i want to be one of those, or maybe an "idea consultant," but more about that later).

according to this woman, who has her own company devoted to this so-called "future research"--firstmove--what we eat and drink says a whole lot about us. these are decisions we make on a daily basis, not a one-time investment like a car or a home. we make lifestyle choices every day as we troll the aisles of our grocery stores. and apparently companies are very interested in these lifestyle choices.

the study looks at three groups--the young (20-35 years), families with children and 50+. the study thus far suggests that food reflects our lifestyle in general in a different way than it did 10-15 years ago. a lot more environmental awareness has come into the picture. this sounds excellent to me. all three groups they looked at had high requirements with regard to organic foods because all three associate organic with quality. although, all three are increasingly aware that organic doesn't always mean quality, especially the "first movers." they are, as i understand it, a sort of leading edge consumer. this way, companies who buy firstmove's study can anticipate market trends and try to provide accordingly.

reading this, naturally got me thinking. wondering if we are "first movers" in our market. when i look at what i'm putting on the belt at the grocery store, i feel like i must be, but am i not at the mercy of the purchasing dude at the grocery store and what s/he makes available to me? it's the old chicken or the egg, isn't it? do i make the choices i do because they're what's there or is it because i want that organic chicken, eggs, milk, yogurt that it's there? how does this really work? who is really in the driver's seat?

there is a lot more talk about organic food and locally-produced food in the air these days. books like barbara kingsolver's wonderful animal, vegetable, miracle and all kinds of companies who will deliver you a box of organic, locally produced veg on a weekly basis, more and more organically-produced wines and olive oils on the shelves. all of which indicates a trend towards more awareness of our food supply. and it's about time too!

but, from what i can see as i look around in the grocery store, there are far too many people who haven't gotten the message. i see people piling on sodas and chips and ready-made meals (which were practically non-existent when i came to denmark ten years ago). and i find myself silently judging them. and feeling decidedly superior as i put fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and radishes and cabbages and mushrooms and organic ground beef and an organic chicken in my basket. i will actually skip the milk or go to another store to get it if my usual store is out of organic milk. i don't really want any other milk in my refrigerator or in my family. i even know which gas station always has organic milk and bike out of my way to get it if we're out of milk on a sunday morning.

we do decide who we want to be with the food choices we make--healthy, organic, local (supporting local farmers is always good), animal-conscious (only eggs from chickens that get to lead a proper chicken life), tree-hugging (i always take my own cloth bags), environmentally-conscious. at our house, we even make political choices--for example, avoiding produce from israel until they start being nice to the palestinians. granted, israel probably doesn't notice, but it makes us feel better. but eating foods that haven't had to travel halfway across the world in a 20-foot container (my livelihood aside) also TASTE better, so we're making a taste choice as well.  our time is precious, so the time we spend making food should be worth it, i definitely don't want to use bad quality ingredients.

anyway, back to this notion of calling oneself a "future researcher." what is up with all of these made-up professions? isn't it ok to simply be a researcher anymore? you have to inflate it with "future, " to make it seem trendy and cool? and speaking of trends, i've also seen the title "trend researcher." and i have also seen someone called an "idea consultant" in my newspaper. on that one, i contacted my sister immediately and said we should definitely start an idea consulting business. $100 for small ideas and $1000+ for really good ones. although we may have to up those prices what with the value of the dollar these days. because, of course, our ideas remain brilliant and valuable. :-) 

in my previous job, i was contacted by a woman who said she was a "podcasting consultant." i had a look at her website and it seemed that she simply made audio recordings as mp3s and put them on a website. i guess it was made a podcast by the fact of listening to it on an iPod. hmm, i have about 10 iPods myself, so i guess i could do up a set of business cards that say "iPod expert" or something like that. please, people. get real! and feed your family locally-produced organic food that you carry home in a cloth bag (preferably one you made of old jeans or something equally recycling-minded). :-)

ok, i'm done now. don't we all wish i was still having the blog blahs?