A megatrend is a large-scale, long-term change that has a significant and lasting impact on societies, economies, and environments. These trends shape cultures and influence life at national and global levels.
For the past 20 years, Mark Crowell, Founder and CEO of CuliNEX, has kept an eye on the megatrends affecting society and the food industry. In this article, Mark discusses how these megatrends are easily observable, and impacting each of us on a daily basis, even if we aren’t necessarily thinking about the implications of them. These trends will continue to drive change for decades but will also underlie many shorter-term fads.
Food Security Megatrend
The food security megatrend encompasses health, the environment, and resource sustainability. Food security means people are asking, “Will the ways we husband our resources continue to allow us to support human life on this planet?”
What negative impacts are current practices having on the earth, and on people, leading to food insecurity? Food insecurity includes climate change and its impact on agriculture, population growth and resource scarcity, as well as economic inequality and access to food. These are certainly already relevant issues, but they will continue to grow in importance if our ability to find future solutions to food security is degraded. The continuing effort to improve plant and animal yields, reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and improve agricultural practices is a direct response to this megatrend.
Healthspan Megatrend
It’s an undeniable fact that people need to eat. As a culture overall, it’s also true that we need to eat better.. We have created a food industry which is giving us many wonderful, healthy foods. But other foods are not particularly healthy, at least in the quantities we are now eating them. Certain segments of the population, people who are not well-attuned economically or educationally, and those who are less health-focused, consume more of these ultra processed foods and it is showing up as an epidemic of obesity leading to soaring rates of type II diabetes. This is happening in numbers so large that life spans have stagnated or declined in some parts of the U.S. for the first time in decades.
Health span is a valuable concept to think about when discussing the megatrend of health. The term “health span” refers to the period of a person's life during which people are healthy, free from chronic diseases and disabilities, and able to enjoy a high quality of life. The related term “lifespan” refers to the total number of years lived. Health span emphasizes the importance of living those years in good health, focusing on adding life to your years rather than just years to your life. Recently, the number of unhealthy years a person lives seems to be expanding. Even if “lifespan” is static, “healthspan” may be declining, robbing people of enjoyment and making life less active for decades. The rise of GLP-1 antagonists is a direct result of people seeking to improve their healthspan.
Environmental Impact Megatrend
Another future megatrend concerns the environment. More people are becoming aware of, and concerned about our stewardship of our land, water, and air. The questions raised in this megatrend are broader than those about food security and involve questions about population growth, energy and land use, housing, even political systems. What does good stewardship of the earth look like and how does that translate to what and how we eat? The development of many plant-based protein products is a direct result of these concerns.
Science-based Solutions Megatrend
When we look to the future, we can see science continuing to advance across many disciplines. We are in a golden age of scientific discovery in almost every field. Genomic science, nutrition research, studies of the microbiome, and genetic science, are just a few of the areas directly impacting social media groups, government policy, food marketing and ultimately what and how we choose to eat.
Aside from all the ideology and politics that surround discussions of which scientific results to believe, science is advancing rapidly, aided by AI. One of the qualities of the scientific method is that science is never settled. That’s a feature, not a bug. Scientific facts exist, but there's always new evidence to consider. New evidence, and varied interpretations of scientific findings make us take a step back and reconsider what we think we know. Scientists are trained to look at results with skepticism. That is how progress happens, but it’s understandingly confusing for a public that may not understand or may not want to understand.
The long-held promise of individualized medicine and nutrition is rapidly coming into sight although it hasn’t quite arrived yet.
Growing Cultural Awareness of Food Megatrends
When people with their pulse on megatrends discuss the future, they talk about health and food security. They talk about the environment and sustainability. They believe in science as the source of much of the progress we will experience because megatrends are the forces that shape the world of tomorrow. Though they may not be discussed on a day-to-day basis, even people who are not futurists are aware these forces will continue to impact their lives in years to come.
