Farm Futures Summit

 I attended the Farm Futures Business Summit for the first time in several years.  As always there were many interesting speakers.  The top presentation was in the even by Kevin Van Trump. 

He spent  a lot of time discussing the demographics of Millennial.  Millennial have now surpassed Baby Boomers in population.  We Boomers no longer rule the roost in terms of consumer preferences.  He suggested that the future of farming is likely to include various groups of producers catering to various consumer preferences.  He suggests that large producers can continue to supply Industrial needs such as ethanol and bio-diesel.  The next tier may be producing for feed. 

No GMO, organic and specialty products are preferred by our biggest demographic, so maybe we should be catering to them.  There is also a desire in the consumer market for products to be produced in an environmentally sensitive way.  There are a number of certifying organizations available that do the certifications. 

I first heard similar sentiments expressed by Danny Klinefelter  a few years back.  Maybe there is something to it.