Meat marketing tactics change with consumer trends
By Jennifer M. Latzke

The grocery advertising inserts are a familiar staple of every hometown newspaper. Chucks, ribeye steaks, ground beef--all so tempting, and at the right sale price for the season.

Consumers are familiar with this communication tactic grocers have used for decades to entice buyers into their stores and ultimately move product. But, with changing demographics and changing consumer habits, meat retailers are becoming more invested in using new and improved methods to reach their target audiences.

New faces in the store

In the past 50 years, consumer demographics at the grocery store have changed, and the meat counter has had to adapt to these trends.

For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of women 18 years and older working outside of the home rose from 33.4 percent in 1950 to 59.3 percent in 2007. These working parents of active children are looking for convenient items in the meat case to simplify mealtime between driving their children to and from after-school activities.

Conventional ag production has economical, environmental advantages
By Jennifer Bremer

With little or no new farmland to exploit, farmers will have to become more productive in the future in order to continue to provide feed, food and fiber for the world, according to Alex Avery, director of research and education for the Hudson Institute.

"Global food demand will at least double, and more likely triple, over the next 50 years," he told a group at the Feeding Quality Forum held in South Sioux City, Neb., Nov. 10.

Avery said population growth is not the only factor in world food demand, though. Affluence and wealth have just as much importance in the need for food.

"When people have more money, the first thing they buy is food and more higher-quality food," he said. "Everyone has always thought Indian people had mostly vegetarian diets because of religious reasons, but it is more because of economic reasons."