How Do You Spell Transparency?

When’s the last time you looked at a menu and read that something was “sustainably sourced,” “organically grown” or “farm-to-table”? If you’re like most of us, it probably wasn’t too long ago. In fact, these buzz words of the food industry have been trending for years. Why? Because restaurants and manufacturers know that customers want to trust the food they’re putting into their bodies.

But it’s more than just these fancy buzz words that are trending within the food, restaurant, and agriculture industry – it’s transparency and trust in general. Consider the recent McDonald’s advertisements that aimed to prove the ingredients they use in their food are natural and whole. Or Chipotle’s years-long campaign touting the fact that it’s a GMO-free company – these and other marketing efforts are all about building customer trust and loyalty by being transparent.

According to Sullivan, Higdon & Sink’s recent white paper “Evolving Trust in the Food Industry,” these efforts are absolutely the right way to get to consumers. A whopping 65 percent of those researched say that knowing how their food is produced is somewhat or very important. And, of course it is! Would you want your family eating something unnatural or potentially harmful?

But let’s take a step back – putting “sustainably sourced” on your menu or developing an advertisement about your fresh and natural ingredients isn’t as transparent as it gets. Not even close.

At Heartland Fresh Family Farm, we like to think of transparency as part of our currency – it’s not something we try to sell to you. It’s simply built into what we do. And it’s not just that we practice grass-based sustainable agriculture, although that’s of course, an important part of our process.

What really creates that sense of transparency is that we’re here for you when you’re ready to ask questions and dig a little deeper. That’s the beauty of buying from your local farmer – transparency isn’t even discussed, it’s just ingrained. It’s there when you purchase your fruits and veggies from the person who actually grew it. It’s there when you decide to give your local farmer a call to ask about what goes into the meat he sells. It’s there when you develop a real relationship with him or her based on a trust and rapport you could never have developed with a supermarket chain or fast food restaurant.

Why worry about what’s really in your food? Why make decisions about the health of your family based on propaganda or advertising? Will you ever REALLY believe them? 

http://shsfoodthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/3.1_SHSFoodThink16_Evolving-TrustInFoodIndustry.pdf

http://www.ift.org/food-technology/daily-news/2016/march/29/consumer-perceptions-of-food-industry-transparency.aspx

http://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/Blogs/Details/53602?allowguest=true