Infographic: 3 types of food consumers

There are three basic groups of food consumers, but the animal agriculture industry should only focus its energy on two of those groups, a University of California-Davis professor says.

Image by Jennifer Keller
Image by Jennifer Keller

There are three basic groups of food consumers, but the animal agriculture industry should only focus its energy on two of those groups, a University of California-Davis professor says.

Speaking at the recent 2018 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit in Arlington, Virginia, and citing the International Consumer Attitudes Study survey from Elanco, Frank Mitloehner, professor of air quality and extension specialist, University of California-Davis (UC-Davis), identified the three groups. The survey, according to Mitloehner, sought the opinions of more than 97,000 consumers from 26 countries.

Those three consumer groups are:

  1. The food buyer
  2. The lifestyle buyer
  3. The fringe  

The infographic shown below offers a closer look at the three food consumer groups and the percentages of the population that they represent.

3 Types Of Food Consumers Infographic V2

Focus on the 99 percent

Mitloehner urged those attending the Stakeholders Summit to allow the fringe – or what he sarcastically referred to as his “special friends” --  to believe what they believe, because their minds will not change, no matter what they are told.

Frank Mitloehner

Frank Mitloehner | Photo by Roy Graber

“We are spending an unbelievable amount of time addressing the 1 percent, addressing the fringe,” Mitloehner said. “We will never, ever, ever change what they think. Stop trying, because you are wasting valuable resources.

“What we should do instead is ensuring to the rest, and that is the 99 percent, who already have a high trust in our food supply chain, that the food they consume is indeed safe, (and) that it is produced in a way that is produced in a way from the animal side that adheres to high welfare standards.”

The UC-Davis professor also stressed that the agriculture industry should reach out to the younger consumers, so they hear accurate messages from those with a direct involvement in food production and become less susceptible to believe what members of the fringe want them to believe.

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