What does the future look like for the conventional protein industry?  Representatives of the beef, pork, egg, and dairy industry discussed that topic recently, focusing on competitors ranging from plant based proteins to cultured meat products.  Most on the panel such as John Johnson of the National Pork Producers council expressed optimism of continued growth in their industry in the next 20 years.

 

"Technology, animal health, genetics, efficiencies on the farm are really dramatic and I think there's some real opportunities about transparency, people wanting to know where their food comes from."]

However Chad Gregory of the United Egg Producers said there are challenges with long term planning related to continued consolidation.

 

"There so much uncertainty of what the customer actually wants, what the consumer actually wants.  the customer says one thing, the consumer says one thing and they do other things and you cannot invest in large commercial size egg farms these days with uncertainty."

 

 

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