Consumer Power Drives the Food System

A consumer “vote” with every purchase may become easier to tally. Food activist groups will reunite to seek full transparency next. Faber says consumers want access to complete lists of ingredients—including potential allergens—in all the foods they buy, as well as seed-to-table tracking of ingredients and disclosures about fair wage practices.  This data can be organized with the “internet of things” technology that has revolutionized other industries. Recent food poisoning incidents have added urgency to tracking efforts. But the food industry isn’t clueless, says Charlie Arnot, CEO of The Center for Food Integrity, an industry group whose members include Monsanto, Cargill, and DuPont. Full transparency is necessary if big food companies want to regain consumer trust, he says. Arnot founded The Center for Food Integrity in 2007, in partnership with the Indiana Department of Agriculture, to bolster the image of large food companies under fire from consumer advocates. Big food companies felt “the public moving away from us,” he says. The anti-GMO movement was just the most visible evidence. The research from those early years was sobering. “The public believes food companies put profit ahead of consumer health and safety,” he says.