In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays continues his conversation with Dr. Glynn Tonsor of Kansas State University, who leads the Meat Demand Monitor, a project funded by the beef and pork checkoffs. In Part One of the conversation, Tonsor discussed what the Meat Demand Monitor has learned about consumer meat demand and purchasing habits. In Part Two, Tonsor explains what’s ahead for the project, how producers can use the data and what the monitor is showing about today’s strong demand for meat and protein.
Meat Demand Monitor Looking to the Future
The Meat Demand Monitor is currently in the first year of a new three-year period of support from the beef and pork checkoffs. Tonsor says the longer the project continues, the more valuable the data becomes. “We’re in the middle of first of three years of ongoing support per the beef checkoff and the pork checkoff. So we have at least two and a half more years of this to go.”
Tonsor says having years of data allows researchers to make increasingly useful comparisons. “Each additional year of insight is almost exponentially more valuable because as you add duration to any data set, we can do more comparisons. Now I can compare to last month, last year, five years ago, so forth.”
He says he is optimistic the Meat Demand Monitor will continue beyond the current funding period. “The longer this goes, the deeper those insights.”
Household Finances Affecting Food Spending
One of the ways Tonsor keeps the Meat Demand Monitor relevant is by adding questions tied to current issues facing consumers. Recently, researchers have focused on household finances and affordability.
Tonsor says they are using questions from the University of Michigan’s long-running Consumer Sentiment Survey to better understand how financial conditions affect meat purchasing. “We’re using questions from the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Survey that goes back to the 1960s.”
The results show a clear difference between households that feel financially better off and those that feel worse off than a year ago. “Unfortunately, you know, the latest data for June, well over a third of the country says they’re doing worse financially than a year ago.”
That financially pressured group is cutting back particularly when it comes to food away from home. “That group particularly is tightening the wallet away from home, so they’re not going to restaurants nearly as often.”
For Tonsor, that’s an important warning sign for the food-service side of the beef and pork industries. “So it’s a food service headwind in general.”
Data Gives Producers a More Detailed Picture
Tonsor says the Meat Demand Monitor can help the beef and pork industries understand why consumers choose to buy—or not buy—their products. “Hopefully in a very broad sense we and therefore the producers better understand what’s driving the decision to buy or not buy your product.”
The data also looks at factors including taste, price and environmental considerations. “Monitoring things like taste compared to price, compared to environmental impact, and so forth. Gives us some insights on relative priority from the consumer.” And the information can be broken down much further than simply looking at the average U.S. consumer.
Tonsor says researchers have developed dashboards that allow them to compare consumers in different states and demographic groups. “You can dive in and say, how’s California different on that topic than Kansas, for example?”
He says that’s particularly valuable because producers and companies ultimately market into specific consumer groups and geographic markets. “Most producers sell into a specific market, not just the very broad. And hopefully, the MDM gives them some more nuanced insight they may not have had without it.”
Meat Demand Monitor Launched Just Before COVID
The Meat Demand Monitor began collecting data in February 2020—just before the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed how Americans ate and shopped for food.
Tonsor says that timing was completely coincidental. “It was, and it was totally by chance.”
The project had actually been in development for several years before the pandemic. “The vision and the desire for this project went back to like 2017, 2018.”
But because the monitor was already operating when the pandemic hit, researchers were able to quickly track changes in consumer behavior. “We did understand aspects of the pandemic better because of the MDM.”
That included looking at how consumers shifted between eating at home and eating away from home, as well as how different meat products were affected. “How did that impact ground beef demand differently than steak? How did it impact pork chop versus bacon and so forth?”
Tonsor says the data provided an important tool during a period when the industry was dealing with tremendous uncertainty. “It was nice to have some data and information to go with, and at times check the emotion to get through that.”
Protein Is In
Looking at the meat industry today, Tonsor says the Meat Demand Monitor is showing strong consumer interest in meat and, more broadly, protein. “Meat is in, and to be complete here, I think protein is in.”
He says protein has become a much more prominent selling point in the food marketplace. “If you and I walked around the corner and went into Starbucks or somewhere else, there’d be items with protein stamped on it that wasn’t there three years ago.”
Tonsor emphasizes that the trend goes beyond meat, but says the increased focus on protein has benefited the meat industry. “The desire to have more protein and intentional protein consumption is very common in U.S. households today.”
And compared with the beginning of the Meat Demand Monitor in 2020, he says the change is significant. “I know for a fact that wasn’t the case in 2020.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR above for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
