U.S. Consumers Want Snacks with a “Broader Consciousness,” Survey Finds
Photo: Pexels
This article originally appeared in Presence Marketing’s February 2022 Industry Newsletter
By Steve Hoffman
A majority of consumers are incorporating their environmental and social values into what snacks they choose to buy, and these trends are likely to intensify, according to the Third Annual State of Snacking, published by The Harris Poll, Mondelez and NextAtlas.
A poll of 3,055 people globally found that 85% of consumers said they either purchase or would like to buy snacks from companies that are working to offset their environmental impact and 87% or those surveyed say they preferred products that are produced in a way that is fair and lawful to all the workers involved.
Data from the poll also revealed that between 75% and 78% of consumers say low-waste packaging, fair labor practices, animal welfare and environmental concerns are currently impacting their food choices, and these same consumers expect those issues to affect 92% or more of their food choices in the next 10 years.
"We now see data emerging that demonstrate how consumers are evolving their snacking behaviors and purchasing decisions to more fully align with their values," Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put said in a statement.
Vital Farms Partners with Hen Meadows Farm
For Immediate Release:
Contact:
Dan Brooks, Director of Marketing, Vital Farms, dan.brooks@vitalfarms.com, tel 646.468.5902
Steven Hoffman, Compass Natural, steve@compassnatural.com, tel 303.807.1042
Bringing the Pasture to Your Local Grocery: Vital Farms Partners with Hen Meadows Farm to Bring Regionally Produced Pasture-raised Organic Eggs to the Southern California Market
Vital Farms recently affiliated with Hen Meadows Farm, a small-acreage, fourth generation family farm with roots in both San Diego and Ventura Counties, California, to provide regionally produced, pasture-raised USDA certified organic eggs to Whole Foods Markets in the Southern California region. Vital Farms currently works with 49 family farms across the country, and the company will be exhibiting at Natural Products Expo West, the world’s largest natural and organic products trade exposition, March 7-9, 2014. Visit Vital Farms at booth number 5437 in Hall E.
Austin, Texas (February 26, 2014) – Vital Farms, the nation’s leading provider of pasture-raised eggs, has partnered with regional producer and fourth generation family-owned Hen Meadows Farm, with operations in Valley Center and Moorpark, California, to provide Certified Humane®, organic and locally produced eggs to the Southern California grocery market. Vital Farms eggs from Hen Meadows Farm are currently on the shelf in Whole Foods Markets in Southern California.
Pasture-raised organic eggs are gaining in popularity among those who want to ensure their food is ethically produced without the use of synthetic pesticides and genetically engineered or GMO ingredients. Pastured chickens graze outside all year long, and are also provided organic feed that is produced without toxic, synthetic pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or GMOs. These chickens flap their wings, eat bugs, and roll around in the dirt. In short, they act like chickens should.
Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs are now produced on 49 family-owned farms across the US, and, with this new relationship with Hen Meadows, Vital Farms is able to provide locally sourced, pasture-raised Organic eggs directly to the Southern California market.
With roots in San Diego and Ventura Counties, family-owned Hen Meadows Farm has been producing farm-fresh eggs in Southern California since 1941. The company has been producing cage free and organic eggs for more than 20 years, and now pasture-raised eggs in working with Vital Farms.
“We saw an opportunity to support a local business and regional food producer. By working with a small local farm, we are able to reduce the distance from the farm to the table which, in turn, produces a more sustainable, environmentally friendly and fresher product,” said Jason Jones, President and Co-owner of Vital Farms.
About Vital Farms
Vital Farms began on a 27-acre farm in southeast Austin, TX, with the goal of providing the best quality eggs while creating a place where the hens can “flap their wings, stretch their legs, move around, and act like chickens.” Vital Farms works with a network of 49 independent, family-owned farms to produce Certified Humane® pasture-raised eggs for the natural, organic and conventional food markets, and is the largest supplier of pasture-raised eggs in the nation.
For more information, visit www.vitalfarms.com, info@vitalfarms.com, tel 877.455.3063.
Visit Vital Farms at Natural Products Expo West, the world’s largest natural and organic products trade exposition, March 7-9, 2014. Visit Vital Farms at booth number 5437 in Hall E.
For more information, visit the Vital Farms Blog, like us on Facebook, follow us on YouTube and Twitter.
Communications by Compass Natural Marketing
info@compassnatural.com | 303.807.1042
Egg-ceptional Variety
For Immediate Release:
Contact:
Dan Brooks, Director of Marketing, Vital Farms, dan.brooks@vitalfarms.com, 646.468.5902
Steven Hoffman, Compass Natural, steve@compassnatural.com, 303.807.1042
Egg-ceptional Variety: Increasing Consumer Awareness of the Benefits of Pasture-Raised Eggs Leads Vital Farms to Expand Offerings of Humane, Pasture Raised Eggs.
As demand soars for humane, pasture-raised eggs, Vital Farms is broadening its product offerings. In addition to its Vital Farms Certified Organic eggs, available exclusively at Whole Foods Market, it now also offers Pasture Verde and Alfresco Farms brands to serve retailers and consumers in the natural, organic and conventional food markets nationwide. The company has also recently introduced Backyard Eggs, a Non-GMO Project Verified brand, available exclusively at Whole Foods Market.
Vital Farms will be exhibiting at Natural Products Expo East, Sept 26-28, booth #8205
Austin, Texas (September 24, 2013) – One look at the egg set in your local grocer will tell you all you need to know about how much customers are embracing the benefits - both personal and ethical - of pasture-raising. Where before you might have had to shop at specialty stores to find eggs of this kind, increasingly you'll find them right alongside regular eggs, and the chances are they'll be one of Vital Farms' delicious offerings. Consumers are quickly learning to appreciate the benefits of pasture-raising, a farming method that centers on the highest standard or animal welfare – fresh air, salad and plenty of exercise if you will – that produces healthier, tastier eggs. The farming of the future rooted firmly in the past. People get it, and people love it.
"The public misunderstanding of the term ‘Free-range’ is a misconception that the egg industry does nothing to dispel," says Matt O’Hayer, co-founder and CEO of Vital Farms, the nation’s leading producer of Certified Humane®, pasture-raised eggs for natural, organic and, more recently, conventional food markets.
"Whenever you have up to 20,000 chickens crammed into an industrial-size barn that has only a very few tiny doors, or “pop holes” as the egg industry calls them, most of the birds inside the building never see the open doors, let alone the light of day. Yet, the mere existence of an access point permits the industry to call eggs from this process “free range” or “cage free,” " he explains. “Granted, it is an improvement over the squalor of caged production, but a small one at best.”
In reality, each “free range” hen lives practically its entire life indoors on about 1 square foot of total space. By comparison, pasture-raised birds, like those on Vital Farms’ properties, bask in a positively luxurious minimum of 108 square feet of outdoor space each. With access to fresh pasture, native grasses and sunshine, this makes for premium quality pasture-raised eggs that are lower in cholesterol and saturated fat and higher in omega-3s, vitamins A, D and E, and other key nutrients compared to their conventional, cage-produced counterparts, according to a study conducted by Mother Earth News.
Sales of humane and specialty eggs are outpacing the category overall, reports Progressive Grocer, and, as the leading supplier of Certified Organic and pasture-raised eggs to Whole Foods Market and other retailers, Vital Farms’ continued growth reflects this trend.
New Pasture Raised Egg Brands Positioned to Serve a Growing Market
To serve the growing demand for humanely produced, pasture-raised eggs, Vital Farms has launched new brands to serve different markets and consumer segments throughout the country. In addition to its Vital Farms branded Certified Organic eggs, which are, by the very definition of organic standards, non-GMO, the company also recently introduced Backyard Eggs, the first line of specifically Non-GMO Project Verified, pasture-raised eggs, in the nation. Both brands are available exclusively at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide.
For independent natural and organic retailers and conventional grocers across the country, the company recently launched the Pasture Verde brand, which are the very same certified organic, pasture raised eggs sold as Vital Farms Egg in Whole Foods. All their pasture-raised eggs are produced by a network of more than 40 independent family farms in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Georgia and California. These farmers are committed to humane, sustainable production, says Dan Brooks, Marketing and Communications Director for Vital Farms.
In addition to its Certified Organic and non-GMO Project Verified brands, Vital Farms also offers Alfresco Farms pasture-raised eggs, from chickens raised on conventional feed but with no added hormones or antibiotics, and no toxic, synthetic pesticides or herbicides used on their pastures. By mitigating the expense of the Organic or Non-GMO feeds, Alfresco Farms is able to offer customers an egg with all the benefits of pasture-raising at lower price point on the shelf, and sales of this category of product have contributed enormously to Vital Farms’ growing success. Shelved next to eggs that perpetuate the fallacies of industrial egg production, choosing affordable pasture-raised eggs is a no-brainer.
“Every time I have a chance to chat with customers at the egg shelves, and I explain pasture-raising to them, you can see the light bulb go off. It's basically the kind of egg that they think they've been buying all along, and the egg that they've wanted all along!” says O’Hayer. “The idea that the hens are happy clearly makes people feel good about what they are buying and eating.”
Vital Farms brands:
Pasture Verde – Pasture raised; Certified Humane®; USDA certified organic (non-GMO) vegetarian feed; available at independent natural and organic products retailers nationwide.
Vital Farms – Pasture raised; Certified Humane®; USDA certified organic (non-GMO) vegetarian feed; available at Whole Foods Market nationwide.
Backyard Eggs – Pasture raised; Certified Humane®; Non-GMO Project Verified vegetarian feed; produced without antibiotics, or toxic, synthetic pesticides and herbicides; available at Whole Foods Market nationwide.
Alfresco Farms – Pasture raised; Certified Humane®;
non-organic, vegetarian feed; produced without antibiotics, or toxic, synthetic pesticides and herbicides; available at independent natural and conventional grocery stores nationwide.
Texas Chicken Ranch – Pasture raised, Certified Humane®; non-organic, vegetarian feed produced without antibiotics or toxic, synthetic pesticides and herbicides; available at H-E-B.
“Eggs classified as ‘pasture raised’ are laid by hens raised primarily outdoors,” says O’Hayer. “With lots of space and plenty of opportunity to perch, forage and behave just as they would in the wild, we believe that these happy hens lay the best eggs in the world. Frequently rotated onto fresh pastures, managed without the use of toxic, synthetic pesticides or fertilizers – and safely roosted at night in secure hen houses, pasture-raised hens naturally supplement their diet with fresh grasses, herbs and the sort of creep-crawly goodies that only a pecking hen could love! This combination of diet and healthy, outdoor living result in eggs that are unsurpassed in flavor, appearance, texture and nutritional content, loved by our customers and chefs alike.”
About Vital Farms
Matt O’Hayer and his wife Catherine Stewart started Vital Farms in 2007 with 20 Rhode Island Red hens on a 27-acre farm in southeast Austin, TX, in hopes of providing the best quality eggs while creating a place where the hens can “flap their wings, stretch their legs, move around, and act like chickens.” In 2009 they were joined by Jason Jones, who had recently tired of corporate life. “When Jason came along,” says O’Hayer, “we knew that we had a way to make this work on a much larger scale. The combination of experience, belief and passion has proven to be a powerful one!”
Currently, the company works with a network of more than 40 independent, family-owned farms to produce Certified Humane® pasture-raised eggs for the natural, organic and conventional food markets, and is the largest supplier of pasture-raised eggs in the nation. In August 2013, Vital Farms was awarded the #85 slot on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing privately held companies in the U.S. The company strives to be environmentally sensitive in all aspects of its operation and uses 100% recycled pulp for its egg cartons. For more information, visit www.vitalfarms.com, info@vitalfarms.com, tel 877.455.3063.
Communications by: Compass Natural Marketing
info@compassnatural.com tel. 303.807.1042