Episode 92: Food Security - Education and Awareness and Where Marketing Fits In, with Ali Cox, Founder and CEO, Noble West

“When it comes to food systems, Marketers can be the most valuable in providing extraordinary consumer insights so that assumptions are not made in what people want.”

To maintain food security, food systems need to change. They need to be more sustainable, less impactful on the planet, healthier and way less wasteful. But, there is still a huge amount of education and awareness that needs to happen if people are to truly understand why food systems are at risk and, how we choose what we eat really does matter.

In this super informative episode, we were joined by Ali Cox, CEO and Founder of Noble West, an agriculture and food ingredient marketing agency taking on a big challenge. Ali believes that, “the biggest challenge is that consumers (in the USA) are confused. Research shows that people make their food choices based on price, taste and availability – climate is a very distant fourth.”

Socioeconomic factors are definitely a challenge, however how we market food also needs to change. Ali shares with us her experiences both as a fifth generation farmer herself and the experiences of the farmers and organisations she works with. Truly passionate about ingredients and telling great stories, Ali wants the food industry to play the role it should be playing in educating and being part of the solution when it comes to tackling the enormous challenges around food security.  

Ali shares so many examples of projects she has worked on and the brands she believes are getting their marketing right. We explore the need for shared value and the importance of meeting people where they are at.

Tune in and listen as we talk to Ali about:

• Imperfect food and the difference between food loss and food waste.

• The significant business opportunity being missed when it comes to waste.

• Why upcycling is the future.

• Whether we really need so many options when it comes to food?

• The need to tell the origin stories and why we should absolutely want to know where our food comes from.

• How Marketers need to understand what people really want so that they can bring those insights back into their organisations.

For more, follow and connect with Ali here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicox/

And to find out more about Noble West and the work they do - here https://wearenoblewest.com/