AJ Shelman and Mary Shelman explain how GLP-1 drugs and AI are changing the food industry and what that means for consumers.
Forget what you think you know about consumer behavior. For decades, everyone from food manufacturers to health professionals to environmental advocates has tried to change what people eat, but the reality is that taste, price, and convenience reign supreme. We see this every day in what people actually buy, not just what they say they want. These core motivators are deeply ingrained, making it incredibly difficult to introduce new products or behaviors that stray from them.
Think plant-based burgers, vertical farms, blockchain-tracked ingredients… Despite waves of innovation and hype, none of it has truly moved the needle on mass-market eating habits. The last real shift was driven by the microwave oven in the 1970s, which led to a proliferation of convenient frozen meal and snack options. The lesson?
Changing what people eat is hard. Behavior and preferences are sticky, rooted in biology and psychology. This is one of the things that makes the Food & Ag industry so challenging.
But what if we could reprogram those fundamentals? That’s where two emerging forces – GLP-1 weight loss drugs and artificial intelligence – could completely rewrite the rules of the game. Unlike anything that’s come before, these technologies have the potential to disrupt the very foundation of how we make food choices, leading to fewer calories consumed and a shift towards healthier options. These shifts at the individual level have the potential to impact the entire agri-food value chain, with implications for everyone from consumers to farmers.
GLP-1 Drugs: Chemistry Beats Willpower at Scale
The battle between biology and willpower has defined human eating habits for millennia. Our brains are wired to crave calories, making it incredibly difficult to change how we eat, no matter how much nutrition science or willpower-based dieting tries to intervene. But GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, are changing the rules of the game.
Key points include:
- Altering the food landscape
- AI driving food choices
- The pursuit of value
Read the article, Wake-Up Call: The Unexpected Disruptors About to Transform the Food Industry, on WomeninAgriBusiness.com.