Facts that suggest a certain way of behaving are one thing. An actual change in behaviour is often something else. Habits, especially those you have come to cherish, are hard to shift. And sometimes the shift in values ends at the supermarket checkout – when insights and convictions threaten to drain your wallet. Nevertheless, there is evidence to suggest that there isn’t much that will stay the same in terms of nutrition in the coming years – especially in the affluent industrial nations. A few trends with some disruptive potential:

Organic becomes (more) normal.

This is proven not just by looking at the supermarket shelves, but also by the simple figures themselves. The global market for organically produced food has recently grown to almost 100 billion US dollars per year, with some countries showing double-digit growth rates. In Germany – one of the world’s most important markets for organic products – animal welfare and environmental protection, regional production, low pollution, health and personal well-being are the main reasons why people opt for organic products.

Goodbye, beef steak.

By 2040, 60% of our ever-increasing demand for meat is expected to be covered by laboratory meat and alternative plant-based products – a forecast 450 billion dollar market for vegan meat alternatives alone. Vegetarianism and veganism are no longer niche. Going meatless or fully vegan has become cool. When even Arnold Schwarzenegger now gets his protein from the field and not the stable; that really is saying something. In comparison, people who buy organic are almost ordinary folks, even though they share many values and motives with vegans.

(Cow’s) milk doesn’t cut it anymore.

Oat, soya and almond milk & co. are about to make life difficult for the 400 billion US dollar milk industry. Cow’s milk is suffering the same fate as steak: it is becoming increasingly rare for either of them to be considered truly valuable. Staunch critics simply regard dairy products as harmful, and supporters of unrestrained consumption of steak are likely to lose out in the expert’s debate over red meat.

Health is the big thing.

The global market for foods that promise health and well-being is growing steadily – soon to reach $800 billion a year. Superfoods are trendy. Over 90% of Germans state that healthy food is important or very important to them. – even if actual eating habits are occasionally at odds with proclaimed values. Sugar consumption in Germany, for example, has remained largely unchanged and at a high level for years.

Millennials eat and live differently.

They lead healthier, more sustainable, more climate-friendly and somehow more “conscious” lives. At least according to the authors of the UBS report “The food revolution”. After all: The electoral successes of Green parties in Europe are mainly supported by the younger population groups. Surveys suggest that generations Y and Z could be the protagonists of a shift in values and culture – remember Greta? Environmental and climate protection are very important to them (but so is the opportunity to travel), as is the social and ecological correctness of companies. Whether this alleged attitude is always the deciding factor when it comes to actual consumption is a different matter.

Food production becomes high-tech.

Robots on farmland, drones over fields, test tube meat, genetically tailored seeds, personalised food, digitised supply chains: technological innovations – often digital –, promise more efficient, resource- and climate-friendly food production – and new business areas with a market potential of 700 billion US dollars in 2030, according to UBS estimates.