I regularly receive a few questions. Here there are:

Q: What does the Food Futurist do?

A: The main purpose of the Food Futurist is to help clients to anticipate the changes to come, identify successful strategies to adapt timely – meaning before their competitors – and thus be the prosperous winners of the future. My approach is practical and concrete. Foresight is not an intellectual exercise, but it must lead to effective action. That is exactly what I offer. For more details, please browse the website, as it is quite rich in information.

Q: What kind of service can a client of The Food Futurist ask from you?

A: I believe that it is more important that the client decides what they need than just trying to fit in some category of service. The philosophy of The Food Futurist is to provide tailor-made service, focusing on the specific objectives of the clients. I can offer keynote presentations, set up workshops, work in person or virtually. I can be a one-off assignment or a series of activities, or I can be embedded in the client’s team. I am very flexible and comfortable in any setting. I will provide what the client sees as being the most useful and the most valuable to achieve their objectives. You can find more details on my Services page.

Q: What is the advantage for a client to work with The Food Futurist?

A: They will get a clear and objective vision of the things to come, so that they can make the right decisions to be prepared on time. They will get a clear and effective strategy to adapt and to succeed and, if needed, get the proper support they ask to execute the strategy successfully. As the name of this website indicates, the goal is to find solutions.

Q: There are other people offering similar services. What makes you special?

A: One the one hand, my experience and knowledge are major assets. On the other hand, my authenticity and intellectual honesty are the assurance that I will speak the truth -even it goes against the grain- and stay focus on my client’s best interest. I do not support nonsense. To me, what the clients need to hear comes before what they want to hear. With The Food Futurist, they will get practical and specific directions, not generic and trendy talk.

Q: How would you describe your style?

My style is plain english and I am straight-forward. I have a healthy dose of critical thinking, which allows me to look at the future from many angles and not let myself being influenced or tempted by hype. I do not support nor spread nonsense. I assess situations objectively. I tell my clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Also, I am very discrete and I hold my dealings with clients in strict confidence.

Q: Is the Food Futurist just another futurist?

A: No. I am specialized in food and agriculture. Unlike most of other futurists, I do not talk about the future of everything. To know my personal views of what being a futurist means for me, please read the My Futurism page. Although I keep updated in the developments in many sectors, I serve only clients involved in food and agriculture. Considering the amount of inaccuracies and erroneous information that are spread around, having the practical background in food and agriculture gives me – and therefore you as my client – an advantage. This is why I am always a few years ahead of others with my predictions, and why my predictions are accurate. With the Food Futurist, you are at the right address when it comes to the future of food and farming.

Q: In which business sector are you specialized?

A: Of course, The Food Futurist is about food and agriculture, so that is my whole area of expertise. Any topic about any sector of food and agriculture is welcome. I am comfortable in any type of production, any activity in food value chains and consumption. Thanks to my experience, I am quite versatile and I understand all the interconnections, so I am quite good and connecting the dots and identifying the right action points. My clients cover most of all the different activities in food and agriculture.

Q: Where are your customers located?

A: In many parts of the world, and some of my clients have operations in most countries, as well. I have extensive international experience, and it does not matter wherefrom my clients are.

Q: What is your “ideal” client?

A: Preferably, I like my clients to be curious, open-minded, pragmatic, enthusiastic, results-oriented and with a healthy dose of critical thinking.

Q: Are your predictions accurate? 

A: To find the answer, just read my blog and my books, or find someone who has worked with me.

Across the board, the answer is a resounding yes, my predictions have been quite accurate, even though at times, they surprised my clients and audiences. Personally, this never bothered me because my role is to tell how I (myself) see the future, not to follow the herd and join the conversation about what is trendy at the time. So, sometimes, I have been considered a dreamer with too much fantasy and sometimes as a refractory person not embracing a hype I did not agree with. Every time, it turned out that I was the one who saw it right, which is good as it demonstrates the added value that I bring.

My clients pay me to hear my views and that is what I give them. If I chose to tell them what they want to hear instead of what I truly think, it would be dishonest, both to the client and to myself. That, I would never do.

Q: Do you advocate any particular food production system?

A: Food production systems depend on many factors. There is such a diversity of landscapes, climates, soil types, agrarian structures, economic conditions, political climate, sociological and cultural heritages, and market opportunities that influence how food is produced. Thinking there is a one-fit-all miracle production system is simply non-sense. The future will be about optimizing by using all the possibilities that this diversity offers. The only thing that I advocate is common sense, open-mindedness, pragmatism and responsibility as well as critical thinking without complacency. Only the best interests me. All I advocate is that if something is good, it must be praised and rewarded. Similarly, if something is bad, it must be replaced by a better alternative as soon as possible.

Q: What is your greatest achievement?

A: Every time a customers or a reader or a listener tells me that my work is useful to them, it gives me the same great feeling of accomplishment. The greatest accomplishment of all in my opinion is each time I have created a job, directly or indirectly, because I know I have helped provide someone with economic security and with a future.

(More as an anecdote, I got a particular sense of achievement when the FAO published an article on June 15 2013 with the same title as an article I published on my blog on December 4 2010, called Hunger is more than about just food production. I was quite pleased to read that I had come to the same conclusion as a Nobel Laureate of Economics two and a half years before he did. Not too bad, isn’t it?)

Q: Are you some kind of a guru?

A: I do not see myself as one. I am not too keen on terms like guru or even expert. Quite often, the most visible ones in the media are not always the ones who say the most accurate things. I just do my job the very best I can. I say what I think in the most objective manner that I can, but I never assume that I am always right. I like to lead my audience to come to the important conclusions themselves. For them, the sense of ownership increases their involvement to lead change more effectively.