Why Millennials Are Shaping Our Future

Coming up on this week's episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy.

I think the big change will come from younger people. I think that, you know, older people are kind of set in their ways. Younger people, companies want them as lifelong customers and will listen to them more. And it turns out that they have a stronger sense of purpose and meaning in life. And has been true of previous generations.

Hi, I'm Louie Legge from the Doctor's Pharmacy podcast team. In this mini episode, Dr. Hyman talks with former CEO of Whole Foods Market, Walter Robb, and emotional intelligence expert and author, Daniel Coleman, about how the millennial generation is helping to shape a new food system, one that is values driven, inclusive, and supports the health of our population and our planet. Let's listen in, starting with Dr. Hyman's.

Conversation with Walter Robb. So what I've heard you say is that you see there's a big shift happening in the culture and business and the evolution of our food system. I wonder if you should share in a little detail, what are those changes you're seeing? What makes you feel hopeful?

And what I see at this point is that A, we've reached a critical mass where people now understand that the quality of food actually does matter with respect to the health of the individual, the community, the planet, the world. That was not true 10, 20, 30 years ago. I was up for debate.

More calories.

Up for debate, or the weirdos over there talking about that stuff. that's really not the case now. Food's sexy, it's back in the conversation in the national dialogue in ways that we just didn't see 20 years ago. Maybe before World War II when everybody sat around the table, but only three out of 10 Americans eat three meals a day at home. It just doesn't happen that way anymore. But we're at this place where, okay, there's a baseline set that food matters in whatever way you think about that. Then second of all, let's look at the changes. We have a generational change. We're moving from the boomers to the millennials. Millennials are now in the majority. moving into leadership positions, they have a different approach to life, just like our generation did. They have a value set that says, I expect brands to behave responsibly. I want them to be accountable. I want them to be connected to my life in some way that's meaningful. I want to see them do good things in the world. We have a change in technology, a revolution in technology that's bringing new types of capabilities, whether it's to communication, whether it's to the processing of information, whether it's to the options that customers have in terms of receiving goods and services. We've just never seen this revolution, which is proceeding extraordinarily. We have a change in capital markets that are saying that we're willing to look at this food and agriculture space in a time that it's- A lot of investors are- It's been an underinvested category for many years because it's been pretty boring. And now people see, wow, the combination of food and technology and these choices, it's worth deploying capital here. So we have an interest in the sector that's allowing the pace of innovation, the pace of investment to move faster.

But I was shocked was even big food companies are investing in these sectors.

They are because they can't grow because.

They'Re investing in beyond meat or something.

Well they are.

$100 million, ridiculous amounts of money.

Well and that's not ridiculous amount for them because they're fairly large. But the fact is they see that this future is emerging as well and their job is to grow their company and they realize they need to start putting some chips down in this future where it's going. So you've got this confluence of factors all happening that I think bring us and you have the consumer, the customer ultimately saying, I want different food choices. You have a whole new generation of entrepreneurs creating new companies and everything from seed to table. You have this, what I call inflection point, where we're now creating the new world order of food and agriculture from the ground up. It's literally happening before our eyes right now because the demand has shifted over here. I want different proteins. I want more plant-based foods. I want more responsibly grown meat. I want more accountability for my companies. I want to understand how this food affects my body. Tell me, I don't want to stay sick. I want to get well. So you have this extraordinary time that we're sitting in right now where this thing really is being reshaped and with challenge and comes great opportunity. And I think that's, you know, the same, the same thing for your line of work is there's now an appreciation for functional medicine. We're just time about Alzheimer's.

Right.

Okay. Now you can approach a subject that everyone's just gone, God, what are we going to do about this? You actually have some answers. So I think I think we find ourselves at a very exciting and creating time if we just will have the willingness and the courage to say, let's go and create that world that we think can be more healthy, more inclusive, more humane, more compassionate, more diverse, and more responsible.

We think we're powerless, we think we're victims, we think we have no ability to make an impact or change. It's just not true. We do. It's the little actions that create the big effects.

I think the big change will come from younger people. I think that older people are set in their ways, younger people, companies want them as lifelong customers and will listen to them more. And it turns out that they have a stronger sense of purpose and meaning in life than has been true of previous generations. and not only that, I think they care enormously about the environment. So my hopeful thought is that younger people will demand what we're talking about.

Yeah, I think it's right. I think the millennials are more conscious about what they're eating. They're more conscious about climate. They're more conscious about the impacts of what they're doing. This one young woman who's created this little website called Trash is for Tossers. and it's how she has two years of garbage in one 16-ounce mason jar.

Of her own garbage.

Yeah, because she...

Exactly. So it's changing your life cycle. However, that, I compliment her, I praise her, but she is making choices within the ones we're given. And what I'm saying is we need to broaden the choices we're given. because they're not enough. You know, something else is happening that I've noticed, a little beneath the radar, but I mentioned that younger people are more purposeful and more meaning-oriented, have a stronger sense of ethics. Companies who want to attract and retain the most talented people are starting to think, oh, maybe we should pay attention to their ethical sense because then they feel good working for us. So it's a little bit of a Martian takeover strategy where the young people who are coming into companies may transform them too. So it might be a change that comes from within, I don't know.

Different values, yes. It's really true.

But I think that I'd like to see emotional intelligence curricula speak to this dimension. I proposed in a later book that we add to just emotional and social competencies, mindfulness and attention training and meditation, because it fosters well-being in the ways we describe. And then a emphasis on compassion and an ethic of caring and also systems thinking. So you understand the complexities you're dealing with and you can leverage them in the the best ways.

Yeah, well, you know, what you're saying is all connected because if we want to solve these problems, then we have to get out of this pleocene thinking, which is me, mine, my circle and everything else be damned, right?

Exactly.

Into a more compassionate circle of kindness and empathy and- well, both for self and other.

We have to widen the circle of caring to include everybody.

Yeah.

And so in a way, you can start by meditating, right?

There's actually meditation that does that.

Yeah.

Yeah, loving kindness meditation.

Yeah, it's so powerful.

Despite our overall broken food system, there is a reason to be hopeful. A new generation of industry leaders and consumers is driving change through its focus on transparency, production practices, and company values. As more people voice a need for choices that meet their values and for more accountability from companies, big shifts can be made. Through our participation, regardless of age, we can create a food scape and a landscape built on compassion, humanity, and responsibility. Thank you for tuning in to this mini episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy. Until next time.

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