Agri-Food Look-Back and Contrarian Megatrends 2025, Empowered by Consumomics™

After a turbulent cycle of insurgency and fragmentation, 2026 marks a reversal. FutureBridge Agri-Food Look-Back and Contrarian Megatrends 2026 explains why Big Food and Big Ag are no longer reacting, they are recapturing value.

Decoded through Consumomics™

Our Consumomics™ model maps the behavioral genome driving category performance: Behavior = (P + E + C + A) × V

P – Provisioning / Price: Value, affordability, and access thresholds E – Emotion & Identity: Food as self-expression and belief C – Convenience & Cognitive Load: Friction, choice overload, and simplification A – Automaticity / Ritual: Habits anchoring repeat behavior V – Trust (Regulatory Genome): The confidence multiplier that determines which signals convert

We score PECA-V for consumers and categories, segmenting shoppers into Consumer Genomes™ — Budget Protectors, Health Optimizers, Habitual Ritualists, Sustainability Champions, and more. We then quantify U, the latent demand potential, revealing where engineered value can re-emerge.

Contrarian Outlook 2026

2026 is not “the new normal.” It’s the re-consolidation phase of the global food system:

GLP-1 & Food-as-Medicine compress calories but amplify nutrition value plays Ultra-processed backlash matures — science vs story becomes the new brand divide Alt-protein reinvents itself around precision inputs, not labels Private label evolves into a full innovation platform Retailers restructure shelves and partnerships for cognitive simplicity

The conclusion

The advantage shifts back to incumbents who adapt behavioral design, not insurgents trading on identity. 2025 isn’t the end of insurgent innovation. It’s the end of the assumption that label + velocity = destiny. From here on, shelf space and capital increasingly follow the genome.

Contact our experts to uncover how to engineer demand rather than just observe it.