June is Men’s Health Month, and June 10-16 is designated as Men’s Health Week. It’s not quite certain how we guys landed both a week and a month at the same time, but it probably has to do with the need to be told to do something more than once. In this case, it’s needing to be nagged to take care of ourselves.

By the time I finish writing this sentence, I imagine another industry trade show will have been cancelled. In my 20 years of covering the food and beverage industry, I have never witnessed such widespread disruption to business. I don’t believe any among us have been left unaffected by the current crisis.

I am inviting all food and beverage processors to tell us about your new product achievements and enter Prepared Foods’ upcoming 18th annual Spirit of Innovation Awards.

Happy National Nutrition Month! I use this bully pulpit often to decry the persistent plague of rampant – and often nefarious – nutrition miscommunication.

Consumers believe plant based foods are more sustainable than those made from meat, and the industry is responding accordingly.

This month, I’d encourage industry professionals to pause, reflect and resolve to enhance your brand’s relationship—it’s emotional appeal—to those same consumers. Why? More shoppers are making pointed, conscious decisions to buy—or not buy—based on a growing list of factors.

It can’t be stated more directly nor with any greater emphasis: The food and beverage makers of the future — already working hard at this, by the way — are going to have to double down on the delivery of responsibly made (and marketed) products for the global consumer, whether planning for the 2020s or all the way to 2100.

In early October, Prepared Foods held its 37th annual New Products Conference, where themes of sustainability underpinned many of the speaker presentations. New Products Conference sessions surrounding upcycled foods, food waste and plant based foods each contained overt and tangential messages about corporate responsibility and sustainable food production.