Seafood, farms and innovation!

Quick: what’s the average number of fridges per 100 people in China today?

If you guessed 82, you’re right.

And if you knew that there were but 29 per 100 in 1990, then you have found the secret to innovation. After all, if you think about it, that’s a massive increase in the potential market for food exports……

Innovative people focus on opportunity, not threat.

When confronted with the issue of globalization, most people sit back and stress out about “how bad things are going to be.”

Innovators sit back and look at globalization and think, “man, what an opportunity!”

It’s all in how you approach the future. Last Thursday, I gave the dinner keynote in Monterey, California for the American Agriwomen Association, and chatted with the folks about the key trends impacting agriculture. And that’s the type of message I brought — don’t focus on threat — think of opportunity! There’s a lot of fridges to be filled!

This week, I’ll be keynoting the National Seafood Sector Council with a similar message, and will take a look at global packaging, food and consumer market trends. Then I’ll be doing an awards dinner in Wolfville, Nova Scotia for a group of community innovators. Both talks will carry a similar theme — if you look at the future as nothing more than a threat to worry about, rather than an opportunity to be grabbed — then you are looking in the wrong place!

Think fridges!