I’ll never forget when an influential voice in our industry told me they did not like seeing the word “trend.” Whether you are setting them, ahead of them, or chasing them, “trend” has evolved into one of those buzzwords that reflect the peaks and valleys of the consumer mindset. It may be only a compass arrow, a general direction a category is becoming or headed toward.
Pop culture embodies trends in an infinite hourglass, distilling grain by sociological grain, prevailing public favorites. As this world is often the one informing our smaller producesphere, it is jarring to see the glass tipped the other way.
“An orange has gone from being a treasure obtained at great risk to being simply a product,” Aaron Mahnke, Founder of podcast production company Grim & Mild, observed on his show Cabinet of Curiosities.
The episode, "Citrus at Sea," hit close to home on several levels. Here, someone outside of produce had voiced a sentiment that our industry is working tirelessly toward: making the insider produce perspective mainstream. What shoppers and patrons now expect to find in produce departments and on menus all times of the year was once a prized possession only the wealthiest could afford to obtain. The constant, then and now, is the people who bring these products to market. Those who do so with great risk and amid constant challenges.
That struggle being acknowledged in pop culture is always gratifying, but will it tip the scales?
Unlike a TikTok video or a LinkedIn post, podcast episodes do not showcase their impact via public downloads or impressions. What I can tell you is this little show has been given a 4.6/5-star rating by over 8,000 listeners. That it has published 732 episodes and is still running strong amid a crowded space, holding its own and influencing a corner of the virtual world, is no small feat.
And the more of these channels we can inspire, the closer we will be to Mahnke’s vision of shifting the consumer mindset so that an orange, and the world of fresh at large, “can be a treasure again.”
If we can see ourselves in the pop culture hourglass, making the insider produce perspective mainstream, then the consumer will see what we see in every fresh item that makes it to market: a true treasure. 
