There has been much ado about the generation of millennials that are now storming the meat case, but I have not seen many millennials writing about why they consume meat or offering their insights into millennials – that is why I am.

I am a millennial and a meat-eater and a mom. Being a mom is an important part of my meat-eating journey and one that perhaps distinguishes me from my fellow millennials.

In millennial segmentation studies, millennials are often broken out into two distinct groups – those with kids and those without kids or old vs. young millennials. While, I am a mom of two, I was also an avid cook and meat-eater well before I had kids. The introduction of kids may signal an increase in meat consumption, but likely those young picky eaters may not like or eat meat at every meal like their parents initially, so that increase doesn’t really come to fruition until sometime into the future.

So, don’t leave out those millennials without kids that are avid meat-eaters and could/would eat your product more. As a married couple, I enjoyed cooking often just for us two before it was us three and now four. So I say this to you the meat industry, do not forget us millennials that are cooks sans kids.

I often see kid-less millennials bucketed into a class of non-cooks that are only looking for convenience. There is a class of millennials without kids, which are not looking for just convenience and would enjoy cooking and eating tasty meat dishes. While I agree stage of life is a better indicator of consumption pattern versus age demographics, because there is such a wide range of years between millennials, I would love to see more studies include smaller groups and more categories of millennials as they present data.

What about those millennials in college? Millennials that are fresh graduates? Millennials in their later 20s to early 30s that are not fresh graduates and may not have kids? As I look at my friends and family, I just know that there is more diversity and insights that are untapped about other life stages in the millennial cohort than just kids vs. no kids.

Case in point – my husband and I are both classified as millennials, but there is 5 years between us, and I can tell you first hand that our shopping, buying and saving preferences are VERY different.

What do you think? In favor of more millennial groups than just kids vs. no kids or old vs. young?

Millennial meat-eaters: Don’t group us all together

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