[From iSource Business, February 2001] Consumers are getting more and more picky about what they put in their mouths, notes Blair Louden, director, Grain-Canada for ConAgra Malt, Americas. Not that this is any reflection on his product or his industry, he says. "The brewing industry as a whole has always been very quality conscious."

Yet, the signs are clear. How a product is made and where the ingredients are grown is beginning to matter more and more when shoppers put together their grocery lists. "Proving the biological integrity of the raw materials we buy is about to become a very important marketing concern. We have to get our arms around this issue," says Louden.

Which means his suppliers are going to have to get their arms around the issue as well.

Louden's suppliers are barley farmers