Thanks, Nate, and congratulations on the success of the Sorgho Squad series.
Regarding development of markets for millets, here are a few thoughts - with the caveat that these are my ideas only, and I've had no formal training in marketing.
We hear about the importance of a story in conveying an idea. The millet space, if you will, is complicated - in a good way - by the fact that there are many stories. Sorghum and teff, which are grown in this region, and fonio, which is imported, benefit from having their own one-word names ("millets-with-their-own-names"). For those surnamed millet, the challenges are first to create understanding that this is not one grain or one crop - which is why use iof the plural millets is a good starting point - and second, to fill out the identities of others.
One way to approach the challenge of individual identities of the " grains-surnamed-millet" is to put them in the same room, as it were. That way the identities within the group can be made more clear (and no one can ask, "Have you ever noticed that we never see x-millet and y-millet in the same place at the same time? ..."). That's one reason I tried converting a list of the various millets into the "millets triangle" (current version attached; a slight revision is in the works). There could be other approaches as well.
With that understanding in the background, one can spotlight individual millets. That's part of the rationale behind the "millet-of-the-month" calendar. Each month is a chance to focus on one millet, or a couple that are very close, in some depth. (By the way, in November, it's teff.) We didn't have the time or resources to make much of this approach this year, unfortunately. But I'm hoping we can do more in 2024, perhaps in connection with the "second season" following this year's Millets Webinars.
We're under no illusion that all of the millets will achieve comparable levels of interest or popularity in North America. At this stage there's already a big difference among them in degree of global production (sorghum by itself, while an order of magnitude less important than any one of the major cereal grains, is twice as big as all the other millets combined, and among the latter, pearl millet is equal to all the rest - rough pie chart attached).
Looking to the future, it's not possible to say which of the millets might become more popular. Sorghum has the pole position (or maybe is starting on second base - choose your sport analogy), and proso millet is well-established in this region, with teff having come up very quickly in the 4 decades or so since it was introduced here. Production and supply chains are in place - altho for dehulling proso there are apparently gaps in the system - and are presumably scalable.. Also, various enterprises are using these in consumer food products, but for relatively small markets. Many other millets - which have their own flavors, nutritional profiles, and culinary qualities - come to our stores and plates via imports. Most of these sell mainly to communities whose food culture involves use of these, but the breakout example of West African fonio - altho relatively small - shows what might be possible.
What's interesting, I think, is that a number of these other millets that we get in food-grade form via imports are already grown in North America, as cover crops, for forage, and other purposes (but not all - fonio is not). These other purposes (this will be the topic of the next Millets Webinar on Nov. 15, BTW.. Could food-grade varieties of any of these be developed for this region? A key question, IMO, is whether such would be available for growers at such time as climate change and limited water require reduction of irrigated crops?
So the approach to market demand would ultimately vary by grain - the many stories mentioned above - while I see NAMA's overall strategy as supporting all, and the organizations that promote them, promoting awareness, and organizing & providing information. In the immediate term, I'm thinking (without much evidence) that there is room for all to grow, so that promoting sorghum, proso, and teff, along with imported millets, will not put those interested in one or another in competition. But here's a question: is there a competition among say sorghum and proso millet for the attention of growers - do the markets compete? (The two are not really substitutable.)
The main competition might be with major cereal crops (whether as food or as feed for livestock). However, in the longer term, if there are more types and varieties of millet on the market, perhaps there will be a competition among these for consumer attention.
Anyway, we are looking at changes in agriculture and food culture in several respects. Thanks to the efforts of many people and organizations, such as you and Sorghum United, to promote the diverse millets during this International Year, they are more fully part of the conversation. We'll need to evaluate this (a separate discussion), but in any event, this is an ongoing effort and long process.
Your efforts, Nate, on Sorgho Squad fit nicely in this context. Are you considering expanding this story concept to include other millets? Or developing parallel story lines that might intersect? This may not work, but one could imagine a kind of millets version of the "Marvel Cinematic Universe." Just so long as we don't end up with just a bunch of minions, or something like "Sorgho and the 19 Dwarves." So far, efforts to animate millets or heros promoting them have been limited, and I'm not sure if the effectiveness of those has been evaluated.
All the best,
Don
