In 2014, more people will pool their data, their profiles, their preferences, in groups (small and big) to shape new goods and services.

Via social media, histories, ecommerce, endless read/watch/play lists, smartphone GPS services and more, connected consumers are creating vast profiles and data trails that relate to everything from their music preferences to their daily movements. No news there.

Now 2014 will see two certainties:

Meaning the connected crowd comes of age, via CROWDSHAPING: new products and services shaped by the aggregated preferences or behavior of (small and big) groups of consumers, as expressed via their data.

Two kinds of Crowdshaping to watch (and run with):

It's important to note that keeping collection and use of data transparent, and then many will embrace the benefits.

In 2014, perceptions of China will take another significant turn, as consumers come to realize China is fast becoming the epicenter of truly innovative, superior green consumer innovations, too. That shift will be driven by China's relentless, large-scale efforts to address massive environmental challenges such as energy, transport, construction and more (see a few examples below). In fact, the idea among many consumers worldwide that Chinese brands and businesses lag behind when it comes to green thinking might just be one of the last great competitive advantages that 'Western' brands enjoy.

When that preconception is overturned in 2014, one of the last barriers keeping Chinese brands and global consumers at a distance is lifted. Just another small, yet pivotal moment in the remapping of global consumerism.

In 2014, consumer interest in 'Quantified Self' products and services will continue to grow, as smartwatches and other powerful yet affordable wearable tech products enter the market.

Much of the sector's focus has been on physical health to date. The next step? Consumers will increasingly see their smartphones as devices for total lifestyle assistance. Improving techniques for self-treatment, developments in stress-detecting technologies and near-total smartphone penetration in many markets, means consumers will lap up innovations that help track and improve mental wellbeing too. 

Two types of consumers fueling this trend:

And no matter which industry you're in, the MYCHIATRY trend should spur plenty of discussions around where the mega-trend of tech-driven consumer empowerment and self-service will head next.

Whatever the outcome, consumers are already just an app store away from a boost to their day-to-day happiness.

Trendwatch.com is quick to note that they aren't suggesting that MYCHIATRY is an adequate solution for everyone's mental health needs or that it should replace medical counsel.

Last year, trendwatching.com noted that "Brands will have to walk a fine line between offering consumers a valuable (and ideally seamless) service, and freaking them out with aggressive if not downright scary 'services'. Yes, consumers want to feel served to, but they don't like to be watched."

Well, with 2013 seeing a seemingly-endless stream of brands suffering 'privacy breaches' that revealed customers' information, and the leaked actions of a government agency (who is probably reading this over your shoulder as we speak) - it's no longer a paranoid minority who is freaked out.

This all leads to opportunities in 2014 for NO DATA brands: brands that simply offer brilliant service, while also loudly and proudly eschewing the collection of personal data.

The challenge for businesses will be finding a balance between the very real benefits of data collection and utilization (recommendations, cross-selling, personalization, enhanced ad revenue and more), and earning the trust of increasingly Hacked Off consumers.

In the media (and in countless innovation labs around the world), the Internet of Things in 2014 will be about the same two things as in 2013: massive numbers, and things.

The Internet of Things will add USD 1.9 trillion dollars of economic value to the global economy in 2020. In 2009, there were 2.5 billion connected devices, most of these were personal devices such as cell phones and PCs. In 2020, there will be up to 30 billion connected devices, most of which will be products.

But something else will happen, too: you will see innovations pop-up left and right, centered around the Internet of Caring Things.

Anything exceptional that 'connected objects' can do for consumers, whether that's monitoring or improving health, helping them save money, getting chores done, will be warmly welcomed next year and beyond.

2014 will see the consumer arena become even more global, local, flatter, cosmopolitan and so on. Which means that, on a daily basis, you can expect an orgy of compelling consumer-facing innovations emerging from all corners of the globe.

Lemons - One Of The Trendiest Foods For 2014

Not a surprise to us, but lemons have been identified as one of the 10 Tasty Food Trends for 2014 by the Sterling Rice Group. Their annual food predictions list is compiled by trending finds on restaurant menues around the country. Their culinary team speaks with celebrity chefs, product developers and even grocery store shoppers to determine which foods will burst into the market. Since 1984 SRG have brought the worlds biggest companies and most inspired entrepreneurs to Boulder Colorado to help them gain a positive edge.

Lemons made it to the number 1 spot on SRG's trendiest food list. "Lemon-the often underappreciated bright side of dressings, sauces, and more-will step into the spotlight in 2014. The simple, vibrant citrus will show up in its purest form-juice. But also watch out for it as a preserve, an addition to yogurt, and a star pastry ingredient. "Lemon is pure. Lemon is versatile. Lemon is nostalgic. For those reasons, it-and not other citrus-will be the flavor of next year. Lemon's bright flavor is fresh and unadulterated. It ties into the cuisines of the Mediterranean, which are growing in popularity. Plus, it brings back memories of lemonade afternoons, Grandma's lemon bars, and summer desserts with lemon meringue pie." Kazia Jankowski, associate culinary director, Sterling-Rice Group.

January - Health With Lemons

As part of Limoneira's UNLEASH THE NATURAL POWER OF LEMONS CAMPAIGN, Five compelling uses where lemons add zest to life have been identified: health/nutrition, natural beauty, green cleaning, lifestyle/decorating and recipe enhancements. This January, Limoneira is focusing on the natural health and nutritional aspects of lemons. As people turn to a new year and put plans in place to lead healthy lives, lemons play an important role. A number of health tips can be found on Limoneira's web site. Most of these tips are easily incorporated into our daily routines. Here are a few:

Like these? Then for more health tips click here!

Celebrating Global Health And Nutritional Talent

Enabling people to lead healthier lives is a noble cause. Without health, little is possible. For the talented group of individuals from around the world this represents their mission and their passion. They are an educated group of professionals and have achieved a great deal of recognition. We applaud their dedication and appreciate the time and energy that they devote to helping us all get healthy.

 

Corinne Dobbas

San Francisco based Corinne Dobbas is a wellness coach, speaker, and registered dietitian with a Masters in Nutrition. Specializing in weight loss and wellness coaching, Corinne empowers people to make the healthy lifestyle changes they've wanted to make for years (but haven't). She's a regular contributor to various health and wellness publications, and her weight loss advice, recipes, and healthy living tips have been featured in numerous media outlets. Corinne helps her clients create a healthy lifestyle (they love) using a holistic, life-encompassing approach. Her website www.corinnedobbas.com includes excellent weight loss tips, wellness advice, healthy-living motivation and a free newsletter loaded with great information. Her mission is to help her clients feel good in their skin.

 

Megan Roosevelt, RD, LD

Based in Portland, Oregon, Megan Roosevelt is a nutrition expert and a fun loving foodie that appears regularly on TV and radio as well as in print and on-line. She's also a registered and licensed dietitian known as the Healthy Grocery Girl �. She and her team offer nutrition services, education, inspiration and products that fuel and equip busy individuals to achieve their health, freeing them to enjoy and live a real life, rooted in their life's purpose and passions. Megan promotes a whole foods, plant based approach to nutrition. Her recipes & nutrition tips are realistic & fun. She is on a mission to help people live their best life in full health, energy & passion. Her style, great ideas and passion for health are clearly evident by visiting healthygrocerygirl.com.

 

Nina Curtis, MBA

Nina Curtis, founder and president of the Nile Institute, "A Source Vit�l", located in West Hollywood, California, and of Curtis Communications. Nina is known as the "Esthetician's Esthetician" and has a twenty-five plus year history in the professional personal care and wellness industry, where she is respected as an innovative skin care specialist, educator, lecturer and businesswoman. Nina is Holistic Esthetician, certified Natural Health Professional, certified Health and Wellness Coach, certified Health and Fitness Professional and a certified Living Light Institute Associate Chef and Instructor. She has trained in the United States, France, Germany, Australia and England and received her Bachelor's degree of Science in Management and her MBA from Pepperdine University, and is also a graduate of the Lynwood Business Institute. Recognized as a thought leader, Ms. Curtis writes articles focusing on business, trends, wellness and skin and body care techniques. The Nile Institute is dedicated to offering exceptional wellness services, the finest in quality personal care products and information that is relevant for its clients to make responsible choices about their individual health, wellness, beauty and personal care needs. www.facebook.com/theNileInstitute.

 

Roger Adams Ph.D., CISSN

Dr. Adams is a weight loss and fitness expert as well as a doctor of nutrition and is based in Houston, Texas. He is the founder and owner of eatrightfitness�, an evidence-based private counseling practice focusing on: weight loss, disease prevention/management, and sports performance nutrition. Dr. Adams believes no one has the same nutritional needs. Therefore, he customizes nutrition programs to fit the individual needs of his clientele. Dr. Adams works one-on-one with clients as they strive to meet their personal nutrition and fitness goals. In addition to direct nutrition counseling, Dr. Adams holds group nutrition education sessions and classes. He speaks at business seminars, health fairs, and non-profit organizations about the ever-changing field of nutrition.

 

Susan Dopart, MS, RD, CDE

Susan B. Dopart, MS, RD, CDE, is a nutrition and fitness consultant who has been in private practice for more than 20 years. She specializes in child and adult medical nutrition-related issues. Before establishing her own practice, Susan worked at UCLA as both a medical and kidney dietitian. As a consultant, Susan has worked for UCLA Medical Center, UCLA Extension, the Beverly Hills Country Club, Sebastian International and Procter & Gamble. She has written and contributed to multiple publications, including The Huffington Post, SELF Magazine, UCLA Medicine, Best Life, Men's Health, and Diabetes Health. After receiving her bachelor of science degree in nutrition and clinical dietetics from UC Berkeley, Susan earned a master of science degree in exercise physiology and sports medicine from California State University, Hayward. She is a certified diabetes educator. Susan is the author of A Recipe for Life by the Doctor's Dietitian - a nutrition guidebook, resource, and teaching tool with cutting-edge nutrition information, and Healthy You, Healthy Baby: A Mother's Guide to Gestational Diabetes. Her mission and passion are helping her clients find lifestyle solutions for optimal health and well-being.

 

Vilasi Venkatachalam

Vilasi Venkatachalam is a greater New York based Registered Dietitian. She has extensive experience mining fascinating nuggets about cuisines, cultures and cures from markets, bazaars, souks, roadside stalls and backyards and weaves them into "An Inspired Palette" of personal cuisine and transformation tools. A popular speaker, Vilasi also designs dietary portfolios and menus populations celebrating their cultures. The message in her methods is to do old things in new ways, new things in old ways and become your own guru. Vilasi is a lemon fiend and says that in India, season for making lemon preserves, pickles and other delights is just around the corner. A treasure trove of inspiration can be found by visiting www.ancientwisdom-modernsolutions.com.

 

Christine Palumbo, MBA, RDN, FAND

Christine Palumbo is an award-winning Chicago area registered dietitian nutritionist and nationally known nutrition and health expert who partners with organizations to develop and promote balanced nutrition and active lifestyle messages. Her down-to-earth advice from the latest evidence-based research has been featured in hundreds of TV and radio programs, as well as magazine, newspaper and web site articles. Passionate about making healthy eating achievable, Christine shows how to make nutritious food simply, frugally, easily, and tasty. Christine is a columnist for Chicago Parent and a Contributing editor, Environmental Nutrition. She's also an Adjunct Faculty member of Benedictine University. She's a lemon enthusiast. Her grandfather immigrated from Greece and he raised Chritine's mother, who in turn, raised Christine on all sorts of Greek comfort foods with lemon sauce such as braised lamb with avgolemono sauce. Her Italian grandparents were also lemon lovers. Christine says she raised her three children on lemons and two of them are new parents themselves and believes the tradition will surely continue. Christine's informative website is www.christinepalumbo.com.

 

Jocelyn Black

Jocelyn Black is health coach based in Toronto Canada, where she specializes in holistic nutrition. Motivating others to be happy and healthy is her passion. Having struggled with eating disorders herself, Jocelyn brings a sensitive touch to change management, and she approaches health and wellness with compassion, understanding and a sense of humor. She believes that to live holistically means creating a love affair with one's life, choosing whole foods that promote optimal health and working to achieve balance between body and mind. More information can be found by visiting Jocelyn's comprehensive website: www.aholisticaffair.com

 

Minsoo Go, MBA

Minsoo Go is a fitness specialist based in Seoul Korea. She has written for HiDoc, one of the largest medical source web page and Monsterzym, one of Korea's most popular fitness forum sites. She began getting serious about fitness when she in college studying at the University of Texas at Arlington (she went on to obtain her MBA from Texas State University). She became a fitness instructor and began teaching various group exercise classes such as Zumba, yoga, Kickboxing and weight training. She has also competed in fitness modeling competitions and been very successful. She's very interested in helping people lead healthier lives. As a young girl the only expectation was to study. Young people were not taught that physical activity helps to keep one's mind healthy. Minsoo has been sharing her personal story with others to raise people's awareness that it's important to lead a healthy and balanced life. Minsoo can be reached at iblog.naver.com/Minsoo_go www.facebook.come/OfficialMinsoo, instagram.com/minsoogo. Her photographer is Edward Wayne.

 

Bethany Dufield

Bethany Duffield is a consultant at Story Consulting: Innovations in Global Public Health, and is based in Peru. She has been working in the field of public health for the past ten years, seven of which were spent in East and Southern Africa, two in the Middle East and one in South America. During this time her work has focused particularly on community nutrition, food security, gender roles and health education within primary healthcare. As a consultant for Story Consulting, Bethany has gained expertise in quantitative and qualitative research and contributed towards the creation of a new non-profit organization with her vision and management skills, laying the foundation for a new voice advocating for global access to primary healthcare and health education. Inspirational and thought provoking narratives exist at can be found by visiting www.storyconsulting.org.

Health With Lemons At Loblaws

This January, Limoneira's UNLEASH THE NATURAL POWER OF LEMONS campaign communicates lemons many health benefits to Loblaws shoppers in Ontario. Store shoppers will see advertisements in Canadian Health and Lifestyle and Canadian Living. Social media will also steer Loblaw Ontario shoppers to a number of easy breezy lemon squeezy health tips with lemons and a chance to win a new iPad!

With more than 1,000 corporate and franchised stores from coast to coast, Loblaw and its franchisees employ more than 134,000 full-time and part-time employees. They are one of Canada's largest private-sector employers and are committed to being socially responsible by respecting the environment, sourcing with integrity, making a positive difference in their community, reflecting their nation's diversity and being a great place to work.

Food Network Canada

In December, the Food Network Canada added a little joie de vivre to the festive season by sharing a number of Limoneira cocktail recipes for the holidays to promote festivities.

For more pink recipes, please visit www.Limoneira.com/Pink

Food Network is Canada's favourite destination for entertaining and inspiring food-related experiences. From engaging, passionate chefs to dramatic culinary competitions including Top Chef Canada and behind the scenes access to the food industry, Food Network serves up an appetizing schedule showcasing popular programs from Canada, the U.S., Britain and around the world.

Praise From Jamie Oliver

While shopping at Tesco's in the UK, celebrated chef Jaime Oliver picked up some of Limoneira's Meyer lemons waxed poetically about them on Twitter. We're big fans of Chef Oliver and we're happy that he enjoyed them.

@jamieoliver - "Morning guys as you know I like lemons!!! It's such a key ingredient for clean healthy cooking. Anyway my favourite lemon that tastes amazing is like a cross between clementine, grapefruit and lime. It's called a Meyer Lemon. They are from California and almost impossible to get in the UK, but a friend found these in Tescos!! Yes Tescos (and no this isn't an advert for you haters). If you're from the UK these are well worth buying and are delicious, it's a different level man. They make the best lemonade, salad dressings, marinades for fish, and great with grilled roasted meats. Enough lemon talk but truth is when we get these special foods offered at supermarkets, it's important we buy them or they simply fall away.... Big love guys #jamieoliver"

Jamie Oliver, MBE FRCGP is a British chef, restaurateur, media personality, known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks and more recently his campaign against the use of processed foods in national schools. He strives to improve unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits in the United Kingdom and the United States. Oliver's speciality is Italian cuisine, although he has a broad international repertoire.

He was noticed by the BBC in 1997 after making an unscripted appearance in a documentary about the restaurant, "Christmas at the River Cafe". That year, his show The Naked Chef debuted and his cookbook became a number one best-seller in the UK. That same year, Oliver was invited to prepare lunch for the Prime Minister of that time, Tony Blair at No. 10 Downing Street.

Oliver created Fifteen in 2002. Each year, fifteen young adults who have a disadvantaged background, criminal record or history of drug abuse, are trained in the restaurant business. In 2003, he was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire). In 2005, he initiated a campaign called "Feed Me Better" in order to move British schoolchildren towards eating healthy foods and cutting out junk food. As a result, the British government also pledged to address the issue. Delving into politics to push for changes in nutrition resulted in people voting him as the "Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005.

His emphasis on cooking healthily continued as he created Jamie's Ministry of Food, a television series where Oliver travelled to inspire everyday people in Rotherham, Yorkshire, to cook healthy meals. Another television series is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (2010-2011), where he travelled first to Huntington, West Virginia and then to Los Angeles to change the way Americans eat, and address their dependence on fast food. In June 2013, the Jamie Oliver was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame.

You can read about Oliver and his empire by visiting www.jamieoliver.com.

Olga Berman - Mango And Tomato

Washington DC based Olga Berman is one of those people who thinks about dinner while still having breakfast. She's constantly creating recipes in her head and in her kitchen inspired by her childhood in Russia and travels through the US and abroad. Mango & Tomato, her delightful and inspiring blog is where she shares her love of food. Nothing makes her happier than when a reader makes one of my recipes and loves it. When she's not obsessing about food, she obsesses with the people in my life, salsa dancing, jewelry, orchids, photography, travel, reality TV and decorating her condo.

This past December, Olga experienced a gloomy rainy gross day, but she got a bit of sunshine courtesy of Limoneira. "Limoneira sent me a box filled with their gorgeous lemons and Meyer lemons!!! I'm one lucky girl"

Olga says, "I was trying to think of a recipe to make with these beautiful citrus that would not require baking or loads of butter. That's when my friends Sylvie and K suggested I make sorbet. I have smart friends!I decided to use Emeril Lagasses's Lemon Sorbet as a template and put my own stamp on his recipe". We think this creative concoction is tops and we think Olga and Mango & Tomato (www.mangotomato.com) are too!

Olga Berman's Triple Citrus Sorbet (click for recipe)

A New You In 2014

11 Ridiculously Adorable Little Lemon Faces

On a closing note, we very much enjoyed David Wile and April Maciborka's series called "Pucker" that was recently highlighted in the Huffington Post. As noted, when life gives you lemons, feed them to a toddler and take a picture.

Check out these beguiling beauties below. Click here for more.