From Field to Fork

The summer months at PMA mean many things, from vacations to the Foodservice Conference to getting ready for Fresh Summit. For me, it also means I become the unofficial distribution arm of my Dad’s annual vegetable garden.

I’m not quite sure how big the garden is, but for one person, the harvest is a lot more than he can consume. He could easily plant a smaller garden, but he’s used to the size of his plot and all the work that goes with it.

After sharing excess vegetables (usually tomatoes and cucumbers, sometimes bell peppers) with his neighbors and people from church, Dad usually brings one to three reusable plastic trays filled to the brim with produce to my house. My wife and I will select some vegetables for ourselves and then share some with our neighbors and friends. The rest goes with me to the PMA office.

The free veggies don’t last very long, as co-workers pick them for sandwiches, salads, and other dishes. One recurring comment I get (particularly from friends and relatives who don’t understand exactly what I do for a living) is how flavorful Dad’s produce is – which is only off the vine for a day or so at most. Some also comment that this time of year store-bought produce doesn’t compare to those same items direct from the garden, adding that is because the produce is picked too soon; it travels too far; etc. If our industry is to increase produce consumption, shouldn’t we be striving to give consumers the most flavorful experience with every bite?

Of course, we know that some local varieties wouldn’t make it commercially – they might not travel or store well enough. And we know that consumers – even friends and family – believe some of the myths or urban legends about how our industry operates. And, sometimes, they have a point.

Sadly, for some folks I know, having to wait for a three- to four-month window for a garden-ripe tomato or cucumber is worth it. It shouldn’t have to be, but it is. Luckily, my Dad has quite a few of them covered through the Lake Drive vegetable deal.

As you know, September is Fruits & Veggies-More Matters® Month. Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is unveiling America’s More Matters Pledge: Fruits & Veggies . . . Today and Every Day! The online campaign encourages people to pledge to eat more nutritious fruits and vegetables for their better health and gives them the tools they need to follow through on that pledge. The online pledge was developed in support of first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move childhood obesity initiative.

People, like you and I, can take the pledge to eat more than we currently are eating, with the goal of making fruits and vegetables half your plate – meals and snacks. You can also pledge to boost fruit and vegetable availability in schools. As an industry, we provide consumers with access to fresh produce. As individuals, we can boost consumption by starting with ourselves and broadening into our families, friends, and communities.

I took the “half your plate” pledge. And when I did, I was directed to a page that had lots of tips, meal ideas, budget-stretching information, and more. The website also has a Fruit & Veggie Happenings page where your zip code is your portal to fruit and veggie related activities such as cooking demonstrations, product sampling events, and contests in your community. You can also find out how schools can add fruit and vegetable vending machines and salad bars to lunchrooms, etc.

We’ll be supporting the pledge at Fresh Summit, where the meals over the four general sessions will feature fruits and vegetables that cover half your plate. And as for snacking, if you graze well at the exposition, far more than half your snacks will be fruits and vegetables.

So take the pledge – right now, it takes less than a minute. And do spend a few minutes looking around the resources on the site. Then forward this to everyone you know – your industry colleagues, your employees, your family, your friends. Because if we’re not supporting increased consumption, then who will?

Earlier this year, the issue of healthful food availability came to the forefront as part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign and its drive to improve childhood obesity, eliminate food deserts, and other public health initiatives. A couple of weeks ago here on Field to Fork we talked about how Philadelphia will offer farmers’ markets to underserved communities – thanks to government stimulus funds.

One area PMA has focused on is the issue of fruit and vegetable access, and during Fresh Summit in Orlando, the “Bringing More Produce to More People” workshop will address gaps in the distribution system and explore new ways to make fresh produce more accessible to more people. In addition to learning more about this issue, participants will find out how they can get involved and how incorporating these ideas into merchandising and marketing strategies can improve their bottom lines.

For a complete listing of the event’s education program, visit the Fresh Summit website and look at the schedule. If you’re planning to come to Orlando in October, remember that the deadline to register online and save is September 17. The last day to register in advance is October 1.

To give you a bit of a preview on some of what will be discussed during Fresh Summit, check out the summer 2010 issue of PMA’s FRESH magazine, where we highlighted some of our members’ efforts in the produce access arena.

Taking in a professional convention has consequences. The attendee gets a break, brings home new ideas, builds new relationships, etc. The folks back home may dread the attendee’s return because it’s likely to mean some new scheme to “do things better.”

I attended the American Society of Association Executives convention in late August. (You knew there had to be an association for association people, right?) It is great to get out of the office and learn from fellow association execs that are facing the same issues we face and are willing to share solutions. Speaker Robert B. Tucker focused on innovative thinking. He talked about making innovation a systematic process, implementing idea management systems, collaborating with customers and suppliers, creating metrics and rewards, and involving everyone in the enterprise.

Tucker noted that there’s no such thing as a commodity (an undistinguished item in a sea of like items), just tired marketers. He stressed looking for new markets and new distribution channels. He challenged listeners to look outside their industry to find value and impact.

He also used a twist on a phrase that I liked. Tucker said we should ask ourselves “different” questions as we seek to innovate. That rang true with me – more so than the admonition to ask “better” questions, which makes a negative value judgment about the questions we’re already asking. Not only does this eliminate the value judgment, it also encourages us to open new lines of questioning that may lead to different paths, hence to innovation. So the next time you’re tempted to scour your brain for a “better” question, just let your mind wander to a “different” question and see where that gets you.

I enjoy getting out with my colleagues, examining common (or not-so-common) issues, and finding new ways to improve how I do my job. You’ve got that opportunity coming up as well. Come to Fresh Summit, October 15 to 18 in Orlando. Get out from behind your desk, engage on issues, and build relationships (new and established). Give yourself the mental and physical space to discover and develop the great idea that’s going to take your business to the next level.

Field to Fork regularly invites PMA members to tell us your stories – mostly recently, we’ve invited you to tell us how your business is promoting sustainability, and how you are promoting access to healthy fruits and vegetables. This past weekend I was reminded of the real-world consequences when our industry doesn’t tell our story – or worse, when we let others control how our industry is depicted.

My fiancé and I had stumbled quite accidentally on a small tapas restaurant in Chicago, and were absolutely delighting in incredible dish after dish prepared right in front of us. (We’d opted to sit at the bar, which as luck would have it also turned out to double as the finishing line in this small store). It was immediately clear to us that the menu had been prepared with love and ingredients chosen with care, and we foodies were in absolute heaven to be so surprised and delighted. So being a writer at heart, I simply had to find out this place’s story. Fortunately the assistant manager and sous chef was working right in front of us, and was quite happy to recount how the stars had aligned to allow the opening only two months ago of what turned out to be a second location of the owner and chef.

As the evening progressed, we queried her about ingredients. What was this leafy green? What kind of apples were these, and from where? (My fiancé is an apple grower and marketer.) As she educated us, we also learned a lot about her perceptions about produce – and her misperceptions. While she was well educated about food and health in general, a knowledge likely driven by her own celiac disease, she had bought into Dirty Dozen-type reports. She also thought that “organic” meant pesticide-free. This was a woman who works in the food industry, and has the ability to impact the dietary habits of easily thousands of people in an average year.

Simply put, we must do a better job of telling our story, folks – and at a minimum, not letting other folks tell our stories for us (often to our detriment). If you don’t already know this, telling our story has many benefits – both intangible, such as building goodwill that can help you in times of potential industry crisis, as I recently saw Earthbound Farms do artfully – and tangible, by helping us overcome misperceptions that limit our markets. And PMA can help you; your PMA staff includes several public relations experts who can help you do so, just give us a call, we are at your service. We can also introduce you about the resources available to help you better understand consumers, including our extensive consumer research library. We look forward to hearing from you.

(Our upcoming Fresh Summit will feature lots of programming on the subject of telling your story – from President & CEO Bryan Silbermann’s annual State of the Industry address to provide you with inspiration, to workshops to provide you with the skills. For more information, visit our Fresh Summit website.)

And if you want to know where to get really good tapas in Chicago, just let me know, I’ll be glad to share their contact information.

In the 2008 farm bill, $20 million was provided to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service for pilot projects to evaluate health and nutrition promotion in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP—formerly the Food Stamp Program]. Under this legislation, funds are targeted to support projects that provide incentives at the point of purchase to encourage households participating in the SNAP to purchase fruits, vegetables, or other healthful foods.

One such project is the Healthy Incentives Pilot. Yesterday, the USDA announced that Hampden County, Massachusetts, will conduct the first-ever Healthy Incentives Pilot. In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack noted that “this pilot project will empower low-income Americans to eat more nutritious food and has the potential to strengthen the SNAP program that serves as a critical safety net to the most vulnerable in our society. Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, especially in the place of higher calorie foods, can help move America towards healthier lifestyles and a healthier future.”

HIP will enroll 7,500 randomly selected SNAP households to receive incentives. For every dollar participants spend on fruits and vegetables using their SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, 30 cents will be added to their benefit balance - thus cutting the cost of fruits and vegetables by almost one-third. After the pilot ends, an evaluation will focus on whether incentives increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables and how participants’ overall diets are affected. Researchers will also study HIP effects on the State, retailers, and other SNAP stakeholders and assess the feasibility of implementing HIP nationwide.

If the pilot program is a success, it could be implemented nationally. More than 30 million people (significantly more during the recession) receive SNAP benefits. If they eat more produce, that’s a win for them and our industry.

As more consumers incorporate social media and mobile technology into their daily lives, how can the produce industry capitalize on this trend to sell more fruits and vegetables? In the August 9 issue of Supermarket News, I read how a Seattle retailer is combining smart phones and bar codes in an effort to boost sales.

PCC Natural Markets will be testing QR (quick response) codes, which contain more data than standard bar codes and can also be read to display text, video, or a Web page. PCC plans to test the QR codes in shelf talkers for melons and avocados in the produce department. The SN story explains that “once a shopper snaps a photo of a QR code with their smart phone, a two-minute, how-to video will appear on the phone’s screen. The videos will provide tips on how to select, cut, and serve the fruit.”

In addition to piloting the QR codes, PCC is also utilizing Google Maps (each time someone visits the retailer’s website and looks up store locations, a coupon pops up that offers a deli discount) and Foursquare (which gives users points and rewards for frequent ‘check ins’ at store locations) to generate new and repeat business.

PMA consumer research has shown that the quality of a supermarket’s produce department plays a large part in making it a shopper’s favorite destination. When you combine that with new technologies like the QR code, it opens a world of possibilities when it comes to giving consumers more information about the fruits and vegetables in front of them at the point of sale as they browse the department.

And while the use of QR codes in produce might seem a bit high-tech, keep in mind that a recently published “mindset list” about incoming college students claims that, for this group, e-mail is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail. Used to having instant access to information, this demographic represents the future consumers to whom we’re trying to sell our products, and interactive or mobile technologies may provide a way to reach them.

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I had a local news station on the television and I learned that underserved communities in Philadelphia will be receiving more access to fresh produce. These community farmers’ markets will be financed by a portion of $15 million worth of stimulus funds coming to city.

As the morning show anchors discussed how this is a great thing for families in those neighborhoods (because it’s so much easier to by chips and a soda than it is to buy fresh fruit), a representative from the Philadelphia Business Journal said that The Food Trust in Philadelphia is helping decide where to place the farmers’ markets and, where they can’t go, more fresh produce will be made available to corner stores.

On a related note, Albert Einstein Healthcare Network researchers are teaming up with a supermarket chain for a pilot study aimed at encouraging families to eat healthier. This pilot program includes coupons for free fruits and vegetables.

We periodically talk about access issues here on Field to Fork, and while many PMA members have taken steps to dry up “food deserts,” we’d like to know more about what our members are doing in this arena. Has your company launched initiatives to improve access to fresh produce? If so, please let us know. Similar to what we’ve done with sustainability, we’ll be highlighting members’ access “success stories” here on the blog and elsewhere.

Researchers have found that people who read food labels have healthier diets than those who don’t pay attention to such information. Scientists analyzed data from the 2005-06 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and found that 61.6 percent of respondents said they read the nutrition facts panels, 51.6 percent examine the list of ingredients, 47.2 percent read the serving size, and 43.8 percent review health claims at least sometimes when deciding whether to buy a food product.

Study authors noted that, if the food label is to have a greater public health impact, rates of use will likely need to be increased among U.S. adults. To have this impact, the food label may need to be modified.

We noted here on Field to Fork a few months ago that FDA was considering issues related to nutritional labeling placement on food packages, possibly moving the location from a back-of-the-package strategy to a voluntary front-of-package labeling strategy. We’re presently monitoring FDA actions on this labeling concept. Concerning nutrition labeling and nutrition facts, PMA has resources for our members on this topic.

On a personal note, the issue of front of package (and to some degree, nutrition) labeling hit home last weekend. As she prepared our almost 11-month-old’s dinner, my wife gave her a broken-up rice cake to nibble on; she had eaten rice cakes before at daycare. Since we were in a hurry at the store when we bought the snack, we scanned the nutrition facts box and not the ingredients list. Unbeknownst to us, our selection contained sucralose (an artificial sweetener).

Upon seeing the sucralose listing, my wife exclaimed that this kind of information should be on the front of the package so shoppers can know and make better choices. She then replaced the rice cakes on our daughter’s high chair with tiny cut watermelon pieces – which ended up being not only a better nutritional choice but much more fun to eat and play with (and throw on the floor) than the dry rice cakes.

In this business, you never know when professional and personal worlds will bump into each other.

In last year’s PMA Healthy Eating Trends 2009 report, the study found that few consumers (due to the economy) are moving away from fresh produce, but what they are doing is making adjustments among categories of fresh fruits and vegetables, toward varieties they recognize and depend on. On a larger scale, the economic environment has caused consumers to change their purchasing behavior. They’re spending less money on impulse purchases and more time at home. But will these new habits continue as the economy changes?

At Fresh Summit, join The Supermarket Guru, Phil Lempert, as he explores potential scenarios for consumer spending in the next few years with a focus on how these scenarios will impact the produce industry and your company’s business model. During the “Consumer Behavior: What’s Next?” workshop, learn what the produce industry is likely to look like in the future, and what challenges and opportunities your business will face as a result of future consumer spending patterns.

For a complete listing of the event’s education program, visit the Fresh Summit Web site and look at the schedule. If you’re planning to come to Orlando in October, remember that the deadline to register online and save is September 17. The last day to register in advance is October 1.