OP: Over the years, what do you think contributed most to the success of Organic
Valley?
around them. Every day I see what I
would call the fruits of cooperation. It
is never just one person.
Marquez: When I started at CROPP, it was at 5 million dollars in sales and the
board had gotten an offer to sell. I was a consultant and I said, “Gee, if you all
want to sell, why don’t you wait until you’re at 50 million and sell then, because
I think I see a clear path to getting to 50 million.” Everyone said, “Wow! 50 million—would we really ever have that many people that want organic milk?” But
I really thought 50 million was attainable. And it didn’t take that long. The next
year we went from 5 to 8 million, and it just kept going ever since.
OP: You call consumers “citizen part-
ners.” What was the inspiration for this?
Marquez: When I was in retail over 16
years ago, my boss and I were talking
about how we hate the word “
consumer”—even though it’s a perfect
word for us, seeing that we just consume, consume, consume. We thought
we should call them “citizens.” And
then I heard Carl Petrini, who
launched the Slow Foods movement,
speak and he said, “Better to cut your
tongue out than use the word ‘
consumer’.” He said we should call them
“co-producers.” I thought this was a
great way to help people understand
that every time you vote with your fork,
you’re supporting one agriculture over
another.
When I started working for CROPP,
I thought, “Isn’t research all about participatory marketing? Wouldn’t it be
great if we could not only have a focus
group, but permanent advisors?” At
that point I started calling them citizen
partners because I really do see every
single person who buys our product as
a partner in changing the world.
Also, CROPP was birthed in 1988 when there was probably the highest incidence of suicide in the farming community ever, especially the dairy farming
industry. Farms that had been in families for generations were lost. If you know
that you could be losing your farm next and you don’t have much to lose,
you’re willing to take a lot of risks. I think that that’s a very important part of
CROPP’s foundation because we have been risk takers ever since.
An example of this—and our “claim to fame”—is that the farmers have al-
ways set the pay price, not the Chicago Exchange. When I came in, we had too
much milk. It was a real crisis and we were losing money like crazy because we
were paying the organic premium to farmers but then selling a lot of milk as
conventional. But the co-op has always said, “We’re still going to pay farmers
the organic premium because that’s the model that we want to develop.”
At CROPP, we know where we’re going to be in 50 years. We’re going to be
working for our farmers’ kids, or their kids. They’ll be on the board, they’ll be
staff in our company, they’ll be our farmers. We know what our mission is and
we know where we’re going. There’s a lot of decisions along the way, but “what
we want to be when we grow up” is pretty clear and I think that is one of the ele-
ments in a formula for success.
I think that what every marketer wants is to work for a company that’s authentic. From day one, I knew that marketing this company would be very easy
because all we had to do was tell our story—these people were the real deal. We
didn’t need to make up stories; there was only gathering the stories and putting
forward the people who are the real stars of the company—the farmers.
Lastly, if anyone asked, “What is the secret to your success?” I’d have to say
it’s about the people who make things happen, both on the farming side and
on the office side. When I started at CROPP, I had two-and-a-half employees;
today I have 130. It’s not just about the ideas; it’s how you organize the people
”as a partner in changing the world.”
“I started calling them
‘citizen partners’ because I
really do see every single
person who buys our product
OP: What have been some of the greatest
communication challenges and victories
over the years?
Marquez: My goal has always been to
try to get people to make the connection between food and the environment, and I do believe that more and
more people have made that connection than ever before. Early on, Harriet Behar, who is with Midwest
Organic and Sustainable Education
Service (MOSES), used the line “
Farming for Future Generations,” and I
loved it but found that at that time
many people didn’t know what it really
meant. Today, the number one driver
