advertising campaigns to research on the benefits of
organic.
Currently, close to 20 industries, ranging from milk to
mushrooms, have USDA market research and promotion
orders. Other national industry campaigns such as Got
Milk?, Pork, the Other White Meat, The Incredible Edible
Egg and Cotton, The Fabric of Our Lives, have not only
helped these industries increase awareness and sales, but
have also turned these industry slogans into pop culture
catchphrases.
Before the end of 2012, OTA will conduct a straw poll
to determine whether the industry will move forward to
submit an application to USDA for its own research and
promotion order and hold a formal referendum in 2013.
To help the industry better understand this opportunity,
Organic Processing recently chatted with Christine Bushway,
executive director of the OTA and members of the program’s steering committee—as well as Huw Bowles, the executive director of the U.K.’s Organic Trade Board, which
launched a national marketing campaign in 2011.
OP: What was the inspiration for
this program?
Bushway: Educating the con-
sumer on what it is that or-
ganic actually delivers has
always been an issue, and con-
fusion about what organic
means is a hindrance to in-
creased purchases. In addition
to this, we were continuing to
see opportunities that could
really help drive the growth of
organic, but were unable to
capitalize on these events be-
cause there was no way to really reach the national audi-
ence. An example that comes to mind was the President’s
Cancer Panel report, which basically said we have 41 per-
cent rate of cancer in this country and that in order to re-
duce your potential risk for cancer, you should avoid
pesticides and antibiotics.
So we started looking at the research and promotion
orders that are already in place in the country such as
dairy, eggs, pork, beef, watermelon, cotton, mushrooms,
popped corn, sorghum, soybeans and potatoes. There’s
even one for softwood lumber. These are all under the federal research and promotion program.
We did a feasibility study to see if this would make sense
for our industry, asking, “Is this something the industry is
interested in?” “Can we get it through Washington?”
“Where are the roadblocks, where are the pitfalls?” “Are
CHRISTINE BUSHWAY
Executive Director of the OTA
the roadblocks and pitfalls so onerous that we will never
get it through?” And while nothing could tell us what the
outcome would be, there was enough favorable response
and enough momentum that it was clearly important to
move this forward and give the industry the opportunity to
vote on having this self-help vehicle available to them.
One challenge, though, was that there has never been a
multicommodity research and promotion order. This was
in itself unprecedented. But in order to accumulate the
kind of money where we could really impact the consumer,
we needed the whole industry involved. Every business has
to do marketing, and this would be the marketing of the
organic industry.
The way to ensure that everyone is involved is with a
federal order, which means that everyone pays in that is eligible to participate. Each industry determines where the
money gets taken from, whether it’s the processor, or the
producer or wherever, so it’s different for each promotion
order.
“USDA reports that for every
dollar invested in research and
promotion orders, there has been
OP: So this would be a mandatory program then?
Bushway: Yes, but it’s not the government that decides
there is a need for a program like this. The industry itself
votes and decides if they want this program or not. Volunteer programs don’t work that well because you have some
people who write the checks, while others do nothing and
still reap the benefits of the program. That’s not fair. So
that’s why there are federal orders.
”a $50 return.”
OP: How successful have other promotion campaigns been?
Bushway: The most amazing statistic to me is that USDA
reports that for every dollar invested in research and promotion orders, there has been a $50 return. So that’s quite
a return on investment.
I spent a lot of years working on the Incredible Edible
Egg campaign. When the egg industry decided to look at a
research and promotion order, consumption had dropped
about in half over quite a long period of time. They were
looking at what could be done to offset that continued
drop. The campaign started in the late 1970s, and it’s been
a very successful promotion. Egg consumption not only
stopped sliding, but it continued to go up.
