Going Bananas Over Dole Organic’s Marketing Savvy.
June 26, 2008 by guruofnew
Filed under eco & sustainability, food & beverage, marketing & advertising
I always love it when I get a new food project. I get to wax eloquent with phrases like farmers-market-fresh and sun-plumped perfect. I get to invent new blends, flavors and colors. I get to nose around in my stockpile of ingredients and decide whether they should be mulled, cold-pressed or frappe’d.
But all of this is wimpy indeed — mere puffery, in fact — when compared to the way in which Dole has masterfully re-tooled its Organics line, giving it new life and a compelling new story to tell. In an era when our favorite veggies suddenly turn villainous, made in China means made with mercury and lead, and no one is really sure what ‘green’ means anymore, Dole has taken not just the eco road but the ethical one as well.
The story: Dole Organic lets consumers “travel to the origin of each organic product”. By typing in a fruit sticker’s three-digit Farm Code on Dole Organic’s website, customers can find the story behind their banana. Each farm’s section on the website includes background info, shows photos of the crops and workers and tells consumers more about the origin of Dole’s organic products. You can even use Google Earth to get a closer look at the community. A new Carbon Compensation 2008 chart is available as well.
I typed in code 698 and here’s what I got:
Farm Name: La Gloria and Las Palmas
Las Palmas Farm and La Gloria Farm belongs to Andrés Altamirano, a member of VRAM group. La Gloria farm has 20 hectares of organic bananas and 20 hectares of organic cocoa. The farm is located in Machala, Province of El Oro in Ecuador. The farm is been certified by BCS Öko Garantie since 2005. Mr. Altamirano as well as his partners of VRAM group is commited with the improvement of the organic farming. Las Palmas farm has 25 hectares in third year of conversion to organic, next January 2008 the farm will be certified as organic and will start exporting its organic fruit with Dole Organic Program too.
Now that carbon footprinting and corporate transparency are here to stay, it’s likely that more marketers will soon come up with their own seed to spoon stories and labels. Enquiring minds now urgently want to know: Where the heck did my dinner come from? Who grew it? How did it get to my local Safeway? What kind of footprint did it leave behind?
And the ultimate question of all: Which is worse? Carbon or calories?
This is really cool! I was very happy to discover a ‘Shipped from Chile’ sticker on my salmon, but this definitely takes the cake. Hopefully others will follow suit.
We’re lucky that so much of what we eat comes from just a few miles away. Especially the Meyer lemons! But that doesn’t mean I can give up my mangoes and bananas.
and what if i asked you who actually supervises these so called organic producers and certifiers? big question…
recently i have received more and more complaints from small farmers located in this same region complaining how frustrated they feel about their organic experience due to the fact that larger producers have a two sided agricultural practice. one for the organic inspections and the other for the high yield production.
so reading left and right, i have not reached any one european supervising identity capable of answering my question.
so good luck, after all its all psychological