The Packer’s Tom Karst spoke Oct. 12 with Teresa Thorne, executive director of the Alliance for Food and Farming.
Thorne talked about her background growing up on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley, some of the biggest accomplishments of the group in the past decade, and the importance of its recent media tour of Northwest farms. She also discussed the alliance’s success in combatting negative messaging about fresh produce from the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list.
Thorne said a key to the group’s success is support from all corners of the industry. “By all of us coming together through the Alliance for Food and Farming, it really allows us to speak with one voice, and that’s been a really important key to our success.”
Q: Tell us a little bit about how you got connected with the alliance and your journey with the group.
A: I’ve been with the alliance since 2003, so I’ve been a long time in this process. I come from a place with a love of
produce; I’m a very proud citrus farmer’s daughter from the San Joaquin Valley. I grew up working in the citrus grove, working in packing houses, and really kind of developed a love for farming. I want to see farming and farmers continue to thrive and exist. I take a lot of pride in representing farmers who are growing the one food group that everyone recommends we eat more of every day.
Q: Over the years, there’s been so many developments with the alliance — you’ve been universally supported by industry groups. What are the maybe two or three things that you think of when you think of the work of the alliance over the past 10-15 years?
A: The first and key thing, I think, is the consumer education. That’s really what we’re all about. We want consumers to know, whether they choose organic or conventional, that both are safe, both can be eaten with confidence. And we don’t want any group or individual to discourage (consumers) from that. We want to correct a lot of the fear-based information that’s out there that’s trying to promote one production method over another. We think that’s unhealthy for consumers to take that approach. And again, we’re really strong advocates of that consumer choice and support them in making the right shopping choices for their families. I think the second thing is what you kind of alluded to a moment ago, which is we’re an organization that is supported by the other trade groups, by the other commodity boards, and by United Fresh Produce Association and the Produce Marketing Association, Western Growers, the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association and the regional trade associations as well. By all of us coming together through the Alliance for Food and Farming, it really allows us to speak with one voice. And that’s been a really important key to our success and our ability to, again, take on that consumer education that we strive to do.
Q: The Alliance for Food and Farming recently had a media tour with media and influencers. Tell us about what that was like this year.
A: I’ve got to get a shout-out to our former chair Tim York, formerly with Markon (and now with the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement). When he and I sat down when he was going to become our incoming chair, he said, “Teresa, if you had one tactic that you’d really like to do, what would it be?” I said, to bring media and nutrition communicators out to see our farms.
We try (to educate) as well through videos and other tactics, but there’s just something about being (on farms), firsthand. Our first three years of the tour we piggybacked onto Markon’s Produce Expo and they very generously allowed us to go with them as we toured strawberry fields, vegetable fields and lettuce fields. And it really gave the tour its launch. And so, this year, we were able to conduct the tour on our own. There was enough interest and sponsor support to go out on our own and we went to the Northwest. There was a lot of interest in those crops, in those commodities, and so we saw apples, pears, cherries, blueberries in the Hood River and Beaverton, Ore., areas. And really, the importance of it is that these nutrition communicators, you can’t replicate that experience of being on the farm. We cannot replicate (the experience) for every consumer; it is impossible to do. The nutrition communicators and media that come out and join us really have a microphone to those consumers and so they really help us elevate our education efforts through their voice and through their social media channels and their blog posts, and they are all contributors to publications like Washington Post and Food Network. They are influencers in the food space.
Q: I am sure that, for them, meeting the farmers, being in the fields was a great experience. It’s something that not everyone gets to do, even if we are in the industry. That’s great you were able to do that.
A: It energizes me when I see the interactions and the excitement, and the passion of the farmers come through so strongly, and how our tour guests react to that passion with their own excitement. We send out a survey every year afterward, and the amazing comments we get about how impactful these tours are — the love of picking an apple off the tree or blueberries off the vine, every year — it is really gratifying.
More importantly, for them to push those messages out to their consumers and their clients is really important as well.
And what makes our tour a little bit unique, what (tour participants) really like, is that we are able to see multiple crops. That’s helped us in our success, too.
Q: That is something that you will do again, correct?
A: Yes. This was our fourth one. We’re having some discussions now about the potential 2022 tour and the sponsors are equally enthusiastic. They felt like the return that this tour provides in the consumer education spaces is really important.
Q: Congratulations! That sounds like a great, great event. And what else do you have on your plate right now, as we look ahead here? What else are you thinking about the relative to the work of the alliance?
A: We’re going into our 2022 program planning. Our outreach efforts are continual. We’re always touching our key audiences with new studies and new information, not only from a toxicological standpoint, but a safety standpoint and a nutrition standpoint. One of the things I want to say about the Safe Fruits and Veggies Campaign was that it was launched in 2010. We used the Dirty Dozen list kind of as our benchmark.
We’ve really seen through the last 10, 11 years that the media coverage of the Dirty Dozen list has really declined significantly. Not only in impressions, but you’re just not seeing major news outlets covering anymore. And that’s been really gratifying. One of the things I wanted to mention, too, is that social media is a big part of what we do. And that’s part of how we’re touching people constantly and continually. And when we started in the social media space about nine years ago, we really took a lot of heat from the Dirty Dozen list authors and their constituents and followers on social media.
And we actually have done a 180-degree turn, where now mentions about the alliance on social media during that Dirty Dozen space, 90% are positive toward the alliance, and 80% are negative toward EWG and the Dirty Dozen list. And so that has been a really substantial turnaround in the space that we’re really gratified and proud of. Those nutrition communicators that we work so diligently with on the tour and throughout the year have been really impacting the social media space as well. And we’re seeing that with those results.
