Op-Ed

Cranberry Marketing Order Referendum

by Doanne Andresen

2/11/01 -- In 1995, "The Freedom to Farm Act" declared marketing orders illegal for most major commodities. They remained in effect for some small commodities. But the growers did have a right to vote every four years to end the Marketing Order.

Cranberry Growers have lost their right to vote the Marketing Order out of existence. Twice, since 1995, the Cranberry Marketing Committee has requested that the USDA postpone the referendum. The most recent vote was scheduled to take place in January 2001. It has now been postponed until May 2003. If you survive the regulations that this committee is about to impose on you, you may get to vote in May 2003. Or it may be postponed again.

Ronald Cioffi, Chief of the Marketing Order Administration Branch, Fruit and Vegetable Program, wrote the following letter, dated October 26, 2000, in response to David Farrimond's request that the vote be postponed again:

Dear Dave,

On September 6, 2000, the Cranberry Marketing Committee (Committee) unanimously requested the Secretary to suspend the continuance referendum (scheduled for January 2001) until after the amendments proposed at an August 28, 2000 Committee meeting have been voted upon.

This is to inform you that the Department has agreed to combine the formal rulemaking and continuance referenda so they could be completed in 2003. In the event that a formal rulemaking referendum is not possible at that time, the regularly scheduled continuance referendum will be conducted in May 2003.

Please contact me if you have further questions.

Sincerely (etc.)

This Cranberry Marketing Committee has become a governing body that we can not dethrone. They assess us for their expenses so that they can fly to Washington and pass regulations without growers present.

They don’t ask growers where the meetings should be held. They don’t tell growers when most meetings are held. They don’t tell growers when they suspend the referendum vote. But even if we had a vote, it wouldn’t be fair. Dave Farrimond told me that some large Ocean Spray growers would get to vote as many as sixteen times because they registered their bogs separately.

There are 550 growers in Massachusetts. Most of them are not aware of the subcommittee meetings that are being held in Providence, Rhode Island. And they have not been informed that a whole Committee Meeting is scheduled to vote on a volume control regulation on Feb. 28 or March 1st in Arlington, VA.

Why is the final vote being taken so far away from Cranberry Growing States? And why aren’t growers informed about these meetings? I believe that the Committee has a responsibility to the growers that they represent to keep them informed about the decisions that are being made by the committee. I also believe that the Committee should let growers know when they hold meeting so that they can attend.  This subcommittee will be making recommendations to the full Committee without grower input because most growers don’t know that the meetings are taking place. On Feb 28 or March 1st, the full committee will be asked to vote on the recommendations of this subcommittee without having informed the growers about the proposals and without having informed the growers that the vote may take place.

Is this democracy at work?

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