Cranberry growers get relief: Congress expected to pass bill $50M aid bill this week from The Patriot Ledger, 10/12/00

Op-Ed

"Buried in Berries"....The Property Tax Debate.

A candidate for state representative had started a rumor that the town would have to over-ride prop 2 and a half in order to subsidize rich cranberry growers.

by Linda Rinta

10/10/00 On October 2, I attended a meeting at the VFW hall in Onset, Wareham on cranberry bog property (tax) evaluation that was widely promoted as a tax payers revolt against subsidizing cranberry property taxes. Despite the reporting in the Wareham Courier, which was politically motivated. the meeting turned into an informational forum where farmland evaluation was explained to concerned taxpayers (non cranberry) and they understood it! Despite the Courier article, Ruth Provost is not about to overturn the State Constitution to repeal 61A. CONTINUED

Op-Ed:

Five Steps to Start a Cranberry Recovery

By: Chawner Hurd -- Lakeville, MA

Ed. note: Chawner Hurd is a Lakeville Selectman and a candidate for the Massachusetts State Senate. He is running against incumbent Marc Pacheco. Stressline has not endorsed a candidate for this race. All candidates are welcome to publish Op-Ed pieces.

10/8/00 -- The Cranberry Industry is one of the most important contributors to our local communities. Since the early 1800’s, Cranberry growers have played an integral role in helping to shape the American cultural identity. They have helped to shape the American work ethic -- hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and commitment are the ideals they live day-in and day-out. Without their leadership, southeastern Massachusetts would not be the enjoyable and beautiful place that it is today.

Now it’s our turn to give back a little piece of what they have given us. Unfortunately, tough times have befallen the Cranberry industry. Prices are at record lows and there is a year’s surplus of frozen cranberries sitting in freezers around the country. Some people say the outlook is not good, but I believe not all is lost. With a lot of help from our community and with strong support from local and state government, I believe we can turn the tide. That’s one of the reason’s I am running for the State Senate. CONTINUED

10/11/00 Cran do: Berry glut might bog down the profits but few Bay State growers are giving up Boston Herald

" As he drives the machine, Zamboni-like, in ever - diminishing circles around the bog, Kapell * shouts above the noise of the engine: `I love this!' He cites a line from an old Simon & Garfunkel song to describe the elemental pleasure of the harvest: `I get the news I need from the weather report.' "
* Former Ocean Spray board member Jeff Kapell.

10/12/00 Harvest Photo Gallery Cape Cod Times

10/10/00 The beauty of a traditional Cape industry prevails despite economics Cape Cod Times

10/10/00 Dow Jones Indexes Launches Global Food 100 Index

Phone cards, an Ocean Spray promotion you may have missed.

Sunday Standard Times
Ocean Spray plans major cuts

From the 10/7/00 Cape Cod Times
Plummeting price ravage Cape harvest
and
Growers fault Ocean Spray policy
also
Milwaukee Journal

  A new article by Dr. James Tillotson: "Are your juices and your company ready for the next century?" 
10/3/00: Bumper crop breaks growers hearts, Old Colony Memorial.
10/2/00: The latest news on the Makepeace development plans

10/6/00 Read the letter from the American Cranberry Growers’ Association, the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association, The Cranberry Institute, the Maine Cranberry Growers’ Association, the Michigan Cranberry Council, the Oregon Cranberry Farmer Alliance, the Washington Cranberry Alliance and the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers’ Association HERE. 

Ocean Spray Press Release: Former Warner Lambert Executive named to Ocean Spray Board of Directors

10/2/00 -- There has been only one other woman on the Ocean Spray board, Ellen Stillman, from 1957 to 1969. Ocean Spray has gone without  female representation on the board for over thirty years despite the fact that it is a company which sells most of its products to women. The company and the board have the well-deserved reputation of being a men's club. With few exceptions, top executive posts have remained a male domain even as women broke into corporate executive suites all across the country. CONTINUED

CRANBERRY ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN

The 3-page Cranberry Economic Recovery Plan, below, was written by the Cranberry Institute with input from the allied cranberry grower associations and processors. The document was prepared in preparation for the Sept. 11 meeting of cranberry grower representatives with USDA Undersecretary Gus Schumacher and other officials. CLICK HERE

News:

9/27/00 Makepeace has grand plan for land in three towns, in the Brockton Enterprise (scroll down to center of page) 

From August: BusinessMen Newspaper - Karachi, Pakistan - Mid America Trade Group Plans to invest US $10 Million in Pakistan...

9/24/00  -- From the Cape Cod Times: Falling cranberry prices put couple in "Jam"

Dark summer brings early cranberry harvest - Brockton Enterprise

9/20/00 Research Findings Suggest Cranberry May Help Fight Ulcer-causing Bacteria; Emerging Science Points to Healthful Cranberry Benefits Beyond Urinary Tract Health  | Sunkist Cheers Passage of Permanent Normal Trade Relations for China

9/18/00 Hawthorne speaks to press! Article in Boston Business Journal | Key Technology receives top supplier award from Ocean Spray | Cadbury to purchase Snapple from Triarc | Vote to determine if pork generic promotion survives | Cranberry Institute launches web site

Ocean Spray budget cuts

By Karen Duskek, Special Writer
Middleboro Gazette
(republished with permission)

"The final piece is making it profitable to the people who own the company, unfortunately, that's the final stage."  Ocean Spray spokesman Chris Phillips  

9/28/00 LAKEVILLE - In response to cranberry prices that have been plummeting downward since 1997, the Ocean Spray cranberry growers cooperative is cutting $76 million from its budget next year, primarily through a hiring freeze, according to company spokesman Chris Phillips. Only the most critical of the 55 to 60 positions now open in manufacturing, administration and general operations will be filled and there will be no new employees added to the 550 now working at the corporate headquarters in Lakeville, Mr. Phillips said. CONTINUED

9/21/00 -- Cindy Dow, who is a reporter for the Middleboro Gazette, knows first hand about the plight of cranberry growers. Her family inherited five acres six years ago and were just seeming to get somewhere in the cranberry business when the cranberry crisis hit. She writes about how the cranberry community is handling this year's harvest in the 9/21/00 Middleboro Gazette in an article entitled "A painful season faces local cranberry growers."

From article on trade with China helping Northeast: "Initially, though, farms and agricultural firms are expected to gain the most. China has agreed, for example, to immediately import several million tons of wheat at a 1 percent tariff, far lower than normal. It also has agreed to loosen the government's monopoly on agricultural trading, allowing some private buyers and sellers into the market."  The Boston Globe