| Editorial
2/27/00 Ocean Spray and the cranberry industry find that their problems have gone from bad, to worse, to worse than ever was anticipated. Large Ocean Spray growers are pitted against small growers in a battle that will see the ruin of the less fortunate. Ocean Spray itself seems to be so hell bent on trying to "clobber the competition" that they are willing to use the small family farmer as cannon fodder. Taking a bite out of Northland's market share will do nothing to reduce the surplus. Rah rah cheerleading about how Ocean Spray will teach that cheeky upstart Swendrowski a lesson may inspire the troops; but it detracts from the far more difficult task of growing the market for all things cranberry. Robert Hawthorne, who is by all accounts a top-notch CEO, is saddled with internal dissension and bad press that cannot help the image that Ocean Spray wants to cultivate with consumers. First the proxy fight at the Annual Meeting, when the will of the Ocean Spray growers in Massachusetts was overturned, and then the decision by the Ocean Spray board to support a volume restriction, seems to demonstrates further insensitivity to the small farmer. First the small family farmers discovered that their votes were virtually worthless, and then they were told the board supported another 20-30% cut in their income. The spectacle of the Ocean Spray wave crashing over and drowning small family farmers, who larger growers have called "hobby farmers", is a public relations nightmare. The S.S. Ocean Spray is listing badly and taking on water. Brilliant and resourceful management is needed to save her. But if she is saved at the expense of small family farmers, some of whom who will be forced to sell out for pennies on the dollar to their rich neighbors, and some of whom may go on to start their own cooperative with a true one member one vote policy, the damage to the once mighty S.S. Ocean Spray will take years to repair. Even if it manages to retain its legal cooperative status, the public will know that it is really agribusiness in coops clothing. |