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Looking Forward to Puerto Rico

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:22:21 -0500

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Inside this Issue:

Annual Meeting Announcement
Call for Submissions
Information on Puerto Rico
Cultural Field Trips
A Note from the VP Communications
Applebaum Memorial Scholarship Award
Student Food Marketing Challenge

Staying True to the FDRS Tradition

Mon, 10 May 2010 09:36:53 -0500

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President’s Message

Greetings! I do hope this newsletter finds you well. In today’s environment, it seems there is plenty of bad news, particularly when it relates to budgets and especially if you are in academia. Writing this message to you has been a breath of fresh air for as I ponder the work of the Society, I am encouraged once again. The first thing that comes to mind is our outstanding annual conference. In 2009 the conference was in Broomfield, Colorado. Dr. Dawn Thilmany-McFadden from Colorado State University did an excellent job organizing the program. In addition, she found outstanding partners and sponsors. We particularly owe Market Makers, Farm Foundation, and Colorado State our gratitude for their generosity. The Student Food Marketing Challenge under the leadership of Dr. Mike Gunderson, VP of Student Programs, also enjoyed another successful competition this year. Dave Carter from the National Bison Association was our case sponsor. All involved did a fantastic job, including all of the teams representing US and Canadian schools. Finally, Dr. Forrest Stegelin, VP of Research, did the herculean task of coordinating our paper sessions, where you the members shared your great work with each other.

Planning for the 2010 conference is already in full swing. Dr. Terry Hanson from Auburn University is our host this year. He has been busy putting together another outstanding program and the San Destin location is amazing. You can find more details about this year’s program in Dr. Hanson’s report later in this newsletter. I hope you will be able to join us. And, if you are coming, consider bringing a student team for The Student Food Marketing Challenge. I have never met a student that was not really excited about their participation.

In addition to our annual conference, your leadership has been busy in making positive changes that will improve operation of the society. One example is the ability to accept credit card payments for page charges and membership payments through PayPal. This capability will streamline the process of collecting our accounts receivable, an important accomplishment in a full-volunteer society. We are also considering changes to the Journal of Food Distribution Research. The changes being evaluated are focused on reducing the cost of publishing the journal without sacrificing quality. Finally, it is important to note that our website is undergoing an upgrade. We are thankful to University of Tennessee and Michele Wilson for their long-time hosting of our website. As we moved the site hosting to Texas A&M, Dr. John Park has been working hard to upgrade the site. Take a look and let us know what you think: http://fdrs.tamu.edu/.

Last but not least, I am excited about the society’s leadership team. The board is made up of a great mix of talented, competent people who serve this association on a volunteer basis. They pay their way to every meeting and spend countless hours working for the greater good. It is a pleasure to serve with these people. When you get a chance, would you please let them know how much you appreciate their contribution?

You can see why I enjoyed writing this message. There are plenty of positive things happening, and it is important that we stop from time to time to recognize them. One of the strengths of the Society is the people that make up our membership. I look forward to seeing you in San Destin to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones.

Aaron Johnson, President

Applebaum Award Currently Seeking Applications

Applications for the William Applebaum Memorial Scholarship Award are due by June 1, to Dr. Sayed (Mehdi) Saghaian, VP Education. Full details on the award and application can be found on the Awards page of this website. The Applebaum Award is presented annually in recognition of outstanding graduate research in the area of food distribution and marketing. The award was established to honor the memory of William Applebaum, a former executive for the Kroger company and a founding member of FDRS. His dedication to fostering greater industry and academic interaction lives on through the award and has become a hallmark of FDRS. Cash awards are presented to recipients of this prestigious recognition.

Applebaum Scholarship Fund Drive

The Food Distribution Research Society (FDRS) is presently engaged in a fund drive to support the William Applebaum Memorial Scholarship Fund. This fund was founded in honor of William Applebaum, the Chief of Staff for Market Research for The Kroger Grocery and Baking Company. Bill was also a highly regarded lecturer on Food Distribution and Comparative Marketing for the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard University. FDRS awards scholarships annually for outstanding PhD and Master level research that addresses pressing problems in the global food industry. Since the first scholarship was awarded in 1978, the fund has supported over 60 awards. Contributions may be made directly to the Food Distribution Research Society. Contributed funds are invested, and scholarships are given each year to outstanding graduate students studying food distribution and marketing. Many of our past recipients have gone on to become prominent professionals in food distribution research and education.

The Applebaum scholarships have been a highlight of FDRS’s annual conference for many years, please help support this worthwhile program with a tax deductible donation. For more information please contact:

Wes Harrison, Past President
225-578-2727
wharrison@agctr.lsu.edu

A Note from FDRS VP Communications

FDRS is excited to launch a new year of activities. The Society’s leadership is actively engaged in attempting to enhance our communication efforts to our members and stakeholders. We are currently evaluating different electronic formats for the JFDR as well as launching a revamped society website.

Since communication is vital for the success of any organization, we hope that you will take the opportunity to share with us your thoughts and comments on the society or ideas that would enhance the value of your membership.

Lastly, I want to thank all of our contributors whose input continues to drive our successful JFDR. Our editors do a fantastic job and we applaud their efforts and commitment. We greatly appreciate all of our dedicated reviewers who take time to ensure the development of quality manuscripts for publication. If you have interest in contributing to our journal in some capacity feel free to visit our website to contact one of our editors or me.
I look forward to seeing most of you in Florida this fall.

Ron Rainey, VP Communications

Confusion Over the FDRS 2010 Conference

There has been some confusion about the 2010 call for papers. Rest assured, we have not removed any of the great features that make our conference appealing. As always, the conference begins with the Student Food Marketing Challenge on Saturday with finals on Sunday and competition awards at the opening reception Sunday night. The main program follows on Monday and Tuesday (including poster displays) with tours on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday will feature the regular sharing of research reports and updates.

Once again, we have the opportunity to reach out to one of our sister organizations; the Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics Research Center (AFCERC) at Texas A&M University will host the Tuesday sessions in celebration of its 40th anniversary of operation. An additional concurrent session will be available as an option to the Tuesday afternoon tours. This additional session will be coordinated by AFCERC, and has a separate call for papers (hence the confusion). Sorry if we caused any undue anxiety. Please join us for what is shaping up to be one of our best conferences yet.

The calls for papers and posters, as well as full program information can be accessed through the Conferences page.

2010 Conference Update

If you haven't seen it yet, navigate to our Conferences page for a breakdown of events for the 2010 conference in Destin, Florida, October 16-20. VP Programs, Terry Hanson is putting together a fantastic program focused on food and seafood distribution issues of the Gulf Coast. Attendees will be treated to a high degree of interaction with industry and academic experts. Of course, the location isn't too bad either! The Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort and Spa is a spacious beachfront property with plenty of nearby shopping and restaurants.

2009 Conference Report

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:53:52 -0600

Summaries from Presentations at the
2009 FDRS Conference in Broomfield, Colorado FDRS

Monday, November 2, 2009

Welcome and Opening Remarks
Lou Swanson, Vice Provost of Outreach and Strategic Partnerships at Colorado State University (CSU), welcomed us to Colorado and alluded to the timeliness of the theme we had chosen for our conference: Value-Based Supply Chain. Swanson mentioned that he was a sociologist by training and that values were important changes that public and private universities were recognizing. He also indicated that CSU had received the 2008 Engaged University classification from the Carnegie Foundation for its outreach and partnership roles in advancing teaching at the university and community levels. His presentation highlighted some of these outreach programs and strategies being pursued by CSU with producers and consumers. The Carnegie Foundation Engaged University classification began in 2006, and is designed so that universities can highlight the effectiveness of their efforts in outreach and other community partnership endeavors. In closing, he encouraged us to try and see some of the state while we were in Colorado.

Keynote Address
Exploring New Roles and Opportunities for Universities and NGOs: Rich Pirog, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

The keynote address was given by Richard Pirog from the Leopold Center at Iowa State University. His presentation was titled: “Reinventing Scalable Food Value Chains: Exploring New roles and Opportunities for Universities and NGOs.” He indicated that the Center’s main funding source was from a tax on nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides approved by the state legislature 22 years ago. To date, the Center has funded over 100 projects aimed at capacity building, food and health, business planning, energy, and food systems. He also argued that the most overwhelming problems we all faced today were a shrinking economy, and related environmental health and social problems. How do we support value-based food supply chain in this climate? He regarded value–based food supply chains as incorporating farmers, ranchers, fishermen—all strategic partners. He then gave an overview of the U.S. Food System from the 1880s to the present. The historical tour went from local farmers selling to local markets in the 1880’s through larger farmers in the 1940’s to the five predominant global retailers in the 1990’s and reverting back to the local food movement in the 2000’s. He then posed the question as to who was in the game the longest. His answer included the following: farmers, nonprofits, foundations, and university and health professionals. In his view, it was necessary to build capacity across the food-value chains, and that would involve NGOs, universities, consultants, extension, state departments of agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other farm organizations. These types of networks should be structured very carefully so as to maximize cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. In his view, failure to analyze the network very carefully could result in information junkyards or empty libraries.

He identified four core functions in some of the Center’s partnerships (regional food systems)—information hubs, catalysts for cooperation, magnets, and scouts. The Regional Food Systems Working Group included more than 50 organizations. Among its network participants were the USDA, Wellmark Foundation, and Kellogg Foundation. There were also partners across, local, state, and regional lines, including cooperatives. How has the role of universities and NGOs changed? In the past and at present that role was more of an expert who dispenses knowledge, cooperating networks predominate; there was competition for scarce resources and creation of awareness about new projects. He envisioned the future as one of co-learning and managing knowledge across groups, collaborating networks, collaboration to grow funding and keepers of values, and researchers of values.

Session I
Connecting Producers to Altruistic Consumers-The Role of Land Grants and State Ag Departments: James Barham, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, Moderator and Discussant

For this session, James Barham, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, served as moderator and discussant. It included presentations by Dar and Rich Knipe, University of Illinois Market Maker; Tom Kalchik, Associate Director Michigan State University (MSU) Product Center for Agricultural and Natural Resources; Dave Lamie of Clemson University and Wendy White of the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Markets Division. The session highlighted the innovative work that state University, governmental and inter-state projects were doing to provide marketing infrastructure and assistance well-suited to the emerging, consumer-driven market place for food.

Dar and Rich Knipe, University of Illinois Market Maker focused their presentation on how Market Maker could be used as a promotion and marketing tool. These presenters demonstrated how the databank was used for promotion, research, and marketing purposes. Lamie outlined how he got involved with Market Maker and its potential for successful partnerships for rural and community development projects, trade, and e-commerce. Kalchik agreed with Lamie’s assessment of Market Maker and mentioned that MSU was using the tool to enhance entrepreneurship. However, because of costs, the University had had to seek outside partners such as Green Stone Farm Services, grocery stores and processors, and the MSU Extension and Experiment Station. The final speaker in this session was Wendy White from Colorado Department of Agriculture. Her presentation highlighted the state’s promotion and marketing programs; many of the promotional efforts placed strong emphasis on buying local by being “Colorado Proud”.

Session II
Partnering with Food Retailers to Understand Consumers: Cathy Durham, Oregon State University Food Innovation Center, Moderator and Discussant

For this session, presenters focused on “Store Sales and Procurement Data as a Market Research Tool” (Hikaru Peterson and Rita York Kansas State University and the Mercantile Exchange Cooperative-Kansas Food Retailer); “A National Survey of Organic Retailers” (Carolyn Dimitri, USDA-Economic Research Service); and “Experimental Designs in the Marketplace: Opportunities and Pitfalls” (Dawn Thilmany and Larry Nurse, Colorado State University and Lunds Markets of Minnesota). Tom Gillpatrick with the Portland State University Business Program added his insights into how we, as researchers, can effectively partner with independent retailers.

Presenters in this session described how organic products moved through the food chain, and other concerns such as follows: low survey response rates; the role of slotting allowances; stakeholder input; appropriate research questions; how to enhance profitability; how to deal with the issue of confidentiality; ways to seek research partners; partnerships between universities and the private sectors regarding student internships and employment; U.S. import and export of organic food products; accessing scanner data, through Nielson, and IRI, Wal-Mart in-store network. Larry mentioned that retailers had rich data bases but often times, lacked the expertise to analyze these data Therefore, having a good relationship with universities can be mutually beneficial to both parties because the research would help retailers to better respond to consumer demand.

Session III
Connecting Farmers with Institutional and Restaurant Markets: Experiences in Local Food Procurement: Kynda Curtis, University of Nevada, Reno, Moderator and Discussant

This session included presentations by Gail Feenstra, University of California, UC SAREP/ASI: “Overview of Institutional Buyer Issues”; David Conner, Michigan State University: “School Food FOCUS, A National Farm to School Program”; Karen McManus, Wolf Moon Farms: “A Producer’s Perspective”; Douglas Taylor, Executive Pastry Chef, Molto Vegas: “A Chef’s Perspective”; and Tom Stoner of Spoons Restaurant.

Gail highlighted the rising sustainability movement and some of the lessons learned from her involvement with selected farm-to-school and farm-to-institution programs. To her, the key to success were creative leadership, acknowledging costs, and forming strategic community partnerships. She also thought that there was no substitute for time investment and persistence when navigating these partnerships. Collaboration between producers and buyers was vital, education could not be underestimated, and producers must seek to maintain their identity. The latter was enormously challenging, but was vitally important for coordination, tracking, and outreach.

Conner outlined the past successes and challenges faced by the Food Options for Children in Urban School (FOCUS) program, and offered prescriptions for the future. Karen McManus of Wolf Moon Farms discussed her experiences with the farm-to-school, farm-to-restaurant, and farm-to-institution programs. The overriding theme in her presentation was the need to maintain passion and composure in the face of marketing and production challenges. Taylor’s presentation included the seasonality of local products, barriers faced by local producers, distance to market, and the education of consumers and producers. Some of the locally produced products bought by Molto Vegas included grass-fed beef, cherries, squash, honey, and pistachios. Tom’s restaurant specialized in soups and had a strong commitment to buying local-organically produced food products.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Keynote Address
The 30-Year Challenge: Agriculture's Strategic Role in Feeding and Fueling a Growing World: Neil Conklin, Farm Foundation

Tuesday’s keynote address featured Neil Conklin from the Farm Foundation. He discussed agriculture’s strategic role in feeding and fueling a growing world. He argued that 75 years ago production agriculture accounted for seven percent of gross domestic product, but today that total was less than two percent. Although great strides had been made on food safety and environmental issues, the growing world population will be a monumental challenge going forward. In 1850 the economy for the most part was powered by biomass; today less than seven percent of our energy comes from biomass. The increased demand for energy is being fuelled by rising income levels in developing countries. And by 2030, agricultural output will need to rise by 50 percent to keep pace with the rising population levels. Unfortunately, 40 percent of the earth’s surface is too dry; 21 percent is too wet; 21 percent is too cold; six percent is too rough; two percent is unsuitable.

Water challenges will also escalate because farmers now use 70 percent of the planet’s fresh water, but growing urban areas are outbidding agriculture for this scarce resource. Global climate change will pose another challenge for agriculture; however, the costs for mitigating climate changes are still uncertain. He argued that in the past the bulk of our policies were shaped by abundance. However, the global financial crisis, the recession, food security, energy, climate change, and competition for natural resources would shape policy going forward. Consequently, we will need alternative visions for the future that dovetail large-scale commercial farmers, driven by science and technology and connected to consumers through global supply chains, with small-scale sustainable farms connected to consumers through local food networks.

Session IV
Values Based Supply Chains: Collective Action to Provide Consumer Assurances Organized and Moderated by Ag of the Middle Research Committee, George Stevenson, Chair

This session featured presenters from Shepard’s Grain (Karl Kupers) and Natural Country Beef (Doc and Connie Hatfield). Shepard’s Grain has been in operation for 10 years and is a cooperative where all member farmers produce organic wheat. Karl discussed some of the challenges they faced in the early years and some of their successes. He also suggested that it was important to have a core set of business values, to build face-to-face relationships, and to invest the time and effort to make these relationships work. Doc and Connie agreed with Karl’s assessments, but also outlined how they made the decision to produce natural beef, some of their earlier marketing challenges, and the importance of honesty and integrity in business. They also advanced that it was very important for producers to have a good knowledge of production costs, to protect their firm’s identity, to keep abreast of issues dealing with food safety, nutrition, diet, and health, and being adoptive and nimble in the marketplace.