Some Boards That Should Be Independent of the USDA
The USDA announces that the secretary of agriculture has appointed new members to the National Mango Board. I didn’t know we had a National Mango Board, although until today, I didn’t know about the popcorn, avocado, or watermelon boards, either. (There’s no board for raspberries yet, but the USDA is working on it.)
Why is the USDA involved in promoting individual fruits? Can’t the blueberry growers and the mushroom growers manage their own public relations?
These organizations belong in the private sector. The USDA should follow the precedent set by the state of Missouri and get rid of extraneous boards.
While we’re on the subject of produce, the National Watermelon Promotion Board links to this picture of a bus stop shaped like a watermelon. Check it out.
The theory behind these promoting of fruits is that Brand X of blueberry spends money to market itself and Brand Y of blueberry gets the benefits as blueberries are, mostly, the same. It was trying to eliminate a ‘free rider’ problem in that Brand X spends money on promotion and Brand Y gets some of the benefit. Brand X and Y are competitors to a degree, but they also have the same goal of getting people to eat more blueberries. (Consumers can differentiate bottled water, but not blueberries? What a world!!)
My facts below may be a bit out of date, but the gov use to mandate that Brand Y kick in toward the promotions even if it didn’t want to. That was tested in court and I don’t know how that turned out.
Fruit/vegetables are hard to market, as it is mostly interchangeable. I remember ‘Foxy’ lettuce with Brooke Shields as its ad model about 20? years ago, but that is about it off the top of my head. Methods of production can make a difference (organic, local, Idaho potatoes). However, I don’t think that MAKING people pay for something to ‘help’ them is the right answer.
Comment by Papillon — February 8, 2010 @ 4:15 p.m.
Thanks for the information. I’m not concerned about the free rider problem; people still eat fruits that aren’t covered by these boards (like raspberries). Maybe there’s less advertising for them than there would be if they had their own boards, but I don’t think the government needs to establish some minimum level of advertising.
Comment by Sarah Brodsky — February 8, 2010 @ 4:25 p.m.