Relationship marketing
We don’t normally think of “education” and “sustainability” as being linked. Education, however, is critical to a sustainable mind set. It’s an investment in the present and the future that generates both immediate and long-term benefits.
In 2008, Organic Valley's Relationship Marketing Team deepened our relationship with the American Dietetic Association (ADA), an extremely influential group whose reach extends across the medical profession, schools, corporate centers, private practice and places beyond.
In October, we gathered up a busload of ADA dietitians for a tour of Altfrid and Sue Krusenbaum’s Organic Valley dairy farm in Elkhorn, WI. For many, this was a first-time farm experience that inspired new insight into the important role soil and animal health play in a healthy diet.
OV farmer-member Altfrid Krusenbaum conducting a farm tour for dieticians
Building Relationships
Organic Valley, at its core, is all about relationships. A cooperative is a relationship-based way of doing business. Our founding farmers knew that relationships made a sounder foundation for their business than bricks and mortar, and over 20 years later tha
t philosophy continues. Today we have some eco-friendly versions of our own "bricks-and-mortar," but we still put relationships first. Here are some creative ways we've been working with others—and each other—on our sustainable path.
Organic Logistics
CROPP ingredient buttermilk customer, Earth Island Foods, of Chatsworth, CA, is a restaurant, food store, and manufacturer of Follow Your Heart brand products. When Earth Island learned about CROPP’s Organic Logistics transportation network, they asked for help delivering chilled products to Trader Joe’s locations in Illinois and Massachusetts. Delighted with our service, Earth Island recently encouraged Fantasy Cookie, an Organic Valley ingredient butter customer, to ship with Organic Logistics, too.
By combining several smaller shipments into a larger one, all three businesses save money on shipping costs, and reduce fuel use and the greenhouse gas emissions created by wasteful shipping practices. These days when Organic Logistics delivers our milk to Trader Joe’s, we're helping out Earth Island, the earth itself, and occasionally bringing along a Fantasy Cookie.
CRP to organic: a natural transition
In an effort to increase organically farmed acreage in the U.S., CROPP has teamed with Stonyfield Farms, Annie’s Homegrown, and the Environmental Working Group to encourage landowners to convert their land to organic crop production.
In 2008, 1.2 million acres of land expired from the federally-funded Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). We decided to contact all of the landowners whose contracts were expiring. Hundreds of these landowners representing many thousands of acres responded to our outreach effort and are interested in exploring the opportunities that organic farming has to offer. We are supporting the landowners by linking them with nearby organic farmers and providing technical assistance to help them make their fallow land productive in a way that will benefit them, their land, their community, and the organic mission.
Steps to Sustainability
introduction
on the farm
humane animal treatment
operations
water stewardship
employees
partnerships
giving
sustainable trade
Excerpted from the Organic Valley/ CROPP Cooperative 2008 Annual Report.
