guest editorial/opinion
Perspective: Export Expertise

Margaret Speich is vice president of communications and membership for the U.S. Dairy Export Council. She contributes this column exclusively for Cheese Market News®.

Dairy’s first responders

It has been 101 years since Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle,” 100 years since Congress passed the Food and Drug Act and still the food industry is not immune to safety crises.

Just ask California spinach growers, who lost more than $100 million in revenues due to last summer’s E. coli outbreak. Over the last third of 2006, a spate of E. coli incidents involving spinach and lettuce were linked to hundreds of sicknesses (and at least one death), scared away consumers, prompted severe criticism of manufacturing and handling operations and threatened the very existence of many businesses.

The U.S. dairy industry has an exemplary safety record, but we can still learn from the experience of the spinach growers. Perhaps most importantly, we can learn what not to do. Communications experts agree the produce industry dropped the ball on the E. coli outbreak by violating the main rules of crisis management: speak up early and with one voice.

At the outset of the spinach crisis, the government — which was practically issuing daily counts of people made ill — appeared to be the only source of information. The growers themselves responded sporadically and inconsistently. No one stepped forward to speak for the industry as a whole and no one provided answers to the kinds of questions consumers were asking, such as how this could happen, and what growers were doing to prevent it from occurring again.

Today’s media and technology heightened the problem. Within hours of the initial reports, the Internet was swarmed with bloggers and news stories looking for answers, quoting inconsistent responses from anyone or any company associated with spinach and wondering why there was no definitive response from the industry.

Efficient dissemination of the facts — the status of the E. coli investigation, the safety measures taken by the industry, the usual quality and nutrition of spinach — from a credible source would have gone a long way toward quelling consumer worries over the product’s safety. But nine days after the initial reports, and after heavy news coverage, there was still “no face to this crisis and little consistency in comments made by industry sources,” wrote one public relations blogger.

A look at the most successful product safety crises over the years shows one thing: frank, direct, truthful communication goes a long way toward mitigating damage. The way to survive a crisis is to be a top-notch communicator, accept responsibility and take significant, specific, tangible actions to solve it.

• Dairy’s crisis plan

In 2001, when the 9/11 attacks, anthrax and bioterrorism threats gripped the nation, four industry groups formed the Dairy Communications Management Team (DCMT) to prepare for a crisis. Made up of Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), this collaborative effort helps the industry speak with one voice, offer consistent answers and messages and defend the dairy franchise.

The key to the success of the DCMT is preparedness. DCMT has trained a network of skilled crisis managers across the country and offers crisis communications tools through DairyResponse.com. Crisis communicators have drilled extensively so they’re ready to respond to the real thing. The team also performs issues monitoring and management, develops relevant messages and tracks and responds to inquiries on issues that might affect the dairy business.

So, for instance, when the United States’ first BSE finding was confirmed in December 2003, the industry was ready to address the issue head-on. As a result, media coverage was slight, and concern from overseas dairy buyers was quickly put to rest. By emphasizing the industry’s longstanding safety message that American dairy products are among the most tested, regulated and safest in the world across all stakeholders, extended damage was avoided.

And when the second case of BSE was found in June 2005, it was a non-issue to dairy consumers, out of the news in a matter of days.

Most recently, the DCMT has become a leading voice in explaining and answering questions regarding the FDA’s draft risk assessment on the safety of milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring. Behind the scenes, DCMT had been working on this issue for several years in anticipation of FDA’s announcement.

While IDFA and NMPF have been the industry’s voices in the domestic market, USDEC carries the communications effort overseas by providing consistent messages to inquiries through its liaison with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service and its international offices. If questions arise, it’s critical that the U.S. industry speaks in unison.

Crisis communication is particularly important for overseas markets, many of which are relatively new to American dairy products and whose consumers may be more easily put off by food safety questions. China’s infant formula scandal of 2005, for example, triggered sales and regulatory repercussions that are still being felt. Japan’s Snow Brand Milk Products so badly mishandled a series of food safety problems beginning in 2000 that it was forced to slice up and sell parts of its operation and has only recently returned to profitability.

Poor communication and mixed messages can turn a bad situation worse, spawning destructive publicity and amplifying the crisis in buyer and consumer minds. It’s not possible to make a food safety scare disappear, but dealing directly with an issue through a single voice certainly helps soften the blow.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.