The idea of buying and eating local is one of the most easily identifiable food trends. There's been an explosion in farmer's markets, farm-to-table dinners/restaurants and a series of articles, movies and books trying to teach people to ask questions about where their food is grown or made.
But invariably when a grassroots movement (pun slightly intended) enters the zeitgeist, corporations quickly follow. In this case, we've gone from born-on dates and use-by stamps to location codes allowing customers to see where a product originated.
As Fat City noted back in May, Frito Lay has announced a "Chip Tracker,"
designed to let people enter their Zip code and a three-digit product
code to find out where a given bag of potato chips was born. All of this is part of Frito Lay's effort to focus on the healthy elements of eating chips, because, as the Web site says, "snacking is an important part of a healthy diet."
introduced a family farm code last year that allows consumers to use a
three-digit code to find the town and first name and last initial of
the farmer who raised the chickens they're purchasing. But because there are no
pictures of the farm, the farmer -- with an incomplete name -- is represented by a stick-figure drawing, this feels closer to a marketing
effort than a sincere effort to provide information on the origin of the chicken.
For Frito Lay and Gold n' Plump Poultry, the corporation
that owns the Just Bare brand, the problem is that there's no good way to reveal company information without opening up their practices to criticism or allowing
competitors a chance to examine what they're doing.
So we'll see whether this mutated idea of transparency is going to stick
around. People have made a conscious decision to avoid witnessing
what's inside sausage; given the opportunity, will they take a
peek under the casing?
[Image via Flickr: Lars K. Jensen]
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As one of the people behind the Just BARE brand of chicken (and an employee of Gold�n Plump), I felt compelled to address the comments made here about corporate transparency.
Just to clarify, we really don't view ourselves as a corporation. In fact, if you asked most anyone at Gold'n Plump, they wouldn't describe us as a corporation. We are a relatively small, privately-owned, family-run company who has always been open about our practices and operations--long before the "transparency" movement. For that reason, we were truly excited when the launch of Just BARE opened up an entirely new level of transparency--linking the chicken in a particular package back to the family farm where raised.
But it also presented a new challenge: how much are the independent family farmers who raise our chickens comfortable disclosing about themselves? And how do we protect their right to privacy (and safety) while delivering the amount of information consumers need to feel good about the chicken they buy? So, we did the logical thing: we asked them both.
What we learned is that most consumers were satisfied learning a few basic facts about their chicken, like the name of the family farmer (didn't really matter if it was full name, first name and last initial, etc.) and where the farm was located. We also asked each of our family farmer partners exactly what they were comfortable disclosing--which is what you presently see on the justbarechicken.com web site. Some family farmers shared more so you'll see more--but in the end it's their choice that determines how much or little information is provided.
So, while our transparency may not be perfect, we're committed to being open about our practices and operations. I am happy with the direction we're heading as a company and as a greater community.
Thanks for spurring this conversation. If anyone would like to engage directly with us further, they can contact us at wecare@justbarechicken.com.
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