Milling & Baking News - April 23, 2019 - 18

Industry Activities

Diverse views of breadbasket
checkoff voiced at town hall
NAPLES, FLA. - Vigorous support
of a baked foods checkoff and resistance to its mandatory nature and
participation thresholds were expressed at an open town hall meeting
April 7 to discuss the checkoff proposal, about to be submitted to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture for
consideration.
Separate from the proceedings of
the A.B.A. all-members meeting, the
well-attended town hall was held in
another room at the
Ritz Carlton hotel in
Naples and was led
by Christine Cochran,
executive director of
the Grain Foods Foundation. Exploration of
a baked foods check- Cochran
off program has been
conducted for more than a year by a
steering committee of the G.F.F.
Launching the town hall meeting, Ms. Cochran said the committee
worked hard to "put together a fair
and equitable proposal," but she acknowledged that some members of
the audience did not agree.
Joining Ms. Cochran in the town
hall were several millers and bakers as well as Jennifer Porter, deputy
administrator of the U.S.D.A.'s Agricultural Marketing Service. The
A.M.S. oversees checkoff programs
as well as other programs handled
on a contractual basis with industry.
In offering background on the role of
the U.S.D.A., Ms. Porter cited as an
example of this contractual work the
shields on meat packages designating
beef quality (e.g., prime or choice).
"We're really used to working with
customers," she said. "It drives our
operating budget."
Most of Ms. Porter's remarks were
devoted to making the point the
U.S.D.A. oversees checkoff programs
but doesn't dictate how they are run.
"Industries need to decide how
they want to spend their money,"
she said. "The government provides
some oversight."
On a day-to-day basis, the A.M.S.
reviews checkoff programs "at a relatively high level," reviews budgets
and contracts.
There is communications oversight,
which Ms. Porter acknowledged has
become a challenge because of the
proliferation of social media.
"We wrestle with how we can carry
18 / April 23, 2019

Milling & Baking News

out that oversight function without
being burdensome," she said.
The U.S.D.A. will be represented at
checkoff board meetings in what Ms.
Porter characterized as a "fairly passive" role of listening, learning and
answering questions.
Asked about drawbacks of checkoff
programs, Ms. Porter cautioned that
most programs face opposition, often
from constituencies that don't like
the fundamental idea of a checkoff
program.
"There are people who use the fact
there is a checkoff program affiliation
with government to gain access to
information they may not otherwise
have," she said. "Freedom of Information Act basically said citizens
have the right to see the business of
the government. Because checkoffs
have a relationship with the government, it gives folks something of a

Flowers Foods, Inc., Thomasville, Ga.
Mr. Dye warned bakers that grainbased foods has reached a "critical
time," with per capita consumption
moving lower in recent years. He
urged the audience to view the checkoff program as an investment rather
than a cost.
"Can we use these dollars to create
more demand, tell a better story?" he
asked.
Mr. Shiver, a past G.F.F. chairman,
offered analogies and anecdotes in
support of moving forward with the
checkoff program.
"I remember a football coach in
high school would say, 'It's time to
break the huddle and run the play,'"
Mr. Shiver said. "We've been in the
huddle for quite a few years, trying to
figure out what is the right message
from a consumer standpoint. Now,
you can pull any I.R.I. (Information
Resources, Inc.) numbers on our category, pick any time period you want,
and you can see each category continues to trend down 7%, 8%, even more

'Industries need to decide how they want to
spend their money. The government provides
some oversight.'

- Jennifer Porter,
Agricultural Marketing Service,
U.S. Department of Agriculture

window into those materials and decisions. That isn't to suggest everything gets released all the time. Far
from it."
Checkoff programs have numerous
requirements, she said.
"But (we) don't dictate how you do
them," she said. "We require a returnon-investment study every five years
(the R.O.I. results are quite positive)
to tell people in the industry what
they are getting for their money. We
require a financial audit. We review
the results.
"Establish bylaws, have a travel
policy. We don't dictate what the
policy should be. It isn't our travel
policy."
Other town hall panelists included
Daniel P. Dye, chief executive officer,
Ardent Mills, L.L.C., Denver; Tony
Martin, executive vice-president,
Martin's Famous Pastry Shoppe, Inc.,
Chambersburg, Pa.; Craig H. Pizer, associate general counsel, Bimbo Bakeries USA, Horsham, Pa.; J. Bohn Popp,
vice-president of marketing, Aunt Millie's Bakeries, Fort Wayne, Ind.; and
Allen L. Shiver, president and c.e.o.,

than that in some markets. We have
such a great story to tell. Now is the
time to get that message out."
Beyond the numbers, attitudes of
influencers are a problem, Mr. Shiver
said. He recalled his last visit to Mayo
Clinic for a physical exam. Following
a day of examinations and tests, his
doctor came in and told him his report was favorable but would require
weight loss ahead.
"She went on to say, 'The way you're
going to lose the weight is to stop eating bread,'" Mr. Shiver said. "It's a real
story. I told her 'Doctor, you need to
understand that the odds of me changing doctors are a lot greater than the
odds of me stopping eating bread.'
There is so much misinformation out
there about our products and so many
nutritional stories we could be telling.
Now is the time to tell that story. We
need to turn the category around."
Caring for its employees is a high
priority at Aunt Millie's, something
that is "hard to do when the pie keeps
getting smaller," Mr. Popp said.
"As an independent, what we want
Continued on Page 20

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