Saturday, May 16, 2009

Eco-labels: do they really work?

In the past twenty years or so, the number of so-called “eco-labels” used for marketing earth-friendly or people-friendly food and fiber products has mushroomed. While the most widely-known eco-label today might be the federal organic label, there are numerous others that have appeared on the scene and, in some cases, disappeared just as quickly.

Which raises the question: do eco-labels really sell products? And that fundamental question leads to even more. Do consumers look for these labels? Do they understand what they mean? And do these labels help growers carve out a niche for themselves but hurt other growers in the process?

It seems like there’s an eco-label for just about every possible issue facing modern agriculture. Beyond organic, there are labels for sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management, no genetic engineering, animal welfare, and social responsibility (which stretches the “eco” concept just a bit).

Eco-labels have been established and promoted by a wide variety of government agencies, non-profit organizations and private businesses. But all are based on the premise that consumers would choose to buy environmentally-friendly products if only they could identify them.

That puts a lot of pressure to perform on a little sticker. The consumer has to know what the little ladybug or apple tree or blue ribbon symbolizes. And if words, phrases or acronyms are included, the consumer has to understand what they stand for and why they should care.

Take a concept like integrated pest management, for example. IPM is a complex system of pest management practices that may include monitoring, cultural controls, biological controls, mechanical controls and possibly chemical controls. How do you convey all that on a half inch label?

If you’re designing the label you have to boil it all down to a simple picture, word or phrase and hope that the basic meaning gets across. And you have to have a public education campaign and informational resources to support it.

Perhaps because there are so many eco-labels around today touting such an array of complicated concepts, the Consumers Union has a website (www.eco-labels.org) devoted to informing the public about what each label means, the standards on which it is based and who is behind it.

Each label referenced on the site has a report card that assesses the meaningfulness of the label and a detailed description of what it means, the history behind it, the organization that promotes it, and where you can find it.

After you do a little searching on the site you’ll likely be amazed at just how many eco-labels are out there. Although some labels have come and gone, the fact that there are still so many might be a clue that they are working for some growers and organizations.

If you’re a grower contemplating getting into a program that would allow you to use an eco-label, you might have some conflicting feelings about it. By telling consumers that your products are grown with fewer pesticides, are you just alerting them to the fact that you use pesticides at all? Or are you portraying yourself as the “good farmer” and your neighbor as the “bad farmer” if his or her products don’t bear the eco-label?

Some growers who practice IPM or are certified organic or install conservation practices do so because they feel it’s the right thing to do, not to get a marketing edge. But if you’re doing good things, why not tell the public about it?

For what it’s worth, a study on eco-labels by Iowa State University showed that while most consumers understood the eco-labels that they were shown, they were most responsive to labels with the least about of information. Consumers were also most responsive to those labels that conveyed a message about local produce and freshness as opposed to labels with an environmental risk context.

Like anything else in marketing, the decision to use an eco-label or not goes back to knowing your customer. If with a little research you find that your customers are informed on agricultural practices and care enough about environmental risk factors to base their buying decisions on them, then eco-labeling might be right for you.

Otherwise, just reminding folks that your produce is locally grown and fresher might be the only marketing edge that you need.

Copyright Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the March 2006 issue of Growing Magazine.