Ramblings of a Marketing Gurl: sustainability

The use of "organic" in food marketing is highly unregulated outside the US and the word "sustainability" is un-standardized and means both wild and farm raised. The USDA, a government agency that regulates agriculture in the US with the intent of protecting consumers, has guidelines about what can be labelled as organic but is so understaffed that labeling abuses are all too frequent and unenforced. And, the harvest standards are different across the many segments of the food industry, from meat production to fresh produce to fruit to fish and seafood.

The current USDA definition of "organic" is:

"Organic is a labeling term that indicates that the food or other agricultural product has been produced through approved methods that integrate cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used."

"Organic" is not the same as "natural", even though by a plant or animal's chemical structure it is. And, it certainly does not mean that fertilizers aren't being used to cultivate the food source. A farmer can feed GMO soybeans to his chickens and produce organic fertilizer from the dried chicken droppings; which is then tilled into the soil to produce more food. Can it really still be considered organic? Of course, because we're only looking at the end product and not the whole process of how that product gets to the market.

The myth of sustainability is that if we (as farmers/gatherers/food producers) use herd management best practices, this food source can be harvested indefinitely. If you think that eating buffalo meat is healthier and better for you because it's a leaner meat than beef, and you eat it because it isn't raised on a farm, think again. All buffalo meat in the US is farm-raised and the herd is roughly 500,000. All wild, free-range buffaloes in the US exist only in environmental and government preserves--and hunting these is a crime.

Our greed and growing appetite for consumption fuels these myths.

Think you're supporting a small food co-op, family farm, or responsible food producer? Take a look at this infographic and see who owns these popular organic food products.

The Pacific Northwest is not known for its abundance of sunlight nor wind power and yet both types of renewable energy are growing in popularity for residential and commercial use. In southwest Washington state, most of our electricity comes from BPA's 31 hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.

When considering the switch from natural gas to solar electric water heating, I would have to replace a natural gas water heater with an electric solar water heater. This involves a) finding a unit that will fit the needs of this property, b) finding a supplier and c) having a certified vendor install the unit. As a residential customer, I don't really care about the qualitative benefits (see pros and cons of solar below) of using sustainable energy. At the end of a billing cycle, it's all about the monthly bill and the lifetime cost of ownership of the unit. If I can get the meter to tick backwards, that'd be a big plus, but it's not the primary driver for research into this household appliance.

The case for solar

Year	Cost of Gas	Gas avg/month	Cost of Electricity	Electricity avg/month
2010	$614	$50	$249	$21
2011 (thru July)	$385	$55	$155	$22

To look at actual water heater consumption, one would probably have to compare summer months to winter months. It does snow here and only a few days a year. During the winter, the thermostat is set to 62 degrees F. During the summer, it's been so mild, bordering on chilly, that I haven't turned on the a/c. The graph below shows annual natural gas and electricity costs; where energy consumption is a direct correlation to cost.

When I think about it in this context, I don't really have a data-justified case to add a solar water heater since I'd still be consuming natural gas to heat the home. Natural gas consumption has already declined month-over-month since installing the programmable thermostat (a unit that has paid for itself in energy savings vs regular usage). I haven't done nearly enough calculations to proceed further.

Pros:

Zero emissions; no pollution
Quiet energy production
Installation in remote locations more cost-effective than high voltage wires
Able to use existing footprint (e.g. angled or flat rooftops)
Unlimited energy eventually pays for the installed unit(s)
Less dependent on fossil-fuel-dependent energy (e.g. coal, nuclear)
SmartGrid, NetMetering eligible
Cash incentives from regional utility providers (see below)

Cons:

Steep (initial) cost of the solar cells and/or panel array
Pollution in dense metro areas can affect collection efficiency of the panels
Effective during daylight hours; significantly less available "energy" during winter months
Collector efficiency is affected by severe weather conditions (snow, hail, blizzard blackout conditions)

Serena Y. Hsi, MBA

Welcome to my ramblings about marketing techniques, insights, business models, and perspectives on what companies do to bring products and services to market. My marketing work encompasses corporate and agency marketing handling many aspects within the marketing discipline: competitive intelligence, market strategy, market research, consulting, customer segmentation, database marketing, and identifying better customer acquisition methods and cross-sell opportunities.

The strength of a company's product or services should be as strong as its business strategy and marketing insight into its own industry. My passions are marketing and technology, which just happens to also be my career path.

Ramblings of a Marketing Gurl

The Myth of Organic and Sustainability Food Marketing

Renewable Energy - Solar