More
Editorial Viewpoint
Facing Challenges
For the next couple of
issues, you’ll see a new face in this space. Dairy Field’s editor, Pamela
Accetta Smith, is taking some time off after giving birth to her son, Theo.
So, as Pamela and her husband get to know the new face in their life and
you get to know mine, allow me to introduce a new feature on our pages,
“Faces at the Forum.”
Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the Dairy
Forum in Boca Raton, Fla. What better place than at the largest gathering
of dairy industry executives under one roof to find out how issues facing
processors are affecting the movers and shakers among us.
Over the next few months, we’ll share the
answers we heard. I’m sure our readers will have many issues in
common as the industry soldiers on to new challenges. Check out the first
installment of “Faces at the Forum” in MarketWatch on page 12.
Speaking of challenges, new IDFA president and chief
executive officer Connie Tipton issued a major one to processors during her
keynote address at Dairy Forum. Many in the industry are risk takers,
Tipton said, “but collectively, we are ‘risk
avoiders.’”
The driving force behind decades of government
programs has been to take away risk, but “risk is here to
stay,” she said. “It’s part of our reality. That’s
because dairy farming changed, dairy processing changed, consumers changed
and, most of all, our marketplace changed, including our competitors.
… Our success comes from building demand, and that means having to go
out on a limb now and then to reap the greater rewards of risk.”
Rather than brace for the risk of failure, Tipton is
challenging the industry to change its mindset and risk success, take bold
steps in order to grow.
Taking those steps requires realizing the world has
changed — more eating out, new food and diet fads, greater
competition, among other things — but that the policies governing the
dairy industry have not kept pace with that change. And no other food
category faces the amount of regulation and standards as dairy, further
stifling the industry’s ability to compete effectively in the
marketplace.
Tipton is asking the industry to take a fresh look at
itself — at its strengths and weaknesses — and imagine how it
can work together to make itself stronger. With opportunities like growing
vend sales and dairy’s role in weight control, the potential is
there.
Processors will be able to explore that potential next
month at IDFA’s annual SmartMarketing conference in New Orleans. The
gathering will focus on weight-loss marketing, foodservice channel
development and new research on dairy benefits and consumer behavior.
In particular, the link to weight control could be the
greatest sales opportunity in dairy’s history. With the new
health-claim licensing program under way, the time to act is now.
So I second Tipton’s challenge and urge the
industry to risk success, and work together to break down barriers to
growth and level the playing field so dairy can rise to a new prominence in
the American diet.
Retired IDFA CEO Tip Tipton said at a Dairy Forum five
years ago, “We must envision how to be the strongest, most
competitive dairy industry in the world … without the vision and
without the concerted effort, we certainly will fall short of all we can do
and be together.”
His words ring as true today as do Connie’s. Without risk,
we will never truly know what heights we can hit.
Of course, taking risks often brings about new innovations.
So in the meantime, be sure to take a look at our cover story this month on
some of the innovative plants DF has visited. They represent some of
the best facilities in the industry today.
For a complete transcript of Tipton’s keynote address,
visit www.idfa.org.
With access to over one million professionals and more than 60 industry-specific publications,
