Cranberry Stressline

Cranberry Stressline:
News and Information about Ocean Spray and the cranberry industry from 1999 through 2004
Editor and Publisher: Hal Brown, Middleboro, MA

Cranberry Stressline, which I took offline in 2005, has been indexed by the vast Internet archive website The WayBack Machine, and can be read here. Some links take a long time to load and others may take you back to the final "edition".

The Cranberry Stressline Forum, which was a lightening rod for controversy, is indexed separately here.

You can get an idea of why the Stressline Forum was so controversial by reading these entries, which I saved on my old computer as PDF files:

For those who aren't familiar with Cranberry Stressline and its influence on Ocean Spray and the cranberry industry, read what the 1/24/05 Patriot Ledger had to say:
The End of the line for cranberry website

By JULIE JETTE
The Patriot Ledger

MIDDLEBORO - For the past six years, there has been one place to go for scuttlebutt on the cranberry industry: Cranberry Stressline.

But the web site's creator and editor, Hal Brown of Middleboro, is pulling the plug.

Brown's wife, Betty, sold her cranberry bogs in August, and while the couple still lives next to them, Hal Brown says he no longer feels in the thick of all things cranberry.

‘‘It's just basically that Betty's no longer a cranberry grower, and I don't have any direct connection with the business,'' Brown said.

Also, he added ‘‘Frankly, there hasn't been a lot of news.''

Brown said it's also easier for growers now to find the type of information he has posted on the site, which he started before the age of Google.

CONTINUED here: The End of the line for cranberry website

Many in the juice business credit Cranberry Stressline with having had a significant impact on the cranberry industry. While it actively reported on, and was critical of the management of Ocean Spray Cranberries, a grower cooperative and by far the largest cranberry business in the world, major changes were made in the governance of Ocean Spray. Not only did Robert Hawthorne, the CEO, succumb to pressure to resign, but in a proxy fight the entire board was replaced.

The website covered the industry when the prices of cranberries crashed from an Ocean Spray price per barrel of $56 to around $14.

The Cranberry Stressline Forum brought together growers from across the country to debate issues vital to their livelihood. Previous to this Ocean Spray growers from different states only had a chance to meet once a year at annual meetings. Now they became acquainted over the Internet.

Growers weren't the only one's who communicated via Cranberry Stressline. John Swendrowski, president of Northland Cranberries in Wisconsin and John Decas, president of Decas Cranberries and Paradise Meadows in Massachusetts were also frequent contributors.

It was well known that the website was tracked by top executives in beverage companies and that Robert Hawthorne, the CEO of Ocean Spray, read it on a regular basis. Not only that, every business reporter from local papers in Massachusetts and other cranberry growing states such as Wisconsin, to The New York Times and Forbes who covered Ocean Spray's tribulations and the cranberry business in general read the website and had numerous email, phone and sometimes in person contact with editor Hal Brown. In fact, reporters from both The New York Times and Forbes came to Massachusetts to cover the Ocean Spray story and met with him.

While back in 1999 when it first came online Ocean Spray's spokesman Chris Phillips called it "odd and misguided" and said "it serves no constructive purpose" (noting "although he certainly has his right to his Web site"), over the next five years Cranberry Stressline, generally just referred to as "Stressline" became known to every executive in the juice business. When I offered the opportunity for Ocean Spray to post their own information on Cranberry Stressline, Phillips declined allow Ocean Spray to post items on his site, he said, but nothing has come from the company saying "we have our own Web site."

Not long after that Ocean Spray put their own forum online. It was on their "Grower Extranet" and was accessible only for Ocean Spray growers using a password. Presumably this would keep Ocean Spray growers from expressing dissatisfaction with the cooperative on a public website.
See: Web page ammunition for modern day David.

Cranberry Stressline has been indexed by the vast Internet archive website The WayBack Machine, and can be read here.

The Cranberry Stressline Forum, which was a lightening rod for controversy, is indexed separately here.

The last "front page" of Cranberry Stressline, below, headlined what was extraordinary news for anyone involved in the juice business and the cranberry industry.

From the 2/22/05 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Northland Cranberries sells off juice business after 9-year struggle
Brand sold to Apple and Eve

Excerpt: Swendrowski, a former teacher and longtime cranberry grower, formed Northland as a supplier of fruit to Ocean Spray. He and his fellow Northland owners broke away from the Ocean Spray growers cooperative in 1993 to form their own cranberry marketing company. Three years later, they entered the juice business, which accounts for most of the nation's cranberry harvest.

Northland quickly built its business to become the second-largest brand in the cranberry juice business. In doing so, Swendrowski became a thorn in Ocean Spray's side, said Hal Brown, whose Cape Cod family used to grow cranberries for Ocean Spray.

"He was like David, with his little slingshot, annoying the hell out of Goliath," said Brown, who once operated an Internet site (Cranberry Stressline) critical of Ocean Spray management.

Here's some of the media coverage the crisis in the cranberry industry which includes quotes from Hal and Betty Brown and references to Cranberry Stressline. Obviously some of the links may no longer work.

As open space disappears in southeastern Massachusetts, cranberry bog owners find their property is often a popular target for vandals.
Brockton Enterprise 7/3/02
But for Betty and Hal Brown of Middleboro, there may not be any berries on one of their bogs this year because of a recent vandalism incident....

Ocean Spray looks to reinvigorate cranberry market with white berries
Associated Press 9/23/2001
Another criticism is Ocean Spray claim on the product's label that the juice is made with ''fully ripened'' fruit.
Ocean Spray gadfly Hal Brown, who runs the Web site cranberrystressline.com and insists he
hopes the product succeeds, has sharply criticized the company for the claim, insisting the berries are not yet ripe.

The case against Ocean Spray
Middleboro Gazette 12/7/2001
The Ocean Spray Board and management have a cult-like obsession with secrecy. They have violated the spirit of the cooperative by not sharing information with its owners. If the SEC regulated Ocean Spray, most of what they claim as proprietary information would be public and easily accessible through the Internet.

Strong sales for white juice
But Ocean Spray says it won't save cranberry growers
The Patriot Ledger 12/6/01
Hal Brown, the husband of a grower and a critic of many Ocean Spray policies, said it sold out at the Shaw's where he shops in Carver. "I just talked to the manager at my local Shaw's," he said. "I said, 'how come there's no Ocean Spray white cranberry on the shelf,' and he said 'because it sold out; it's selling great,'" Brown said.

Growers see red over white cranberries
Boston Globe 11/16/2001 text
It's Ocean Spray that is taking the wrong steps, claims Hal Brown, a small grower with his wife, Betty, in Middleborough. He also operates an Internet site, "Cranberry Stress Line."
"Ocean Spray is spending a lot of money on products that are unproven," Brown said. "In short, they're gambling with growers' money."

Economics seen forcing growers out of business
Middleboro Gazette 8/16/2001
Middleboro resident Hal Brown, who provides information about the cranberry industry on his "Cranberry Stressline" website, believes that the juice will fail, which will ultimately lead to the sale and recapitalization of the company, which, in turn, will "juice up" the industry because the "company that buys it will have the capital to take it international."

Cranberry panel calls for 32% production cut
Middleboro Gazette 3/8/2001
"People feel really sold out and I think for good reason," said Hal Brown of Middleboro, who writes the Cranberry Stressline web page, which provides information about the industry and offers an opportunity for the exchange of thoughts and ideas related to cranberries. Mr. Brown's wife, Betty, also operates family owned bogs in Middleboro. "Ocean Spray totally got their way. There was no compromise at all."
Mr. Brown predicts that bog owners will try to hang onto their bogs, but it may mean selling off a house lot they would rather keep open or working a second or third job. There are those, he said, who will have to quit and "accept a job at WalMart handing out happy face stickers to children."
"Here’s somebody who’s 60 years old. He’s been a cranberry grower all his life. What else can he do? At some point you gotta pay the bills."

Cranberry crop reduction urged
Panel recommends 32% cut in attempt to shore up prices
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 3/5/2001
Hal Brown, who operates the cranberrystressline.com Internet site, said Ocean Spray wanted the less drastic crop reduction so it could maintain a large supply of cheap cranberries for its new products. Brown is a frequent Ocean Spray critic whose family operates a Massachusetts cranberry marsh.

Middleboro Gazette 1/25/01
Hal Brown, a therapist who gives advice and keeps growers and handlers current on industry news on his "Cranberry Stressline" website, questions the decision not to sell given the recent purchase of Gatorade by Pepsi along with its acquisition of Tropicana and Coca Cola's purchase of Minute Maid. He predicts that the two multi-billion dollar companies' next match will be waged in the juice aisle and Ocean Spray will be one of the victims.

Ocean Spray shareholders reject idea of sale
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 1/16/2001
Some growers, however, might not have that much time, said Hal Brown, whose family operates a Massachusetts cranberry marsh that sells its crop to Ocean Spray.
"I don't know what people are going to do until then," said Brown, who operates cranberrystressline.com, an industry Internet site.
Brown said global beverage industry giants such as PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. are paying more attention to juice and other non-carbonated drinks.
"It's an extremely optimistic set of beliefs that a company the size of Ocean Spray can go up against Coke and Pepsi," Brown said.

Grim Thanksgiving in Cranberry Country
Middleboro Gazette 11/22/00
Betty Brown of Middleboro, who operates her family's 35 acres of bogs in East Middleboro and who is a board member of the Cranberry Growers Association, believes the marketing order was not well understood or "equitably applied" but does not blame any single person or event. There is already talk of another marketing order next year that might increase the reduction from 15 percent to as much as 35 percent. A decision will be made at the annual meeting of the Marketing Committee on Feb. 5, 2001. Mrs. Brown said she is not sure whether or not she will support another restriction.
Betty Brown's husband, Hal, a therapist who gives advice and keeps growers and handlers current on industry news on his "Cranberry Stressline" web site, said he thinks Ocean Spray did not immediately jump on the news of the fruit's health benefits because the company felt uncomfortable dealing with "the female anatomy" as a promotional campaign. He said Northland's "marketing coup" took about 10 or 11 percent of the market from Ocean Spray, but he also believes that Ocean Spray is doing as much as it can to promote its products with the money it has available for that purpose.
Meanwhile, back home, stubborn Yankee growers are hanging on, unwilling to give up a tradition that, for people like Betty Brown, has been carried on for generations. "My cousins and I are the third generation to work our family's bogs," Mrs. Brown said with a hint of pride and not a little sadness. "I'm afraid we're the last. But I will continue until they pry the vines from my cold, dead hands."

Bitter harvest

Squeezed by plummeting prices, over production, New England's cranberry farmers face bleak future
Providence Journal 10/15/2000 Numerous Pictures
Providence Journal 10/15/2000 Text
Early-morning mist rises like smoke off the cranberry bogs behind the Browns' home.
Betty Brown gazes out the kitchen window, her mind racing ahead to the day's harvest. Some of the 38 acres of bogs are being flooded so the ripe berries will float up for picking. Others are already full of water, just waiting for Mrs. Brown and her crew to corral the berries and ship them out. She and her small crew are preparing for steady 12-hour days, every day, for three weeks to bring in the crop. CONTINUED

Bitter Times in the Bogs: Cranberry Glut Drives Profits Underwater
ABC New.com 8/25/2000
Note: This article includes a "slide show" of seven pictures taken by Hal
“It’s tough, watching your income go from making a decent living to barely making enough to pay for chemicals, let alone pay your employees, and not knowing if the crisis is going to end in a year, or two or three,” says Hal Brown.
     Brown is a social worker who operates the online Cranberry Stressline, a source of news and opinion about Ocean Spray, the Lakeland, Mass., cooperative of growers.
     Brown and his wife, Betty, a librarian, grow cranberries on 38 acres in Middleborough, Mass.
    “The feeling is that the last one standing is going to make it,” Brown says. “If people have outside jobs, maybe they can hang on.”

Boston Herald 7/8/2000
But grower reaction to the crop limits has been muted, said industry tracker Hal Brown, who operates the cranberrystressline.com Web site. Some growers had expected the quotas. ``To tell you the truth, I don't think there's been as much reaction,'' Brown said. ``From a psychological impact, people are burned out. There's been so much animosity and so many hard feelings.''

Balance of power in cranberry industry tilts west
Cape Cod Times 2/27/2000

"The coalition of (predominantly) Wisconsin and New Jersey growers took away our right to representation," said Hal Brown, who operates an industry Web site, the Cranberry Stressline.

Brown was not at the meeting, but he said some who attended likened the atmosphere surrounding the vote to "a replay of the Alamo." He was told of backslapping and smiles from those who supported Beaton's and Gilmore's election, and of whispered references to Massachusetts growers as "hobby growers."

Ocean Spray's 'wave ride' leaves local growers cold
Middleboro Gazette 12/2/99
"This is going to be very distressing to Massachusetts growers," said Betty Brown, a Middleboro grower for Ocean Spray. "Our cost of production is higher (than those of other growers), our property taxes are higher, and we're suffering from very strong urban pressures.
"We understand we can't stop progress, and we don't want to," Ms. Brown said. "But a strategic merger with another company would have given us more capital and a better chance of meeting these challenges.

State growers stand by Ocean Spray:Cranberry producers divided over co-op's fate
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 11/27/99
Rinta, Hal Brown and others, however, said Ocean Spray's inability to effectively market cranberry juice blends overseas - along with other disadvantages of remaining a co-op - will affect all growers.

Television: New England Chronicle 11/12/99 Quotes and pictures
"Every company makes mistakes, I know; but it seems to me a company as good as this one should have been a little faster on its feet and should not have lost market share the way that it did." Betty Brown

I've been accused of being one of the reasons that Ocean Spray's bond rating was lowered.
But Hal Brown insists he is not the enemy: No, I believe in Ocean Spray. I think it's a great company that the grower/owners need to take control of again.
Why should it (the Web site) scare management? Because they managed the company like it was their own personal fiefdom, and in many instances, like we were the serfs.

Harvest '99: Crisis in Cranberry Country?
Middleboro Gazette 10/7/99 text
Middleboro Gazette 10/7/99 picture
Editorial comments on Hal Brown's web site are even less flattering to the cooperative. Mr. Brown, who asserts that growers need to take back control of the cooperative, contends that Ocean Spray has been badly mismanaged and that the board of directors was kept in the dark by a management team that was unwilling to confront problems as they became apparent.
"With Ocean Spray management and the majority of Directors barricaded in a psychological bunker, their vision is myopic," Mr. Brown wrote recently. "While Ocean Spray owners outside the Boardroom see options for saving Ocean Spray, their farms, and the industry, those inside might as well be locked behind steel doors and soundproof walls."

Mefford's appointment to Ocean Spray post sets off speculation: Hal the "gadfly"
Boston Sunday Globe 10/3/99

Bittersweet harvest: Local growers hurt by glut of cranberries
New Bedford Standard Times 10/3/99 text
New Bedford Standard Times 10/3/99 picture
"If the government doesn't equalize the playing field, we're all going to lose. This is hurting the whole economy," said Hal Brown, who runs the Cranberry Stressline Internet Web site, an information hot line and support network.

Television interview with Betty on growers' dispute with Ocean Spray on
WBZ Channel 4 Boston 9/24/99 text and pictures
B. Brown: "This crisis is caused by, not just an oversupply, but by problems with our management and board."

Harvest of discontent
Low Cranberry Prices Shake Farmers' Faith in Ocean Spray

Click to enlarge: Betty on the front page of the Sunday
NY Times business section with Ocean Spray CEO Tom Bullock
New York Times 9/22/99
Mrs. Brown blames a series of mistakes by management. Tom Bullock, the 53-year-old departing chief executive, announced his retirement in June after less than three years at the helm, but he plans on staying around for at least a year.
''There have been oversupplies and all kinds of problems in the past,'' Mrs. Brown said, perched on the edge of a bog recently and nibbling tart raw cranberries, something she said was an acquired taste. ''We've been able to overcome them with good marketing and management. But our marketing and management have let us down. They have dropped the ball completely.''
For the last few months, a Web site run by Mrs. Brown's husband, Hal, a clinical social worker who helps out on the bogs as well, has provided a forum for comments from farmers, not all of whom are disgruntled. ''Ocean Spray is so poor in communicating,'' he said. ''They treat growers as if they aren't really the owners of the company.''
Activity on the Web site (www.cranberrystressline.com) escalated in February, after Ocean Spray announced, at the co-op's annual meeting in Florida, that prices for a 100-pound barrel would fall to a range of $42 to $48 from $55 the year before. Mr. Brown posted a picture of the Titanic with an article about the company's problems, and the comments flowed in. Ocean Spray dismisses the Web site as divisive, but others say it has been helpful.

Web page ammunition for modern-day David
Boston Globe 4/11/99
Ocean Spray until this week had never acknowledged the site.
When asked about it, spokesman Chris Phillips called it "odd and misguided."

"It serves no constructive purpose," Mr. Phillips said, "although he certainly has his right to his Web site."

A tale of berry good family trades
Taunton Daily Gazette 11/20/96 picture and text features Betty
Betty E. Brown can thank her grandfather Milo for her Finn heritage and for the cranberry bogs he started in 1939.

Betty and the bogs on syndicated national cable t.v. show
Rebecca's Garden 11/16/96 pictures and transcript
I alternate between being really worried and really focused on what I'm doing. And every once in awhile I'll be standing in the water, and it'll be a perfect day like this one. You be warm and comfortable. The sun will be shining. There'll be foliage all around you and there's these gorgeous red berries, and you just go - it can't get any better than this.

Bitter harvest

Balance of power in cranberry industry tilts west Cape Cod Times 2/27/2000

Balance of power in cranberry industry tilts west
Cape Cod Times 2/27/2000