Grocers Host Earth Day Push for Organics

Eighteen grocery chains and 44 organic food companies are hosting an in-store, in-school blitz timed to Earth Day, April 22.

Organic brands celebrate
with mainstream grocers

The “Go Organic! for Earth Day” campaign puts displays and samples in 2,500 supermarkets and gives environmental education material to 80,000 teachers to raise mainstream awareness of organic foods.

The effort is organized by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) and Earth Day Network, a non-profit that has hosted the environment-boosting Earth Day each April for 35 years.

The campaign will give out 300,000 organic-food samples and 2.5 million booklets with recipes and coupons; P-O-P includes 450,000 pieces, from shelf talkers and signs to full displays in 2,500 stores including Kroger, Publix, H-E-B Grocery Co., Rainbow Foods, Giant Eagle, King Soopers, Food Lion, Marsh Supermarkets, Cub Foods and Fry’s as well as natural foods chain Wild Oats and several indy grocers and natural-foods co-ops.

Grocers also partner with local Earth Day Network chapters to host some of the 10,000-plus grassroots events the chapters will handle. Nationally, celebrity chef Akasha Richmond makes p.r. appearances and gives recipes for the in-store booklet. Minneapolis marketing agency MusicMatters handles the campaign for OTA and Earth Day Network.

Participating brands—including Silk, Seeds of Change, Horizon Organic, Nature’s Path Foods and Stonyfield Farm—fund the campaign through sponsorship fees; grocers chip in display space. OTA hopes to build the campaign into an annual event.

Organizers chose mainstream supermarkets in order to boost organic sales among traditional shoppers and drive store traffic. “Organic is about ready to explode in mainstream America. We’re creating a reason for people to be talking about organics, in a credible way,” said MusicMatters President Michael Martin.

Organic food sales jumped 20.4% to $10.4 billion in 2003, per OTA. Shoppers who buy organics spend an average of $36 more per trip than mainstream shoppers, OTA reports.