Frito-Lay, Put Your Money Where My Mouth Is

GREEN IS GOOD
by Margaret Smith

My mom made a decision for our family soon after I was born: locally-grown, organic produce only. With two little girls to take care of, why not try and provide us with the best? She had always been interested in a healthier lifestyle, and now was a perfect time to get serious. Preservatives? Chemicals? Fertilizers? Those didn't sound like something her precious babies should be eating.

The idea wasn't hard to follow up on. For a family of four living in Wauwatosa, WI (a small suburb of Milwaukee), farmer's markets were abundant. Once or twice a month, all of the us would pile in the car and drive to the one that my mom had chosen for the day, whether it was in my hometown, neighboring West Allis or Brookfield, or as far away as the hour drive to our state's capital, Madison.

My Saturday and Sunday mornings were full of bright colors, flowers, fresh food, the occasional sweet like that honey you can get in a stick and funny crafts like beer soap or sock puppets. We even had a Growing Power "Market Basket" sent to our house every week and a water cooler set up in home (to this day, I still refuse to drink tap water. Thank you, Brita.)

Well, my family and I were clearly ahead of the game, because local living has taken the country by storm. The idea is based on the local food movement that came to age about a decade ago, a combination of food, environmental politics and healthy living. Today, they call us devoted followers "locavores," the general rule being that you must eat food grown within a 100-mile radius of your home.

Whether or not they're committed to the "100-mile menu," as The New York Times puts it, Americans are obsessed with the idea of fresh food and healthy living. According to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, there are currently almost 4,800 active farmer's markets in the U.S.

And lately, mainstream culture and Corporate America have caught on. Large companies like Citgo, Hellman's Mayonnaise, HSBC, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and, most aggressively, Frito-Lay, have filled their latest campaigns with advertisements boasting their "local" products.

The emerging term for this new trend is "local-washing" -- a variation on corporate greenwashing -- in which large businesses claim to be local when that is not the case. 

In the past few weeks, articles have shown up in The New York Times, Independent Weekly, Mississippi's Jackson Free Press and Grist Magazine condemning Corporate America for taking the word "local" to describe their own products, and in many cases this anger is justified. According to a study conducted by the firm Civic Economics, for every $100 spent in a locally-owned business, $45 of it stays in the community, while local chain stores only put $13 back in. Considering their disregard for the community, why exactly are large corporations allowed to take their company and put it under the local flag? What's the real issue here?

The problem is that there is no official definition for a "local business" or a "local product" on the federal, state or city-wide level. In fact, you need to look at most local business alliances for even a working definition. In many cases, a local business is essentially defined as one directly within the city area that has complete ownership and authority over the company. These rules can be stretched in some cases, especially for farmers that may not be within city boundaries. I believe the La Plata Organizations Cooperatively Advocating Local (LOCAL) alliance in La Plata County, CO puts it best when they say:

LOCAL defines a locally-owned business or organization as one where the majority of owners or board of directors live in La Plata County and have full autonomy and decision-making authority with respect to their business practices.

Still, how are we supposed to know if some of the products these large corporations are boasting are really local or not? I decided to find out for myself.

The plan was simple: Go out, buy a bag of Lay's Classic potato chips at my nearby CVS, and put my ZIP code and product number into the Lay's Chip Tracker that the company boasts on their Web site. The Chip Tracker tells you exactly where your chips were made, and the company says that "chances are, it may be closer than you think".

Here are my results:

ZIP code: 60642
Product number: 51922402543
"Your bag of LAY's was made in Frankfort, Indiana, although our Beloit, Wisconsin facility is the closest to your location. Sometimes when demand is high, we have to bring in additional chips from further away... Illinois farmers grew over 65 million pounds of potatoes for Frito-Lay last year."

So how "local" is Frankfort, IN to Chicago exactly? Frankfort is about 150 miles away, roughly a two and a half hour drive. And mind you, this is just where the potato chips are made; the Chip Tracker tells you nothing about where the potatoes are coming from. If Illinois farmers grew over 65 million pounds of potatoes for Frito-Lay last year, can't Frito-Lay tell me if my chips are coming from one of them? If we are following the basic definition of a "local business", it seems that Frito-Lay does not follow the guidelines as far as geography and ownership. 

Yea, Frito-Lay, you're real local.

Nice try though.

GREEN IS GOOD