Three Greenhouse Business Concerns That Should Be on Your Radar (Editorial)

The volatility of today’s business environment can easily keep you so laser-focused on immediate concerns that starting to think proactively about issues just around the corner may not be happening. We’ve discussed supply chain, labor, profitability, inflation, consumer behavior, etc. over the past several months, so I thought it high time to bring your attention to three less-mentioned items you need to keep in your sights.

Staying Current with Wage and Benefit Trends

Craig Regelbrugge, Executive Vice President of Advocacy, Research, and Industry Relations at AmericanHort, warned attendees during the annual keynote address at Cultivate’22 that new wage and program rules for H-2A are on the horizon. Dr. Charlie Hall, AmericanHort’s Chief Economist and Ellison Chair of Texas A&M University’s Department of Horticultural Sciences, followed that up with some stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent compensation study. Twenty-one percent of businesses participating in the study reported increasing wages by 10%, and 58% reported increases from 6% to 10%. Ag employers will need to keep wages in line with cost-of-living increases and inflation to compete for much-needed labor, according to Hall. Ditto that for benefits, both tangible and intangible.

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Increased Focus on Ethics, Sustainability, and Safety Claims

Conscious consumerism, or in other words, consumers’ commitment to purchasing decisions that have a positive social, economic, and environmental impact, is on the rise. This correlates with an increase in consumer-class lawsuits or “greenwashing suits” centered around businesses’ environmental, sustainability, and ethics practices. Well-known companies accused lately of false advertising around environmentally friendly practices and statements include Burger King, Burt’s Bees Cosmetics, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Coca-Cola. But don’t make the mistake of thinking big businesses are the only ones at risk. Those who supply them are coming under scrutiny, too. Add to that advocacy groups that are increasingly leveraging greenwashing litigation to influence the business practices of agribusinesses.

In May 2021, a group of consumers, with the assistance of attorneys from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation, filed a class-action lawsuit against egg producer Vital Farms claiming “ethical,” “certified humane,” and “pasture-raised” statements it made on its packaging were false and lured consumers into paying premium prices for its products. Vital Farms refuted the claims and argued the statements were ethical because they were “subjective opinions, which were aspirational in nature and could not be disproved.” The Court disagreed and allowed the case to proceed.

Any marketing claims you make using vague or ambiguous terms such as sustainable, recyclable, eco-friendly, environmentally friendly, non-toxic, or biodegradable could potentially open you up to greenwashing litigation. If you make a claim, you better say exactly what you mean and be prepared to prove it with hard data.

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Feasibility of Recycling Plastics

Closely tied to greenwashing litigation is some of the discussion going on around plastics and recycling. For example, California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an investigation in April 2022 into the possible role some large oil and gas companies played in promoting the idea for their financial benefit that plastics could be recycled to increase consumer sales of plastic products.

“Enough is enough. For more than half a century, the plastics industry has engaged in an aggressive campaign to deceive the public, perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis,” Bonta said in his statement to the public announcing the investigation. “The truth is: The vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled.” Read the full statement at https://is.gd/plasticsupply.

Bono’s statement said this investigation is in part driven by the increased attention being paid to the global plastics pollution crisis and by recent revelations of internal industry documents stating recycling was “‘infeasible’ and that there was ‘serious doubt’ that plastic recycling ‘can ever be made viable on an economic basis.’”

It’s early days yet to predict what this investigation will shake out, but for an industry that relies heavily on plastic products, the issue is one worth keeping an eye on.

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