Lack of pre-planning can make small event a nationwide disaster

On Sept. 14, the U.S. public woke up to images of TV news anchors holding up bags of fresh-cut spinach and telling them to throw it all away. Newspapers picked up the story the next day, splashing headlines with terms like “tainted,” “threat,” “scare” and “agonize.”

Within hours, a crisis communications machine in the form of five industry groups was already working with the media to keep the public informed about the ongoing situation.

United Fresh Produce Association (United Fresh), Produce Marketing Association (PM), Western Growers Association (WGA), the Grower Shipper Association of Central California and the Alliance for Food and Farming mobilized quickly as the spokespersons for the industry. United Fresh instituted its crisis plan, described by Amy Philpott, vice president of marketing and industry relations, as “more of a process plan” that’s not specific to a situation but serves as an organizational starting point.

That’s the advantage to being a member of an industry group, said Jerry Schleicher, crisis communications specialist and founder of Kansas City-based Jerry Schleicher and Associates. Trade groups almost always have a plan in place and have experienced representatives who know how to handle a crisis.

“Crisis planning begins with what could happen,” Schleicher said. “You never know what’s going to come out of left field.”

By anticipating a crisis, a trade group or individual grower can have the time to develop “action steps” to respond, Schleicher said. Developing a crisis communication plan means developing contingencies for an unknown event. It could be anything from a plant shooting to the outbreak of a pathogen or disease or the accidental spill of a chemical. And growers now need to think in terms of terrorism and anticipate how their crops could be targeted.

“Every farmer needs to start thinking in terms of, ‘what can make my farm more secure?’” Schleicher said. “Small businesses have to be as astute as big corporations. One crisis can sink the ship.”

Schleicher works with trade groups to develop crisis plans, and he recommends they develop a “kit” so growers and processors know how to handle an outbreak or other crisis. The kit should include food safety and security tips and phone numbers for contacts at FDA, USDA, law enforcement and trade associations. Schleicher recently developed such a kit for a dairy industry trade group, which included safety and security posters printed in English and Spanish and weatherproof signs indicating the farm is a biosecure site.

The first step to developing a crisis communication plan is selecting a spokesperson or spokespeople. At most, only a handful of representatives should speak to the media, Schleicher says. In the face of a situation like an outbreak, the spokespersons should quickly plan out what should be said and what shouldn’t be said.

In the hours following the FDA advisory, United Fresh identified three key “talking points” that the spokespersons tried to communicate in every interview. Philpott said when anyone from United Fresh was talking to media, they tried to communicate that they were cooperating with officials with the goal of narrowing down the source as soon as possible, they were concerned about the people affected by the outbreak and they were committed to making sure this never happens again.

The United Fresh talking points had the overall goal of restoring the public’s confidence in spinach, which Schleicher said should be job No. 1. But it has to be more than words. He recommends instituting new sanitation procedures or tightening up existing ones and communicating to the media what is being done.

The produce industry trade associations were dealing with the media on more than one front. At United Fresh, phone calls from the media came to Philpott, who then directed them to another member of the communications team, depending on the nature of the call. If it was a technical question, she would send the call to Jim Gorny or David Gombas, but for more general questions she might send the call to Tom Stenzel, president of PMA.

United Fresh organized a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Sept. 15, with Stenzel and Gorny as spokesmen. On the West Coast, the Alliance for Food and Farming organized a press conference with spokesmen Bryan Silbermann from PMA and Tom Nassif from WGA. Both press conference were widely attended by the mainstream media, including CNN, ABC, National Public Radio and the Associated Press.

Schleicher said for anyone talking to the media, it’s important to consider the legal issues involved in the situation to prevent your words from coming back to haunt you.

“Be careful of what you say because it will very often come back to stare you in the face in the court of law.”
United Fresh made sure to include lawyers in its crisis management team. They provided the spokespersons with the legal implications of the actions taken by the government and they answered members’ questions.

In a crisis situation, Schleicher advises business owners not to blame the media because journalists are just doing their jobs.

“They exist to inform the public, as long as they don’t speculate and stick to the facts,” Schleicher said. “They provided an important service to all U.S. consumers by quickly letting them know that some supplies of fresh spinach had been contaminated with E. coli and advising consumers to discard any such product in their homes. That may very well have saved lives or prevented further illness.”

During the course of the outbreak and the following investigation, Philpott said there were about 24,000 relevant news stories in one 24-hour period at the peak of coverage. She said the media’s coverage of the outbreak presented various perspectives and the journalists were on top of the issue, reporting news as it occurred.

“I think for the most part they were very responsible,” she said. “I would like to think that some of that is due to us being out there providing the information.”



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