Forum Archives

Cranberry Stressline
News and Opinion about the Cranberry Industry
Feb. 1,

Police Stress 

The last regular update of Cranberry Stressline

1/22/05 There have been several messages on the Forum about my decision to close Stressline. Here's a link to the postings and my responses.

1/18/05 I am putting Cranberry Stressline and the Forum on an indefinite hiatus while I decide for certain whether to continue to update the website. I probably won't. I may work on the archives so they are easier to navigate, but for the present I advise people looking for information covered in the past they use the Freefind search function.

I have considered turning the site over to someone else to run, but in essence that would be giving them a name associated with me, and years worth of archives for which I was responsible for.

Instead I will put links to any new cranberry industry website or message board on the front page.

In recent months the cranberry industry hasn't made much news. While there may be a need for a website devoted to the cranberry industry, I believe it should be run by someone who is still associated with the industry.

Since my wife and her cousins sold their cranberry bogs and are no longer in the cranberry business, and I am no longer even helping out with frost nights and other chores, I don't have the close involvement in the industry anymore. I look out at the bogs from our back window, but they are now being worked by someone new.

So I am moving on to new things and hoping that when people look back some years from now and assess whether the website benefited the industry they will find that it did.

1/24/05 Julie Jette, business reporter for the Patriot Ledger who has covered the cranberry industry for years, writes:

The End of the line for cranberry website

Quote:

Not surprisingly, Brown and Ocean Spray officials had some tense moments, especially early on. Brown said part of the company's displeasure with him came from the fact that he and Betty, a reference librarian, were able at times to find and post Ocean Spray news before the company informed its growers.

‘‘Ocean Spray didn't appreciate that I was publishing it before they were,'' he said.

Chris Phillips, an Ocean Spray spokesman, said the company and Brown ‘‘had some differences of perspective in the approach'' of the web site's early years.

‘‘Over time, it became clear that it was part of the dialogue, it was part of the reality in our industry,'' Phillips said. ‘‘That web site was part of the mix of where things were being talked about, how they were being talked about.''

Since Brown announced he was closing the site last week, some people posting on the forum have theorized he is shutting down because of pressure from Ocean Spray. Not true, he said.

‘‘I've had no communication from anybody from Ocean Spray for months,'' he said. ‘‘Coerced? I haven't even been contacted.'' Read Patriot Ledger article here: The End of the line for cranberry website

Cranberry Industry Websites

News and Opinion about the cranberry industry: Cranberry Stressline, Archives Only

Message Boards: Yahoo! Cranberry Industry: An unmoderated board, can be read without signing in, but posting requires signing in with Yahoo!. LINK | Ocean Spray ExtraNet, Ocean Spray growers only, requires password. / LINK | Cranberry Stressline Forum Archives

Companies: Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. | Decas Cranberry | Northland Cranberries

Organizations and Associations:  Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association | USDA Cran. Marketing Cttee. | Wisconsin Cranberry Growers' Assoc.

Education: UMass Cra. Exp. Station

Archives for November and December, 2004

Makepeace considers developing Plymouth land Jan 5 - "Any business that is reliant only on one industry is a business that is headed towards future instability." Old Colony

Cranberry growers get a boost
Coos Bay World
Ocean Spray Receiving Plant Manager Paul Bauge reported growers would be paid about $41 per barrel.