CATCH THE CRANBERRY WAVE: OCEAN SPRAY’S ROLE AS AN IMPORTANT SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INSTITUTION

Abstract

Since the 1950s, Ocean Spray cranberry growers have typically seen themselves in terms of their membership in the Ocean Spray cooperative rather than as cranberry growers. This association with the cooperative is so powerful that both members and independents alike believe that without Ocean Spray, the cranberry industry would not exist as it does today. Yet, as a way to recoup the losses resulting from the recent cranberry glut, some member-growers have proposed selling the cooperative. Although the sale would have generated a large sum of money for them, growers voted overwhelmingly against it. In order to understand why growers identify so closely with the cooperative, this paper intends to demonstrate how Ocean Spray’s influence transcended its role as a marketing cooperative to that of a significant social institution.

Citation

Jones, B.K. (2003), "CATCH THE CRANBERRY WAVE: OCEAN SPRAY’S ROLE AS AN IMPORTANT SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INSTITUTION", Dannhaeuser, N. and Werner, C. (Ed.) Anthropological Perspectives on Economic Development and Integration (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 345-364. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(03)22013-8