Lay's Feeble "Locavore" Counterattack: Its Times Square Farm Tour

(MoneyWatch)  When Frito-Lay wheeled its new promotion for Lay's potato chips -- a 70-foot long, 10-foot wide traveling greenhouse -- into the crowded urban chaos of Times Square today, it became the latest large food company to awkwardly attempt to exploit a food trend that has largely left them out in the cold -- the local food movement.

Big food companies have watched with growing interest over the last few years as farmers markets, community-supported agriculture programs and home gardens have ballooned in popularity. But unlike other major eating shifts, this one has no easy way in for big food manufacturers or restaurant chains.

The so-called locavore movement is a direct reaction to the opaqueness and uncertainty of mass produced food that comes from companies like Frito-Lay, which is owned by PepsiCo (PEP). People who shop at farmers markets want the option of being able to get in their cars and drive to the farm where their tomatoes grew or the bakery where their bread was leavened, even if they never do it.

Although there's no easy way for the makers of processed, factory-produced food to become part of the local food movement, that hasn't stopped them from trying. Kraft (KFT) is championing gardening and "getting back to simple" by giving away basil and dill seeds in boxes of Triscuits crackers and pledging to build 50 community-based home farms this year. In Washington state, McDonald's (MCD) is running a new campaign highlighting how some of its food is locally-sourced.

In perhaps the most ill-advised attempt thus far, a Safeway (SWY) store in Kirkland, Wash., hauled its fruits and vegetables out into the parking lot to sell them under tents as a farmers market. The store was forced to change the sign to "weekend outdoor market" after receiving a stern letter from the Washington State Farmers' Market Association.

For its Times Square mobile "farm," the marketing team at Lay's potato chips rounded up five longtime potato farmers to join the tour and explain that Lay's chips are made from their potatoes. (Presumably, shift managers at the 21 factories that manufacture the chips weren't invited to participate.)

The farm-on-wheels, which will also be rolling into Boston, Detroit, Chicago, LA and Dallas, allows people to, as Frito-Lay puts it, "interact first-hand with plants" and "receive take-home educational materials that provide simple tips and fun activities to inspire at-home gardening." Free basil plants are also being given away, tagged to new garden basil and tomato flavored chips.

Image by MomTrendsNYC.com
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