3pgs, Telling the narrative of produce is one key to any brand. Retailers and consumers need to hear it. It’s about education, says Chris Drew.
“We’re telling the story of the artichoke,” said the CEO at Castroville, Calif.-based Ocean Mist Farms. “We’ve hosted clerks and managers from retail partners for tours of our fields and facility. We hope to de-intimidate people with the artichoke.
6 pages., Via online journal., Plant Madness was a classroom activity developed and implemented for the Landscape Plants II identification course at Kansas State University. The game was modeled after the National Collegiate Athletic Association college basketball March Madness tournament and Bracketology. One activity objective was to provide students an opportunity to learn new and recent cultivars and plant species not specifically covered in the class curriculum. The activity also provided students opportunities to practice public speaking skills, an avenue to be creative, and simply have fun in class. In Plant Madness, each student randomly drew a plant from a hat and then students were randomly assigned tournament seed rankings (preliminary rankings). On specified game days, one student played against another student, each having 2 minutes of play. Student play varied, and consisted of defining different plant attributes, landscape appeal, and interesting facts, for example; or identifying the opposing student’s plant’s faults through riddles, poems, games, songs, or simply recitation. Referees (e.g., guest faculty, graduate students) reviewed student play and awarded points, and the student with the highest score advanced to the next round through the single-elimination tournament. A postactivity survey was administered [Spring 2016 and 2017 (n = 44)] to obtain student feedback. When asked if the students liked the activity, it was nearly unanimous, 98% liked Plant Madness. Similarly, most students (93%) self-reported the activity increased their awareness of new or recent plant cultivars. When asked to rate the activity compared with other class approaches for learning different plants based on a scale of 1 (excellent) to 5 (poor), the average rating was 1.8. Students’ average rating for their ability to be creative for Plant Madness was 1.8 (1 = to a large extent, 5 = not at all). Ninety-five percent of the students recommended repeating the activity.
4pgs, AppHarvest has expanded its controlled-environment agriculture from producing only tomatoes to include greens, berries, and cucumbers. Does a deep drop in revenue point to problems or just growing pains?
2pgs, Animal intrusion into produce fields has been an obvious food safety risk for some time. More recently, the risks associated with proximity to animal agriculture and habitats — including evidence for commodities other than leafy greens — have received high-profile interest, demanding increased attention from the fresh produce industry.
10 pgs, Artist Syd Carpenter uses clay to tell the stories of the Black farmers and gardeners who have shaped the course of agriculture in the United States.
8 pages, Awareness of GLOBAL G.A.P. standards is the bedrock for the growth of export horticulture as it provides livelihoods to many small-scale farmers in developing countries. However, non-compliance with food safety requirements has evoked questions about farmers’ levels of awareness. Previous studies have overlooked the awareness-seeking behavior of smallholder farmers with diverse social characteristics. Therefore, this study was conducted in Murang’a County in Kenya to investigate the influence of social characteristics on awareness-exposure behavior among smallholder French bean farmers. The study systematically selected 115 small-scale French bean farmers. Questionnaires were administered through face-to-face interviews to elicit the data. Quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics by employing Pearson’s correlation and the Chi-square test. The study found that farmers differed in their awareness of different components that constitute GLOBAL G.A.P. Gender, farmer’s position in household, occupation, and wealth status were among the social inequalities that had a significant influence on the awareness of GLOBAL G.A.P. standards. In addition, farmer’s participation in awareness forums and affiliation with multiple sources of information on GLOBAL food safety standards had a significant influence on their level of awareness. This study recommends that proponents of farming innovations should always consider the socioeconomic status of potential adopters.
21 pages, Florists have been adopting social media as a new marketing instrument to promote their business. However, academic research has rarely looked into the existing state of that adoption. Consequently, several fundamental problems remain unknown regarding the application of social media marketing (SMM) among florists, which may limit the development of the flower retailing business in the current social media era. In seeking to address this deficiency, this study aimed to investigate florists’ motivations, strategies, and perceived performance in relation to the application of SMM, as well as to explore the barriers faced by florists regarding the adoption of SMM. The authors implemented these objectives by interviewing 35 flower shop owners who each had established a brand page on Facebook. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using a grounded hermeneutic editing approach. The study’s results revealed that even though there were different motivations for florists to adopt social media marketing, including increasing brand exposure, improving customer relationship, and reducing the cost of advertising, showing expertise in floral design to attract consumers was the most common motivation stressed by the interviewees. The strategies mostly used by florists in managing their Facebook brand pages included providing high quality posts, cross-industry advertising, and switching consumers from online questions to a physical store visit. The most significant benefit perceived by florists regarding the use of a Facebook brand page was the development of new customers. Although the interviewees recognized the benefitsofadoptingSMM,someofthemfacedgreatincompatibilityinlaborsourceforthatadoption. In addition, most interviewees focused on achieving general marketing goals rather than more advanced functions, such as business intelligence, in the application of SMM. The study results implied that the interviews mostly saw Facebook brand pages as a social network platform for increasing current sales volume, rather than for reaching a long-term quality customer relationship, which has deviated from the essence of social media marketing, and thus, limiting the synergy of the application of SMM in the flower retail sector.
8pgs, We conducted a survey of New Jersey’s nursery industry to understand the current levels of labor shortage, how this has affected specific tasks related to the production capacity of the industry, and the actual level of mechanization. Survey results identified priority areas needing mechanization. There is a need for greater mechanization in almost all areas of nursery production to reduce the reliance on labor and or improve the efficiency of labor. Other Implications related to Extension programming on nursery mechanization are also discussed.
