Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 163 Document Number: D08170
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Center for Food Integrity, Gladstone, Missouri. 2 pages., Discusses a new research approach in identifying and understanding consumer segments in relation to food. Provides link to a new CFI research study.
7 pages, Many current food systems are unsustainable because they cause significant resource depletion and unacceptable environmental impacts. This problem is so severe, it can be argued that the food eaten today is equivalent to a fossil resource. The transition to sustainable food systems will require many changes but of particular importance will be the harnessing of internet technology, in the form of an ‘Internet of Food’, which offers the chance to use global resources more efficiently, to stimulate rural livelihoods, to develop systems for resilience and to facilitate responsible governance by means of computation, communication, education and trade without limits of knowledge and access. A brief analysis of the evidence of resource depletion and environmental impact associated with food production and an outline of the limitations of tools like life cycle assessment, which are used to quantify the impact of food products, indicates that the ability to combine data across the whole system from farm to human will be required in order to design sustainable food systems. Developing an Internet of Food, as a precompetitive platform on which business models can be built, much like the internet as we currently know it, will require agreed vocabularies and ontologies to be able to reason and compute across the vast amounts of data that are becoming available. The ability to compute over large amounts of data will change the way the food system is analysed and understood and will permit a transition to sustainable food systems.
3 pages, via online journal, The fast-moving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic engulfed the world within four months from December to March of 2020, with long-lasting impacts on social, economic, political, educational, and scientific programs. It exacerbated risks of food and nutritional insecurity for a large segment of society, and threats of disruption in the food supply chain may be aggravated by climate change, soil degradation, and the flood/drought syndrome. Ensuring adequate access to nutritious food is a daunting challenge even in developed/scientifically advanced countries, and is a sheer tragedy in poor nations.
International: Center for Food Integrity, Gladstone, Missouri.
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Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D11681
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3 pages., News release via online., News release covering a meeting panelist's remarks during a webinar about shifting sustainability priorities related to the food system.
10 pages, Abstract— Smart agriculture involves the use of technology such as drones, GPS, robotics, IoT, AI, big data, and solar energy to improve farming practices. As with any disruptive innovation, however, stakeholder expectations can be misaligned from what the innovation can actually deliver. There can also be varying perspectives on what the innovation entails, related topics of interest, and impediments to large scale adoption. This study examines public perception of smart agriculture and its perceived drivers and challenges as present in social media discourse. We collected online posts from Twitter, Reddit, forums, online news and blogs between January 2010 and December 2018 for analysis. Results show that 38% of social media posts contained emotion with 52% joy, 21% anger and 12% sadness. Through topic analysis, we discovered seven key drivers and challenges for smart agriculture which included: enabling technologies, data ownership and privacy, accountability and trust, energy and infrastructure, investment, job security, and climate change.
Via UIUC online collection., "Existing empirical studies mostly focus on the construction technology or the agricultural technique of Vertical Farming. So far, no research addressed the factors contributing to the acceptance or rejection of Vertical Farming. ... A comprehensive literature reviewed on public acceptance of Vertical Farming in relation to the food security." ... "Public perception will be a key factor predicting the success of a project."
17 pages, US farmers market managers must be strategic in deciding which vendors sell at their markets. They would benefit from understanding how market characteristics impact vendor sales, although the few studies that have explored this topic have found inconclusive results. We use a unique panel database of sales at 13 farmers markets to estimate how vendors' sales are influenced by the characteristics of their farmers market. We find that average sales at weekend farmers markets becomes increasingly large as farmers markets increase in size. At weekday markets, average sales increase as small markets add vendors but eventually decline as markets become larger. These results could occur if weekend markets attract shoppers from increasingly greater distances as they become larger, while average sales eventually decline as weekday markets increase in size due to vendor competition. Produce vendors experience higher average sales at weekend markets than weekday markets and experience a relatively small increase in sales as market size increases. Vendors of hot prepared foods experience higher sales at weekday markets [EconLit Citations: Q10, Q12, Q13].
UI Library subscription., Report about a National AgriMarketing Association award-winning docudrama, "30 Harvests." It was produced for the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action (USFRA) organization to encourage food companies to join with agriculture in the battle against climate change. Describes the origin and production of this film, as well as the planning for a paid media budget by USFRA and the CLUTCH consultancy/agency, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
America’s rural-urban divide seemingly has never been greater, a point reinforced by large geographic disparities in support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But it is also the case that big cities and rural communities are more tightly integrated than ever and are increasingly interdependent, both economically and socially. This new rural-urban interface is highlighted in this collection of articles, which are organized and developed around the general concept of changing symbolic and social boundaries. Rural-urban boundaries—how rural and urban people and places are defined and evaluated—reflect and reinforce institutional forces that maintain spatial inequality and existing social, economic, and political hierarchies. This volume makes clear that rural-urban boundaries are highly fluid and that this should be better reflected in research programs, in the topics that we choose to study, and in the way that public policy is implemented.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 184 Document Number: D00096
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Includes library catalog entry only, Pages 181-200 in Richard Wilk (ed.), Fast food/slow food: the cultural economy of the global food system. Altamira Press, Lanham, Maryland. 268 pages.
2pgs, The Internet is a communication and marketing tool that can provide exposure to a large number of potential customers. The Internet can be used to advertise your farm with pictures and maps, take orders online, show product availability, keep in touch with your existing customers, and support other ways of selling, such as CSAs or farmers markets. Farmers can have an Internet presence through their own website or by using a website run by a third party.
2pgs, Aggregators are agricultural businesses or cooperatives of growers that consolidate and distribute agricultural products. They typically support regional growers of diverse sizes and experience, and sell products to local or regional markets. The consolidation of multiple farms’ products can help supply fresh product for distributors and other wholesale customers and is not limited by grower size.
2pgs, Institutional markets are entities such as cafeterias in state and local government buildings, schools, universities, prisons, hospitals, or similar organizations. These institutions are becoming more interested in buying local food, which provides a new marketing opportunity for a medium to large-scale farm
