Pages 77-78 in Extension Circular 541, Review of Extension Research, January through December 1961, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Summary of a thesis for the master of science in public relations, American University, Washington, D.C. 1961. 106 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 197 Document Number: D09546
Notes:
Hal R. Taylor Collection (abstract), Excerpts from chapter in Wilbur Schramm (editor), Mass Communications, Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Fairchild, Dean G. (author) and Dahlgran, Roger A. (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
1996
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 165 Document Number: D11669
Notes:
11 pages., Pages 204-216 in Proceedings of the NCR-134 Conference on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management, Chicago, Illinois > 1981-1999 Conference Archive., Researchers estimated net reach and average frequency of exposure to publicity about a case of chicken contamination in the U.S. "It was found that for each unit of increase in weekly publicity frequency, prices were depressed by 1.2 percent, leading to a $760 million retail loss to the chicken industry. This amounts to less than one-quarter of one percent of revenue over the 10 years studied."
19pgs, Advocates of indoor vertical farming have pitched the enterprise as key to the future of food, an opportunity to use technological innovation to increase local food production, bolster urban sustainability, and create a world in which there is “real food” for everyone. At the same time, critics have raised concerns about the costs, energy usage, social impacts, and overall agricultural viability of these efforts, with some insisting that existing low-tech and community-based solutions of the “good food movement” offer a better path forward. Drawing from a mix of participant observation and other qualitative methods, this article examines the work of Square Roots, a Brooklyn-based indoor vertical farming company cofounded by entrepreneur Kimbal Musk and technology CEO Tobias Peggs. In an effort to create a market for what I refer to as “techno-local food,” Square Roots pitches its products as simultaneously “real” and technologically optimized. As a way to build trust in these novel products and better connect consumers with producers, Square Roots leans on transparency as a publicity tool. The company’s Transparency Timeline, for instance, uses photos and a narrative account of a product’s life-cycle to tell its story “from seed-to-store,” allowing potential customers to “know their farmer.” The information Square Roots shares, however, offers a narrow peek into its operations, limiting the view of operational dynamics that could help determine whether the company is actually living up to its promise. The research provides a clear case study of an organization using transparency–publicity as market strategy, illustrating the positive possibilities that such an approach can bring to consumer engagement, while also demonstrating how the tactic can distract from a company’s stated social responsibility goals.
