Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C36831
Notes:
Agricultural Publishers Association Records, Series No. 8/3/80, Box 11, 1 page., Reports a consensus of members that a planned joint advertising campaign to promote the use of farm papers would be futile until a movement toward an increase in advertising as a whole. All members have sustained a loss of revenue during 1931.
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.
Brooks, John R. (author / Radio/Television Communications Specialist, Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, Agricultural Center, Louisiana State University)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1991
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 83 Document Number: C05066
USA: Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences, Gainesville, Florida.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C23130
Notes:
Training guide contains seven sections: working with the media; get to know the media; lights, camera, action; writing news releases and columns; keeping crises contained; and controversial issues. Also contains a national media panel video (11 minutes, 22 seconds) and a CD including all PowerPoint presentatins for the modules and PDF files of the notebook and other factsheets.
