Sustainability
Family farming vs. Industrial agriculture. What’s your take?
With Farmer’s Market season winding down here in the Midwest, venturing back into the grocery store environment seems a bit alien. While a visit to the weekly market rates
high in entertainment value, the best part is talking with the folks who grow or make the products they’re selling … and we’re eating. Family farming vs. industrial ag … which are you more comfortable with?
The just-released research findings of the 2011 Consumer Trust Survey from The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) would suggest that Americans are growing ever more disenchanted about the state of our global food industry. CFI is a non-profit coalition of agribusiness companies and industry associations whose mission is “to build consumer trust and confidence in today’s food system.”
Here is a paragraph from the study’s conclusion:
Consumers aren’t sure today’s agriculture still qualifies as farming. Why? Generational and geographic distance between farmers and consumers, technological advances in farming, and changes in farm size and structure. We see consumer alienation from agriculture and the food system expressed through concerns about nutrition, food safety, affordability, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, and other issues.
The study went on to gauge consumer’s attitudes toward farming styles and deduced that people believe that family farmers share their values; “big ag” simply does not.
Recently, various industry groups have begun to unite (such as the new US Farmer & Rancher Alliance) in attempts to improve the image of industrial farming and production. So we’re starting to see some interesting marketing and PR programs (which may be called “farm-washing” by some) such as Monsanto’s Americasfarmers.com appear across multiple media channels.
Yet, the CFI’s own research points to the difficulty in changing public perceptions with the following sentence taken from their presentation: No single program or initiative will reverse the growing trend of consumer alienation from today’s farms.
Can marketing solve these issues of consumer perception? Or are we likely to see bigger changes ahead in how our world produces food … and what or how we choose to buy? What do you think?
Seeing Green in Germany
As one steps off Lufthansa Airlines in Frankfurt, Germany you instantly get the sense of how green this country is. Things seem more purposeful, straightforward. There is very little extraneous waste. You aren’t visually challenged to identify appropriate signage or messaging. Everything appears pristine; no garbage blowing on the streets. The S-bahn is always on-time, spacious and clean. The terminals are super clean, well lit and inviting. In other words, Germany has done an excellent job minimizing waste and focusing on the essentials. What is most noticeable is their commitment to sustainability and their lack of showboating this publicly.
Every citizen participates in this practice without effort; it’s seemingly ingrained in their behavior. Even tourists quickly grasp their sustainability efforts and participate. For example, on a quick trip through the local grocery store we encountered hefty return deposits on plastic and glass products. Similar to stateside practice, these are expected to be returned to the store with deposits refunded. Judging by the wear marks on the machine, they see a lot of use. Even street vendors selling bottled water will charge you a deposit, already packed into the cost. As visible as this is, there is nothing more visible that encountering a wind turbine while flying down the autobahn at 175 kmph.
Weighing the Risks & Rewards of Nuclear Energy
- Too great a risk, or too great a reward?
Though completely immersed in the energy sector, I was not fully aware that my home state of Illinois has a love affair with nuclear energy. According to the Department of Energy, Illinois is home to the largest network of nuclear facilities in the United States. Additionally, over half of Illinois’ energy is derived from nuclear. Even more eye-opening is that Illinois’ nuclear generation capacity is the largest of all states and greater than all but seven world nations.
According to the Pike Research Energy & Environment Consumer Survey conducted earlier this year, consumers find nuclear power to be the most controversial of clean energy concepts. It’s particularly interesting to see a distinct split between age groups and gender, with male consumers aged 45-65+ as the most accepting of nuclear power. The majority of consumers under the age of 45 find nuclear power highly unfavorable.
So the big question still remains; is nuclear the salvation of the energy industry, or more of a double-edged sword? In the US, nearly 100% of electricity generation comes from coal-fired plants, yet only accounts for a little over half of electricity produced. Experts agree that without nuclear power, the world will never realize long-term gains in the control of carbon dioxide emissions. However, are the risks fully disclosed to the public and worth it, or are we eliminating one problem only to create a set of new ones?
Corporate Social Responsibility. Do You “Walk the Talk?”
Codes of conduct, ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility policies are mainstreamed in today’s corporate culture. It is rare to find a public company without some kind of written code of conduct or ethical guidelines outlined in their mission statement. However, just because companies have a social responsibility message, doesn’t mean they are employing it.
Corporate America has a history of “social dumping,” in which business operations are relocated to areas of the world, often to third-world countries, with fewer laws and limitations. In the 1990s, many corporate shenanigans were uncovered such as Nike’s child labor scandal thus sparking a demand for social responsibility policies in the US. While many companies have adopted policies since then, they were not necessarily being monitored or put into effect.
The actual enforcement of these policies started around 2005, when the International Labor Rights Fund and workers from Bangladesh, China, Nicaragua, etc., sued Wal-Mart in Los Angeles court for an alleged breach of their code of conduct (i.e. overtime work, cases of violence against employees). Continue reading
Two Years into The Sustainability Consortium
A couple of years ago at Virgo’s Focus on the Future, a gentleman from Arizona State University – representing the Sustainability Consortium – spoke about Wal-Mart’s then-new mandates to their suppliers regarding sourcing, supply chain management and post-consumer waste. As I recall, he was quite optimistic even in the face of some pretty tall orders that the company was asking of the companies whose products line the shelves of the retailer. The Sustainability Consortium was largely funded by Wal-Mart, with the intent to have many companies sign on in order to share best practices and vet products. While other retailers haven’t climbed on board (go figure) TSC has been joined by many companies who sell products through Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart’s initiatives were indeed transformative as they spurred major brands to find more innovative ways to reduce their carbon footprint and to begin having a more transparent dialogue with consumers and investors. Once Wal-Mart threw down the gauntlet, it seems that an entire industry cropped up. That is, the Sustainability Industry. Just Google “Sustainability Conferences” if you want to make your head spin. Continue reading
AlphaGraphics Increases Its Reach
Emphasizing its expanded “full solution” approach to marketing services, AlphaGraphics recently unveiled its new brand which will be implemented across its entire network throughout the coming year. It’s a moment that everyone at Alphagraphics has been waiting for, and one that CBD has been working towards.
Having partnered with CBD early on in the planning phase, Alphagraphics underwent our rigorous brand evolution process to expand its product offerings appropriately and relevantly, and create a new brand presence in the marketplace that is sure to resonate with their target audience. Now, each of its 300 business centers are prepared to expand their core services from visual communications and traditional printing services including color, large format, offset and digital printing, to multi-channel, cross media solutions including online, mobile, direct marketing, e-Publishing and email marketing.
This evolution is the perfect example of change management at its best. And Alphagraphics did it right in working each step of the process. From task force implementation to primary and secondary research, internal workshops to business case development, Alphagraphics committed to doing everything necessary to guarantee success.
AlphaGraphics CEO, Kevin Cushing, harnessed the excitement of today’s marketing environment and recognized that technology innovations provide the network’s business owners with new and creative ways to reach existing and prospective customers. This insight, coupled with extensive market research, lead to the development of the new, highly meaningful tagline, Increase Your Reach.
Congratulations to everyone at AlphaGraphics for the hard work that led to this exciting brand re-launch. We wish you every success and are honored to have been a part of this tremendous evolutionary effort.
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