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Part of the next food revolution

A 2019 journal article, “Edible urbanism 5.0,” advanced a “novel concept that considers trade-offs between ecosystem services and disservices.” Authors Alessio Russo and Guiseppe T. Cirella observed that two decades of promoting urban agriculture and food systems have devoted little attention to ecosystem disservices.

“Edible urbanism integrates three main principles of sustainability by fulfilling food security, resilience, and social inclusion,” they said. It links site-specific, best practices by integrating a green infrastructure approach with modernized food production techniques. Authors introduced international examples of “edible cities” and offered recommendations for future edible urbanism as part of the next food revolution.

You can read this open-access article here.

Survey shows COVID-19 is changing how Americans shop, eat, and think about food

 The 2020 Food and Health Survey by the International Food Information Council revealed that 85% of Americans have made at least some change in the foods they eat or how they prepare it because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Among those who have made any change, the biggest – far and away – is that 60% of Americans reported cooking at home more. Respondents also said they were snacking more (32%), washing fresh produce more often (30%) and thinking about food more than usual (27%).

You can review a summary of findings here.

What Czech food producers experienced using regional food labels: Mixed results

This 2019 journal article involved promotion of local foods. It featured results of a telephone survey among 208 producers who used the Czech “Regional Food” quality label. Reported findings:

• Producers saw a positive improvement of sales following acquisition of the label.
• They did not notice greater interest in their products during campaigns to support awareness of the Regional Food label.

Findings prompted a recommendation that it is worthwhile to keep the regional food label but improve its visibility by better marketing support.  Examples included more visible and frequent local events and more assistance in securing new distribution channels, such as government institutions, schools, and hospitals.

You can read the article here.

Communicators as canaries in the mine

We recently added to the ACDC collection a journal article emphasizing the key role of communicators within organizations. The article addressed “increasing numbers of organizations …run as fast food restaurants, focusing on: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control of people.” Researcher Piet Verhoeven noted the positive results of this approach to management, as well as negative effects “that need to be addressed by organizations and societies.”

“Stakeholders who disagree with the opinions and ideas of the organization come knocking on the door and generally that will be the door of the CorpCom (corporate communication) professional.  … All types of tension throughout the organization, for example, those regarding environmental, health, and other societal issues, seem to converge on the CorpCom department.”

The abstract with terms and conditions for full-text access to “Corporate communication or McCommunication?” is available here. Or confer with us at acdc@library.illinois.edu

“Most Americans are wary of industry-funded research”

That is the title of a 2019 research report we added recently to the ACDC collection. It reflected results of a national survey among American adults.  In this study, 58 percent said they would be less apt to trust scientific research findings when the research was funded by an interest group.

“Public skepticism about industry funding is consistent with past Pew Research Center findings. For example, a 2016 survey found Americans trusted scientists more than food industry leaders to provide full and accurate information about the health effects of eating genetically-modified foods.”

You can read the research report here.

Communicator events approaching

Uncertainties of the COVID-19 health issue continue to prompt flexible event planning. Here are plans of which we are aware, with website addresses you can use to track updates.

April 12-15, 2021

“Mediterranean Agriculture, Food and Environment.” Annual conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Information: https://aiaee2021.wordpress.com/

Trying to dodge infection

We close this issue of ACDC News with a saying from the Australian Bush. Maybe it can help us deal with the threat of infection during this global pandemic:

“If you’re not always grateful for what you get, be thankful for what you escape!”

Best regards and wishes during this challenging time

ACDC is a resource for you, so please feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable international collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) – or in electronic format sent to acdc@library.illinois.edu