Posts under ‘Agribusiness’

 Genetically modified (GM) crops have been recognized by no less an authority than the late Norman Borlaug as one of the most rapid cases of technology diffusion in the history of agriculture. Despite their benefits, safety, and widespread adoption through much of the world though, GM crops continue to be criticized in Europe.
A New York Times […]

How can some of the planet’s best-educated, most sophisticated people reject science in favor of Internet-powered myths and anecdotes? That’s the question New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter posed at a recent TED Conference. You can view Specter’s 16-minute-long presentation here.

It’s widely recognized that farms are getting larger and are being managed in an entirely different manner than they were even 10 years ago. But what will farmers look like 30 years from now?

In a recent posting  we discussed the importance of framing the debate and empowering stakeholders as opportunities to defend modern agriculture.

“Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world,” said Norman Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution.” Borlaug, who passed away late last year, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in fighting world hunger by developing high-yielding wheat crops and bringing agricultural improvements to developing countries.

With radio, it took 38 years to reach a market audience of 50 million; with Facebook, only 2. The impact of digital media on business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing is unquestioned. But the marriage of “new” media and agriculture is more nuanced, owing to demographic and geographic issues that make communicating with ag producers unique.

Although publicity surrounding last spring’s H1N1 (“swine flu”) outbreak has abated, health experts are looking ahead to flu season now and planning for a possible recurrence. Given the impact of this outbreak on agriculture generally and the swine industry more specifically, have marketers learned lessons about managing future situations?

Perhaps more than any other factor, the emergence of glyphosate-resistant cropping systems helped redefine the ag retail marketplace during the past 10 years. Retailers who have survived and thrived have often done so by helping their customers make sense of new technologies and practices, and then helping integrate them into their operations.

Some words used in marketing assume significance far beyond their original meaning. For example, in the ag-input world, the words “yield” and “performance” have assumed a similar level of ubiquity. Yield has been an important word in advertising to farmers since the dawn of advertising, but we have certainly seen a marked increase in its use.
In […]

In a recent posting, we discussed the coming digital revolution in agriculture. Our view is that, as this occurs, a challenge for marketers will be to close the gap between brand strategy and the customer experience — between what tools like Web sites and the Internet can do to enhance the customer experience and how they’re […]