Sustainable Farming

Sustainable Farming

Last week, I talked about the fact that there are so many genetically modified foods out there that we are consuming on a day to day basis and don't know about! Now, there are advertisements out there, or at least are more prominent in our life to inform us about eating healthy and sustainably. But it wasn't always like that. According to this peer reviewed journal I found where an expert examined the history of food scarcity, genetic engineering of food, organic food and such and the origins - how it all started. So how prominent was this subject in social media? Turns out, not really. According to Stewie Lockie, prior to 1996, "very few articles on any aspect of sustainability found their way into any publications" despite sustainable programs and agriculture that had already been implemented. Lockie also mentions that even between 1996-2002, there were aspects of sustainability that "did not attract social media attention." 


But now it's everywhere, yet not a lot of people do anything about it.    So, this week I thought I would discuss the matter of sustainable farming. What does it mean exactly? According to the Grace Communications Foundation, have a sustainable farm is to produce "food, fiber, or other plant or animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare."According to this article I found on foxnews.com, we actually as a unit, meaning the world have enough food to provide for 11 billion people! (side note: why are so many people starving! if we do in fact have enough food, we need to make this accessible to people that can't afford it!). The problem is, we aren't being sustainable about it. Here are some ways that they suggest we should try to help:

1. Eat less meat
2. Throw less food away
3. Aquaponics
4. Vertical Farming
5. Improve crop production

After being depressed reading about the fact that we have all this food that just goes to waste, I thought it may be a good idea to restore my faith in humanity by looking at people, organizations or companies that are doing the opposite and becoming more sustainable! I recently found that one of my favorite fast-food chain restaurants Chipotle Mexican Grill has been promoting the idea of sustainable farming! Like most companies, the most common form of mass communication, or sending out a message to a large number of people, is through advertisements. 

     Normally, we see this through commercials on television, in the newspapers, radio, etc. However, Chipotle has stepped it up by creating an animated puppet film, about the process of factory farming of animals and how that is bad for the environment and for people. In the end, the farmer stops using chemicals, and the last few seconds of the film show that the food being packed into Chipotle's van to be taken to the chain stores are not processed and are organic. 

Impressively, this 2 minute film will run on the Grammy Award's telecast and at the end, viewers will be encouraged to download the film to share with family and friends via iTunes. The Grammy Awards last year had more than 26 million viewers! What better way to reach a large group of audience members? It already has more than 8 million views on Youtube as well, which can be and in this case is definitely used for what Vivian calls, "viral advertising."

As Vivian states in Chapter 12: Advertising, "throughout its history, dating from the 1950s until recently, television has outpaced the growth of other media as an advertising vehicle." He even goes on to mention that although the Internet is a popular tool as means for advertising in the media, it "remains a mere blip compared to network, cable and local television." I was actually surprised to read that the Internet is "a mere blip" in comparison to the television just because I suppose I am considered a "digital native," therefore most of my own personal exposure with the media comes from there. However, Vivian has a good point stating that when companies use the Internet as their preferred tool to get their ads out there, they will have to use it more strategically because most likely they will be trying to reach the attention of a very specific audience. However, this commercial/advertisement is coming from a restaurant which is obviously catered to the entire public, not intending for any demassification or anything like that, therefore it is smart for them to put this out there for people of all ages.