May 12, 2020, by Diana Bradley

NEW YORK

Whole Foods Market alum Rachel Alkon has joined indoor farming startup Bowery Farming as its first head of communications.

Alkon started at Bowery last week, reporting to CMO Katie Seawell. 

The technology-focused company operates indoor farms in New Jersey and Baltimore. Alkon is responsible for building the brand narrative, external storytelling, media relations, community impact and public affairs.

“The company is now at a point where we want to define the narrative and do some more external storytelling,” said Alkon. “The time was right to bring on a comms head.”

Bowery Farming has received communications support from AOR Derris and Gillian Small PR. It is planning to continue to work with both agencies.  

Bowery uses zero pesticides, 95% less water, and its farms are 100 times more productive “on the same footprint of land than traditional agriculture,” according to Alkon. Its produce is available at select Whole Foods and Foragers stores and is featured on the menus of Tom Colicchio’s New York restaurants, Craft and Temple Court. Based in New York City, the company has raised more than $170 million from investors including GV, General Catalyst, GGV Capital, First Round Capital, Temasek, and Almanac.   

Bowery Farming’s business has more than doubled with some online distributors, and is up between 25% and 50% in stores, Axios reported last month. Indoor farms, which grow produce in warehouses with tightly controlled climate and light conditions, are seeing a surge in demand amid COVID-19 because “people are more concerned about who is handling their food, where it's coming from, how many stops did it have before hitting the shelves," Irving Fain, co-founder, and CEO of Bowery Farming, told Axios. 

Alkon worked at Whole Foods Market for two years before she left the role of principal of global policy and public affairs in April. Alkon was also the director of corporate communications at Brunswick. 

By Diana Bradley | PR Week | May 12, 2020