Alienation between farmers and citizens has increased with agriculture’s intensification and specialization in food supply-chains. More direct and equal dialogue formats are called for. Our research aim is to analyze to what extent a specifically designed dialogue format contributes to attitude changes among farmers and citi- zens. In a speed-dating format between farmers and citizens short conversations were organized. Attitudes were measured before and after the conversations. Fact-based and personal statements within the conversa- tion were identified by quantitative content analysis. Our results indicate that the mid-term effect of speed- dating induced attitude changes was influenced more by fact-based aspects and less by personal aspects. Keywords: speed-dating, farmer-citizen-dialogue, attitude change, dyadic communication, trust building
One of the major challenges in the research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the aggregation of the CSR metrics into overall measures of CSR practices by firms. This paper computes composite indicators of CSR from an efficiency perspective using data envelopment analysis (DEA) for a sample of international food and beverage manufacturing firms over the period 2011-2018. The study’s contributions to the literature are twofold. First, this paper contributes by being the first to compare efficiency in CSR practices of food and beverage companies across regions of Europe, the United States and Canada, Latin America and Caribbean and Asia-Pacific. Second, methodologically we extend the composite indicators within DEA, allowing for non-convexities of the production set. The study finds a considerable potential for improvement in CSR practices as revealed by the values of CSR composite indicators. The study also shows the differences in CSR efficiency between food and beverage firms in the regions considered, with the most CSR efficient region being Latin America and Caribbean, and the least CSR efficient being firms in Asia-Pacific region. The CSR composite scores fluctuate over the analyzed period, with an increase in efficiency in 2018 experienced by all regions.
The plant-based food and beverage market has experienced significant growth across all global consumer markets, and it is projected that sales of plant-based products (PBPs) will continue to increase in the coming years in response to consumer demand. The PBPs market is therefore an important area of research as it presents a significant opportunity for innovation for existing PBP producers and new market entrants. This study examined PBP consumption, motivations, and important product attributes, using an online consumer survey. Responses from PBP consumers (n=353) were statistically analysed (descriptive statistics and Principal Component Analysis), with results finding that the greatest proportion of consumers in the sample identified as omnivores, and that the majority of the sample consumed PBPs regularly. Findings further identified the most popular product categories of meat and dairy alternatives consumed, the key motivations for consumption of these products, and the product attributes most important to consumers when choosing a PBP. The authors conclude by proposing a future framework for research which summarises key conclusions from the study.
Digitalisation in agriculture will lead to changes in the way farms are operated. In addition to the predicted changes in the ecological and economical dimensions of sustainability the social dimension which is examined in this publication, will also undergo a fundamental change. The social dimension of sustainability very often does not receive the same attention as the ecological and economical components. However, it is equally important and must not be neglected just because of the fact that quantification in this field is more complex than in the ecological or economical field. In order to predict which changes digitalisation will bring to agriculture a Delphi survey was conducted. The questions are based on the UNEP SETAC Guideline for social life cycle assessment. It should be mentioned that at DiWenkLa the material flows are in Germany. Issues such as child labor and forced labor which are major issues worldwide and which the UNEP SETAC guidelines aim to eliminate are not considered in this project. The focus is on how digitalisation is changing the social sustainability of agriculture in Southern Germany. The 17 questions were answered by experts in the fields of agriculture, sociology, agricultural extension, agricultural research, digitalisation and academia. The questionnaire is designed to determine the effects of digitalisation in agriculture on social sustainability. The main objective of this study is to develop a consensus on how digitalisation in agriculture affects the social dimension of sustainability. In Delphi Surveys, several rounds of interviews are conducted until the experts reach a consensus on the issue. A standardized questionnaire with predefined answers is sent out. After a successful response to the first round, the questionnaire is evaluated and the experts received the same questionnaire, amended with the answers from the first round, so that they can reconsider their decision. This procedure is repeated until a consensus is reached among the experts.
The present study evaluates students' consumption habits for fruits, vegetables and meat, identifying the main factors influencing parents’ choices on these products for their children's nutrition. Additionally, it was assessed whether these factors are influenced by their socio-economic profiles. Based on literature review findings and following the Health Belief Model and Theory of Planned Behaviour rationale, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to a total sample of n=329 parents in Greece (n=197) and Spain (n=132). The major finding reveals that, fruit and vegetable consumption is considered as low in both countries, compared with the minimum recommended quantities. More specifically, it appears that only 24% of children in both countries consume fruits on a daily basis, while more than 1/3 of the total sample states that their children consume fruits on a frequency of less than 3 times a week. Their responses about vegetables verify that only 6.5% of children include vegetables in their meals more than 5 times a week, while more than 80% declared that their children eat vegetables less than 3 times a week. The comparison between them showed increased fruit consumption from the Spanish side. Meat consumption exceeds the upper limits of adequate frequencies, with the responses from parents in both countries to indicate that its consumption may in some cases exceeds nutritionists' recommendations. Pork and chicken are more preferable by Greek and Spanish children, which they are consumed at least once a week, verifying previous surveys on the same topic. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify the most significant factors influencing parents' attitudes about the aforementioned food groups they purchase for their children. According to overall sample results, place of origin and the food safety measures taken, are the most crucial factor affecting parents’ choices. Degree of convenience and ease-to-consume (in terms of time and money) are forming the second factor. Social pressure from friends and family for the supply of these foods, nutritional value and health benefits, are additional factors influencing parents’ choices. Samples from each country have been analysed separately, reaching to the same factors for both countries. However, the order of importance follows a different order, showing that the country of origin of the respondents formulates the order in which factors appear. Socioeconomic characteristics have been assessed too, in order to verify statistically significant differences between different factors. Number of children, parents’ educational level, family income and financial support from relatives should be taken into consideration for parents’ final decisions. These results can be utilized so as to clarify parents purchasing attitudes, depending on their demographics, and propose a unique marketing plan focusing on supporting the promotion of healthy nutritional habits to the upcoming European citizens.
Communication is an important element in the governance of organizations. In most research on the development and maintenance of successful cooperatives, effective communication with and between members is an ongoing issue. In cooperatives, or more specifically in agricultural cooperatives, subject of this study, inadequate communication strategies may be one of the reasons for organization failure. When inconsistent and ineffective, it offers a gap for disconnection between members and the organization. Some authors also argue that communication is an important mechanism able on improving the members' commitment to the cooperative. Despite this, agricultural cooperatives are somewhat slow to incorporate more diverse and effective communication strategies to reach their varied audience. The aim of this research is to explore the forms and communication strategies existing in agricultural cooperatives and the theoretical approaches used to analyze communication in these companies. It therefore consists of a theoretical study carried out through a systematic review of the literature. Thereby, it is intended to answer the following research questions: which communication strategies are adopted by agricultural cooperatives and which theoretical background gives raise to analyses regarding communication issues in these organizations?
Beside the livestock activity provides excellent nutritional ingredients for the human diet, growing conflict among stakeholders are caused by the sharing of the property rights about the environment. Traditionally livestock management was focused on profit maximization related to scale economies, however an increasing number of stakeholders are concerned about the negative side effect of environmental externalities and solicit to adopt sustainable technologies to curb the natural resource depletion, soil and water pollution, gaseous emissions and others. Purpose of this paper is to introduce a revisited multi-criteria decision making approach based on solid theoretical fundaments to produce sustainable solutions to achieve economic, social and environmental objectives.
This study provides a literature review of life cycle approaches used to assess circular economy (CE) pathways in the agri-food sector. The scope of this review is to understand how and how much the LC-based analysis is useful to evaluate if CE strategies are more sustainable than linear/traditional economic models in agri-food production systems. To carry out the systematic and critical literature review the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol was employed. The literature search was performed employing scientific databases (Scopus and Web of Science). The results highlight that 52 case studies out of 84 (62% of the total) use stand-alone life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the benefits/impacts of circular economy strategies. Only eight studies (9.5%) deal with the life cycle costing (LCC) approach combined with other analyses, while no paper deals with the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. We argue that experts in life cycle methodologies must strive to adopt some key elements to ensure that the results obtained fit perfectly with the measurements of circularity and that these can even be largely based on a common basis.
The goal of this paper is to develop a better understanding on the potential to recognise a fourth principle encompassed by the slow food movement – agri-food philosophy – supported in three factors: spirituality, socialization, and knowledge. Twenty-four national experts from business, administration and academic backgrounds have contributed their thoughts over three rounds: the first round was to auto-evaluate the degree of knowledge and the contributions of each expert, improving the design of the final questionnaire, which was answered in two successive rounds in a set of 105 statements. Statistical measures (arithmetic mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation) were used. The results allowed to predict that until 2027 for the new principle purposed – Philosophical Dimension, the value of food will involve, the training of taste and the wise gourmand of food traditions and artisans. This scenario can occur in (89.4%) as a Socialization factor. On the other hand, based on the spirituality factor, the experts panel states that food associated with physical exercise and meditation will be, in 2027, the most important axes for achieving harmony of being. It will be a trend with the possibility of occurring around 82.8%. In contrast, one of the trends pointed out by the expert panel is that the food purchase decision will be based on individual beliefs. This trend has an 80.4% probability of occurring. Additionally, in 2027, the several forms of human sensations (e.g., smell, taste, vision) will influenced the perception of food consumption. This trend has an 76.5% probability of occurring. As a result of the knowledge factor, it was concluded that a standard of conduct assumed by all stakeholders will be possible based on full transparency (from raw materials to consumption) and access to true information. This trend can occur in 88.9%.
The paper analyses how intermediary’s bargaining power affects relational governance in the context of a transition economy, namely the case of Kosovo. There has been limited research and understanding about bargaining power and relational governance in developing and transition economies. Multinomial logistic regression is employed to investigate the factors affecting relational governance, which is operationalized as categorical variable: 1) Spot market transaction, 2) verbal contract and 3) written contract. The results of the study point out that intermediaries’ exercised power over farmers affects the farmers’ contracting decisions in different ways. When they exercise power over farmers’ margin, it reduces the likelihood of farmers’ participation in either verbal or written contracts, while power over product quality related activities increases the likelihood of farmers engagement in written contracts. Another key finding is that for products that require a specific standard and quality, written contracts are more likely than verbal ones.
The bakery products subsector has the largest number of companies, value added, employees and number of companies in Europe (Food and Drinks, 2011). Over-consumption of energy in bakeries due to inefficient scheduling and production planning together with high shares of unsold bread waste (5-10% in Europe) is a big issue. Not only avoidable CO2 emissions affecting climate change and society, but also excessive costs for SME bakeries are severe consequences. Recently, the EU has identified the bakery sector as one of the target sectors to apply best environmental practices. The aim of the envisaged project is in line with the goals of the EU (Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009, 2017/1508 of 28 August 2017 EU): minimising food waste and reducing energy consumption. The Pro4Bake project aims to provide tools that could improve the bakery situation. A prospective production-planning tool for bakeries is being developed in this trans- and interdisciplinary project. Present machinery in bakeries is used to optimise the production process. The reduction of make span and idle time of machines, but also combinations thereof will lead to a higher economic and ecologic efficiency, thus, lower production costs for bakeries and lower climate change impact for society. The tool is developed using a flow-shop model, optimised by evolutionary algorithms, digital twins and artificial intelligence procedures. Adaptation to consumers’ preferences will minimise food waste; hence, ecological footprint in bakeries, and lead to further optimisation of the baking process, product range and amount. Consumers’ demands and expectations related to e.g. weather or holidays, and their acceptance of changes in product availability will play a significant role in the analysis. In the end, a computational application will help SME bakeries as users to adapt their production planning and processes to best practice. Subsequently, its potential in practical application will be examined and its impact broadened to the rest of Europe and beyond. Dissemination through technology transfer to users by involving professionals, students and learning videos will be performed. The product will be commercialised in the end to make it possible for bakeries to adapt to the truly needed amount and product range with optimised baking schedules to reduce energy consumption. The multidisciplinary approach, combining research optimisation methods and demand forecast approach used could be easily transferred to other agri-food sectors.
The transformation of an energy system is complex and requires not only technical measures, innovation and changes in lifestyle, but also increasing agricultural land use, especially for the construction of wind turbines or solar panels. Land use for biofuel cultivation is also relevant. Participants in transdisciplinary workshops use the simulation tool 100prosim to create and discuss their new energy scenario and learn about the complexity and requirements of the energy transitions regarding land use for renewable energy. The goal is to create an energy system that is supplied completely through renewable energy, while maintaining the balance between consumption and production. The focus is not on economic but on ecological factors and those related to land use. The holistic view of the tool and the visualization make it possible for participants to get an idea of the size and use of the energy production areas planned. Consequently, participants can identify possible conflicts of use, such as feed production and food security, to be discussed as a basic requirement for determining space for opportunities and a desirable optimum.
There are several problems, daily pitfalls, challenges, that the different types of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) face regularly. A method was developed to help to elaborate strategies to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs. After the analysis of the single SFSC businesses, the value propositions providing for the consumers and/or the short-chain as a whole, screening the needs of the consumers, through the application of innovations, the value propositions can be upgraded. With the appropriate innovations, the image, products/services of the organizations can be more appealing and preferable. The work was carried out within the SMARTCHAIN H2020 project.
Foreign trade plays a great role to achieve economic development for almost all countries. However, Egypt being one of the developing countries is still suffering from the widening gap between increasing food imports and exports. This problem has subsequent effects on Egyptian agricultural trade balance and hence Egyptian balance of payments. The study showed that the relative importance of the total agricultural exports to, as compared to the total national exports, reached its highest level of 16.4 % in 2017, while its lowest level was about 6.2% in 2007. For the relative importance of the total agricultural imports to, as compared to the total national imports, it reached its highest level of 22.5% in 2005, while its lowest level was about 5.5% in 2016. It appears that the average agricultural exports covered about 5.1% of the total national imports during the period 2005-2011, while it was about 4.6% during the period 2012-2018. The decrease of the coverage of national imports by the agricultural exports in second period compared with first period was due to the increase of the total national imports by about 77.5% (bases 2005-2011). The ratio of agricultural exports coverage established around 4.6% of the total national imports during the period 2005-2018. That was due to the fact that Egyptian governments in the last years reduced the national imports specially the food commodities, and slightly increase the national exports particularly the agricultural exports. The conduct study showed that the average total value of agricultural imports EU markets amounted to about US$ 743.35 million during the period 2005-2018, while the average total Egyptian agricultural exports with EU countries amounted to about US$ 663.9 million during the period 2005- 2018. The deficit of Egyptian agricultural balance of trade with EU markets reached about US$ 87.34 million or 1.54 % of the total deficit of Egyptian balance of trade in 2005-2011, and increased to US$ 132.85 million or about 1.01 % of the total deficit of Egyptian balance of trade in 2012-2018. It was appear that the impact of EU liberalization on Egypt will have negative effect on agricultural balance of trade with about US$ 79.44 million during the all study period 2005-2018.
Negative effects of heavy meat consumption have been critically discussed in politics, the public and science for a long time. As there is heterogeneity in consumer behaviour, targeted measures regarding behaviour management can hardly be implemented on the basis of an average consumption levels but should take into account different consumer segments. Therefore, this study performs a segmentation and characterisation of fresh-meat-shoppers based on household panel data provided by the GfK. A cluster analysis was performed based on the average per capita monthly purchasing shares of five different meat types. A multinomial logistic regression was used to characterize the different segments regarding sociodemographic aspects, people’s attitudes towards food and meat shopping, total purchasing intensity and different shopping locations. The authors found a four-cluster solution, identifying a segment of poultry lovers (24 %), a segment of beef, lamb & speciality purchasers (17 %), a segment of mixed product eaters (15 %) and a segment of pork buyers (45 %). Households assigned to the largest cluster of “pork buyers” have an above-average monthly meat purchase while being price-sensitive. Future policy instruments such as meat tax could address this buyer segment in particular, and probably decrease overall meat purchases. However, it should not be neglected that “beef, lamb & speciality purchasers” also have an above-average monthly meat purchase, causing particularly negative environmental effects. As this buyer segment has a rather high income and reports to be less price sensitive, it might be a challenge to influence their purchasing behaviour by taxing meat products.
Policies are becoming intensively interrelated while increasing numbers of societal groups and stakeholders are affected. At the same time, current and future challenges require improved capacity in terms of models, their linkages or redesigns to deliver forward-looking insights on policies. Different stakeholder workshops have recently been applied in two projects to support these activities, including stocktaking, inputs for narratives, feedbacks to outcomes, acceptance of analysis and drafting future research agendas. This paper describes approaches applied in both projects, shortly presents their results and findings to finally draw some general conclusions.
While the domestic milk production sector of Ghana remains stagnant over the years, dairy processing on the other hand is continually witnessing growth relying largely on milk powder and other dairy products imports mainly from EU member countries. The EU is blamed for the underdevelopment of the domestic dairy sector of many African nations. However, evidence that either prove or refute these growing criticisms are missing. This study was thus initiated to examine Ghana’s dairy sector with an emphasis on those parts of the value chain where imported milk powder is used. The study shows that the dairy processing industry is continually expanding relying largely on milk powder imports mainly from EU member countries. Also, processors expect an increase in consumer preferences for more diversified dairy products in the near future. This implies further growth of the processing industry which already relies largely on imported input. The study identified myriads of challenges facing the Ghanaian dairy sector which altogether contribute to its inability to contribute to the processing industry’s needs. Notwithstanding, any attempt to address the challenges of the sector should focus not only on economic and political aspects such as self-sufficiency, sovereignty, and trade dependency but also climate conditions, the use of natural resources and their subsequent environmental impacts should be considered.
Current estimates point to food loss and waste as costing around $US 900 billion dollars a year. That is equivalent to around one-third of global food production. The magnitude of this valuation, however, is reliant on the effective measurement of the actual amount of food loss and waste. There are various definitions of this problem, which differ in their scope. FAO, FUSION and WRI are the most prominent institutions that have proposed different definitions of food loss and waste. All of these definitions have been at least partially criticized. Nonetheless, FAO’s definition and methodology have been the basis for many studies attempting to quantify food loss and waste. FAO’s methodology is based more on estimation rather than direct measurements. Taking the example of maize in Mozambique, using FAO’s methodology to measure food loss and waste at the farm level seems to provide estimates comparable to the available statistics from the national agricultural surveys. Di rect measurements on the other hand, apart from being costly, seem to suffer from representativeness problems as highlighted by some authors. Also, some of the direct measurement methods proposed by some authors seem to look at food loss and waste as a static problem, rather than a dynamic problem that evolves over time. Regardless of the level where the problem of food loss and waste occurs (upper or lower end of supply chains), it results in a deadweight loss for society. That is demonstrated by a Marshallian supply and demand diagram.
Mangroves are tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems that fulfill multiple beneficial functions for preserving life on the planet and the economic support of families living in their surroundings. Such is the case of the mangroves in Ecuador, in which the Concha Prieta (Anadara tuberculosa) is produced through the manual extraction of natural populations. However, this production system is threatened by deforestation and overexploitation. This research aims to formulate an agribusiness management model that impacts the A. tuberculosa's value chain performance levels using as validation tools the structural equations model. A non-experimental, cross-sectional, and ex-post-facto field research methodology was applied. The population under study was made up of the production chain participants, through a representative sample of 138 shellfish collectors, 12 managers of shellfish associations, 27 merchants, and 45 restaurants. The study was carried out in the Jambeli archipelago, in El Oro province, Ecuador, in 2019. Likewise, a questionnaire for each stage of the research was designed and validated through experts' judgment. The collected data were processed and analyzed through the structural equations model, using SPSS and AMOS software. The result obtained shows an interdependence relationship between both latent variables, with a covariance index of 0.45, which allows us to infer that as the processes integrated into Agribusiness Management are improved, higher levels are reached in the Performance components of the mollusk value chain and vice-versa. In particular, the exogenous variable Agribusiness Management is related to the endogenous variables mentioned below, with their respective factorial load: Evaluation (0.72); Process innovation (0.69); Internal factors of innovation (0.67); Planning (0.65); Execution (0.58) and External factors of innovation (0.38). Likewise, the exogenous variable Value Chain Performance is related to the endogenous variables mentioned below and their respective factorial load: Physical productivity (0.86); Economic productivity (0.83); Percentage indicator of net income (0.35); Operational profitability (0.21); Quality of life (-0.07) and Leadership in costs (-0.06). We conclude that the Agribusiness Management and Value Chain Performance constructs are interdependent and that the Physical Productivity and Evaluation indicators are the ones that have the most significant influence on this relationship. We recommend simulating these effects and relationships to propose improvement strategies to the said value chain.
The main aim of this contribution is to identify factors that influence consumers’ willingness to adopt food-related options to mitigate climate change and reveal how these factors are interlinked. In-depth interviews were carried out with 32 consumers in Germany, France and the UK; the results were analysed and described in the context of Alphabet Theory. The allocation of findings from the interviews to the theoretical framework helps to identify interrelations, to provide explanations and thereby achieve to take a holistic view on the topic, without neglecting contextual information. The findings of this study indicate that a higher level of knowledge will result in more personal responsibility assumed by the consumers and will increase their willingness to adopt mitigation options. Hence, public information campaigns and education programs initiated to enhance consumers’ knowledge on climate-friendly food choices. At the same time, climate-friendly food products need to be easily available and identifiable to help consumers to act according to their attitudes.
