Abstract
This article inductively develops a model of how farmers market organizations can contribute to reduce food waste, fight poverty, and improve public health through innovative Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices enabled by networked activity systems. To this aim, a ten-year longitudinal case study of one of the biggest Italian farmers markets has been conducted, based on triangulated data from participant observation, interviews, and internal documents collection. This study suggests that farmers market organizations are in the position to leverage their inter-organizational relationships, institutional role, and power to build collaborative networks with businesses, government bodies, and charities, so that concrete CSR-based virtuous circles on surplus food donation are triggered at the organizational field level. Answering the call from United Nation Goals for successful examples on SDG 12, this case presents how several CSR levers can have a social and environmental impact allowing farmers and their market organizations to increase their efficiency and accountability to the local community, improve processes, reduce food waste, and contribute to public health and social inclusion. CSR actions have co-evolved with significant changes in organizational logics and identity, thus enabling accountability to the local community and innovative network-level auditing of the relevant organizational processes.
Highlights
In 2015, the United Nations adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the key headings of the Global Agenda 2030
The participant observer took personal notes taken at meetings, The participant observer was involved in the decision-making process in terms of business model creation, development of the network between partners and beneficiaries, and the implementation of an education path built to spread knowledge and virtuous behavior on food waste prevention in the local community
As the analysis presented above demonstrates, since food waste is a challenge that involves, according to Devin and Richards [25], the whole food value chain, rather than individual firms, the development of a myriad of individual, disconnected corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives is likely to result in façade changes with limited impacts on SDGs
Summary
In 2015, the United Nations adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the key headings of the Global Agenda 2030. These SDGs seek to mobilize global efforts around a common set of priorities in order to protect the planet and ensure dignity and opportunities for all. Numerous projects and studies proposed by governmental and international entities have highlighted the importance of the food waste issue in terms of nutrition security, environmental impact, resource exploitation and sustainable development [25,28,29]. Food waste across the entire supply chain—from the agriculture field to the table—increases production, distribution and disposal costs. Food waste results in tangible loss for businesses, in addition to the environmental and social problems it results in
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