Enhancing the Design and Management of a Local Organic Food Supply Chain with Soft Systems Methodology

Local production is becoming an increasingly important food attribute for consumers due to inter alia recent food scandals and the growing complexity of food production. Especially in the organic food market, local production is seen as an important additional value. Even though there is a high preference for local food, it is still unknown, what organic consumers know about the production process when buying what is believed to be local food. We analysed which parts of the supply chains have to be local so that consumers perceive a product as local. Feed production is a very important part of the supply chain of animal products, so we analysed consumers’ perception of local supply chains with a focus on feed origin. A focus group study in Germany using three groups of organic consumers reveals a low consumer awareness of feed origin and little consumer knowledge about animal feed and feeding. The results of the study indicate that organic consumers do not include the feed origin in their purchase decision. None of the participants was aware of the high import rate of organic feed stuffs to Germany. Nevertheless, the study findings show that organic consumers prefer organic animal products with complete local supply chains. The results suggest that the current situation with regard to feed production is not in line with consumers’ ideas of sustainable organic agriculture.

In an increasingly commercialized world, the demand for better quality, healthier food has given rise to one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. food system: locally grown food. Many believe that relocalization of the food system will provide a range of public benefits, including lower carbon emissions, increased local economic activity, and closer connections between consumers, farmers, and communities. The structure of local food supply chains, however, may not always be capable of generating these perceived benefits. Growing Local reports the findings from a coordinated series of case studies designed to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of how local food products reach consumers and how local food supply chains compare with mainstream supermarket supply chains. To better understand how local food reaches the point of sale, Growing Local uses case study methods to rigorously compare local and mainstream supply chains for five products in five metropolitan areas along multiple social, economic, and environmental dimensions, highlighting areas of growth and potential barriers. Growing Local provides a foundation for a better understanding of the characteristics of local food production and emphasizes the realities of operating local food supply chains.

changing all along the local food supply chain, with farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture (CSAs), food hubs, and other business models evolving across the South in an effort to shorten the food supply chain and increase LGF supply and quality. These organizations and structures are a diverse combination of public and private initiative. Much of the business structure innovation involves collaboration and integration that is both horizontal (wider scope of products and aggregation for scale) and vertical (assuming more downstream supply-chain functions). Technology is rapidly changing conventional food supply chains. Innovations are connected to traceability, distribution efficiency, quality assurances, market informa tion management, and product development, while largervolume supply chains are implementing other technologycentered changes. These innovations are also being adapted to smaller-scale, shorter, localized food chains. There are interesting cases, particularly among some of the food hubs, where the supply chain information technology (IT) solutions were developed specifically to meet unique and

This paper investigates the opportunities for farmers to produce for local consumers, based on a case study in the Dutch horticulture sector. Main requirements for the set-up of a local chain of supply chain actors are investigated. Producer requirements are added value, availability of time, infrastructure and training. Retailer requirements are quality of food, purchasing volumes, food safety, communication to consumers and traceability of products. For consumers taste/freshness, sustainability, health benefits and authenticity are important attributes of local foods. Based on literature review and interviews with stakeholders four possible strategies for local food chains are defined. The ‘keep it local’ strategy means that the local food supply chains will not make use of the current infrastructure of the marketing coop that acts as chain coordinator. Deliveries are directly between farmer and retail outlet. The local products - conventional supply chain strategy implies that current (non-local) supply chains are used to distribute local products. The supply chain planning will be more complex since products need to be separated per grower and distributed to several local supermarkets. In the ‘enabling producers’ strategy the marketing coop/chain coordinator is going to enable its member producers to sell their products locally. The marketing coop can support producers in for instance, billing and payments, marketing, logistics. The fourth strategy aims at strengthening current consumer communication strategies. It is argued that connecting producers and consumers, regardless of where they live is advantageous. Conclusion is that strategy 3; ‘Enabling producers’, in combination with strategy 4; ‘Strengthening current consumer communication strategies’ are the most promising options in setting up local food supply chains. Strategies 1 and 2, where the marketing coop/chain coordinator itself takes on the challenge of setting up local food supply chains meets too much resistance from the retail companies (head-office level) and offers too little opportunities for providing added value to both producers and retailers.

Food security requires more than just increased availability, as supply chains face challenges such as climate change, inequality and waste. A sustainable food system provides numerous benefits, aligning with the European Green Deal’s Farm to Fork Strategy, which aims to promote sustainable production, ensure food safety, reduce waste, and combat climate change. Additionally, it supports regional economies, preserves cultural identity, enhances food tourism, and helps prevent food fraud. Aim of the research is to analyse challenges, best practices and solutions for sustainable local food supply chains based on stakeholders face to face onsite workshops organized in Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. Stakeholders interviewed were farmers, local food producers and distributors, local government representatives, as well as researchers from the food, regional development and environmental engineering fields who shared with their experiences and useful information about their experiences of dealing with obstacles. The initial results indicate the following group of obstacles like all the countries analysed. (1) There is no clear definition of the local food supply chain, creating uncertainty and inconsistencies in its interpretation. (2) Local food supply chain stakeholders are eager to collaborate to sell their products wholesale, ensuring the necessary production volumes. While meeting these demands can be challenging for individual producers, cooperation would make it achievable, enabling a more efficient and sustainable supply chain. (3) Local food supply chain stakeholders lack support from local governments, because currently the minimum requirements required by local governments are met, but this affects the ability of local producers to grow. (4) Lack of effective public education on the benefits of local food and its integration into daily life. Improving awareness and understanding would increase demand, support the growth and development of local food producers, and bring economic and social benefits to the community.

Local food emphasises destination distinctiveness as food production is a locally embedded activity. Proponents of food tourism contend that it increases local food consumption as tourists and tourism and hospitality businesses are attracted to local food supply chains, where they can buy direct from the producer, thus reducing overheads, contributing to local economies and benefitting local communities. Yet the extent to which the food tourism rhetoric enhances the local food supply chain is questionable as evidence suggests that the food tourism ‘label’ creates a silo, which impairs connections with local food supply chains. Seven semi-structured interviews were undertaken in Southeast Wales to explore the food tourism rhetoric, particularly the connection with local food supply chains. Three themes emerged: demand versus supply; information provision; complexity and connectivity in food tourism and local food supply chains. Ultimately, this paper challenges traditional viewpoints around food tourism being a panacea for local food producers.

Improving the design of local short food supply chains: Farmers’ views in Wallonia, Belgium

There is an increasing interest in the potential of local foods and short food supply chains to overcome the unsustainable practices of global/industrial food supply chains. However this opposition is being questioned together with the actual sustainability of food chains. The assessment of the sustainability performance of food chains poses several challenges because of the multiple dimensions to be considered, the different actors involved and the lack of a shared methodology for the assessment.This paper develops a comparative assessment among three wheat-to-bread chains in Italy in relation to their degree of localness and different dimensions of sustainability. Recently the gap between wheat producers, processors and consumers is gradually bridging across the EU and re-localization experiences of bread supply chains have spread. Based on a systematic literature analysis, in depth interviews and questionnaires we develop a comparative assessment on three critical attributes of sustainability for these supply chains, based on a set of selected indicators: nutritional and health properties of final products, technological innovation of the process and biodiversity preservation. This allows to shed light on synergies and tradeoffs between sustainability attributes and potential paths for sustainability improvement. This paper presents the preliminary results of the FP7 EU research project Glamur (Global and Local Food Assessment: a multidimensional performance based approach).

Purpose– The purpose of the research is to identify the observable operational and supply chain barriers and constraints that occur in local food supply chains, especially with smaller producers, as they seek to increase market penetration across a wider geographic area.Design/methodology/approach– The research adopts a multiple case study approach using mixed methods of data collection where case study companies are interviewed and complete a questionnaire. This process allows us to create a supply chain map and create a narrative which records the burdens and impacts occurring in local food supply chains and smaller producers looking beyond local markets. This evidence is then set against the theory of constraints (TOC) to provide a theoretical underpinning and to examine consistency of the findings.Findings– Seven broad categories of constraint type are observed: constraints due to the nature of the market; due to scale and the nature of products; constraints related to employment and skills; institutional constraints; constraints in supply chain relationships; certification, policy and regulatory constraints; and constraints around personal beliefs and anthropomorphism. Each is described as to its origin, its limitation to business and where possible, how it might be remedied. The constraints point to some counter-intuitive results as far as common perceptions of local food are concerned but suggestions for improvement are made through collaborative producer efforts, alternative institutional intervention, supply chain re-engineering and logistics innovation.Practical implications– Practical suggestions are made to improve the inclusiveness of distribution networks, to better utilise regional food groups (RFGs), to develop opportunities to set up autonomous supply chain centres, or to broaden the function of farmer co-operatives. The paper also provides an alternative model of the TOC specifically adapted for local food producers, the focus of which plays to their strengths and focuses on building competencies across, up and down the supply chain.Originality/value– The adaptation of the TOC provides an advancement of knowledge in the area of food supply chain analysis and is done in a way that is more practical in use. The paper also provides the opportunity to take a similar approach to examining other niche supply opportunities in the sector, which may be dependent on other geographically defined barriers, such as seasonal or ethnic products.

The primary purpose of the supply chains is to ensure and secure the availability and smooth flow of the necessary resources for efficient production processes and consumption. Supply chain activities have been experiencing significant changes due to the importance and creation of the integrated process. Blockchain is viewed as an innovative tool for transforming supply chain management’s (SCM’s) actual business model; on the other hand, the SCM provides an applicative value of blockchain technology. The research is focused on examining the influence of blockchain technology on the increasing efficiency, transparency, auditability, traceability, and security issues of the food supply chain (FSC), with particular attention to the local food supply chain (LFSC). The main objective of the research is to suggest the implementation of blockchain technology in the local food supply chain as a niche of the food industry. The result of the research is the identification of a three-layers model of a smart local food supply chain. The model provides efficient and more transparent tracking across the local food supply chain, improving food accessibility, traceability, and safety.

In this article we compare and contrast the economic, social, and environmental impact of local and global food supply chains building upon cross-country comparisons of food chain performance in nine European countries and for seven different products. We propose a novel way of conceptualising local and global food chains taking into account the length of the chain and the degree of product differentiation. Moreover, we consider impacts at different spatial scales such as the farm, the supply chain, national and global level, and the interactions of impacts across these different levels. Our findings suggest some general patterns regarding the local vs. global performance within the social, economic and environmental dimensions. However, we also discuss the conditions of validity of comparison and conclude that food chain categorization, product differentiation strategies, trade-offs within and across different sustainability dimensions and the way of measuring indicators are important determinants of food chain performance.

This paper aims at developing efficient solving methods for an original service network design problem imbued with sustainable issues. Indeed the network has to be designed for short and local supply chain and for fresh food products. The original features of the problem are the seasonality of supply, the limitation of transshipments for a product and no possibility of storage between consecutive periods. Decisions at strategic and tactical level are (1) decisions on a subset of hubs to open among a given set of potential locations, (2) transportation services to open between the actors and (3) flow quantities for the fresh food products. We propose for this problem a Mixed Integer Programming formulation and two solving techniques: Benders Decomposition and Dynamic Slope Scaling Procedure. These techniques are adapted to the problem and some experimental tests are conducted in order to compare the approaches on large-scale instances.

The goal of this paper is twofold: to comparatively analyze the social performance of global and local berry supply chains and to explore the ways in which the social dimension is embedded in the overall performance of food supply chains. To achieve this goal, the social performance of five global and local food supply chains in two countries are analyzed: wild blueberry supply chains in Latvia and cultivated raspberry supply chains in Serbia. The study addresses two research questions: (1) What is the social performance of the local and global supply chains? (2) How can references to context help improve understanding of the social dimension and social performance of food supply chains? To answer these questions, two interlinked thematic sets of indicators (attributes) are used—one describing labor relations and the other describing power relations. These lists are then contextualized by examining the micro-stories of the actors involved in these supply chains. An analysis of the chosen attributes reveals that global chains perform better than local chains. However, a context-sensitive analysis from the perspective of embedded markets and communities suggests that the social performance of food chains is highly context-dependent, relational, and affected by actors’ abilities to negotiate values, norms, and the rules embedded within these chains, both global and local. The results illustrate that the empowerment of the chains’ weakest actors can lead to a redefining of the meanings that performance assessments rely on.

This study identified key production, marketing and policy constraints and barriers for local food supply chains to enhance agricultural market development for agritourism in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Focus groups and questionnaires were administered to policy decision-makers, farmers, and the hospitality sector to obtain information about these barriers and constraints and to identify appropriate policy responses to improve local food supply for the tourism economy. This information was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative research methods to determine the relative importance of the constraints and agreement among stakeholders. Key constraints included inadequate production resources (land, irrigation, and credit) and lack of quantity, quality and information of local foods to meet the demand by the tourism sector. Findings were presented and discussed at stakeholder meetings. A pilot project to integrate producers and island restaurants and resorts (Farmer-Chef Connection) was proposed and is being implemented. Legislative proposals to address production and marketing resource constraints are also being developed. Emphasis on active participation of stakeholders and the development of a policy network is viewed as critical to developing sustainable food tourism supply chain linkages.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate supply chain relationships in an urban local fresh food system from a retailer perspective to examine the types of relationships and the factors underpinning the development of such relationships.Design/methodology/approachUsing the multiple case study method, interview data from twelve urban local fresh food retailers in Sydney were analysed using the thematic analysis.FindingsThis study finds that balanced power relationships in the supply chain allow reasonable power to sit with growers in product price determination irrespective of the dependency of small-scale growers on relatively large local retailers. Trust-based relationships are developed over multiple transactions, where shared values across the supply chain and consistently low opportunistic behaviour in reward sharing are demonstrated to be the crucial factors underpinning close relationships. This study also found evidence of horizontal supply chain linkages among retailers in a competitive environment.Practical implicationsFindings of this study have implications for policymakers in designing urban fresh food systems and for practitioners in large urban retailers including supermarkets that attempt to integrate local food into their product portfolio.Originality/valueThis study extends the local food system literature dominated by rural studies to include new knowledge about the dynamics of collaborations in contemporary urban local fresh food supply chains. It provides the first empirical evidence of lateral inventory transshipment between retailers in a competitive environment confirming previous simulation studies.