Assessment of the Endorsers of e-Business Practices for Food Supply Chain Performance System

Globalisation and changing lifestyle of the people has escalated the demand for the more product customisation, taste preferences and awareness about the usage of quality food commodities. Recent developments in the field of information technology and its integration with the business practices has emerged as a new term named ‘e-business’ (EB). Increasing consumer base of the food supply chains (FSC), has escalated the demand of technological and operation advancements by mediating ‘EB’ activities. Such, practices become extensively crucial when the world is suffering from the pandemic of COVID-19, leading to distressing of FSC linkages causing frequent market closures. To tackle the same presented work, explores the various endorsers (EDR) of the ‘EB’ in FSC, which are contemplated by hybrid combination of multi-criteria decision making techniques. Outcomes of the present work aids managers to formulate the decision policies and develop a robust framework in the direction to cling the ‘EB’ practices with FSC.

Blockchain Adoption for Provenance and Traceability in the Retail Food Supply Chain

Blockchain has evolved as one of the disruptive technologies in the landscape of business. The study aims to investigate drivers of consumer adoption of blockchain for product origin and track to trace history before making a purchase. An extended technology adoption model (TAM) has been proposed to examine the consumer perspective for blockchain adoption in the food supply chain. Based on the survey of 208 retail consumers the proposed model was validated using variance-based structure equation modeling. Findings of the study emphasize the significant role of perceived security and privacy in developing trust, ease of use, and usefulness of blockchain-enabled systems. The relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude is mediated through perceived usefulness. The strong influence of attitude on adoption intention represents the consumer interest for blockchain to understand the product provenance. Study provides vital insights for successful blockchain implementation to enhance supply chain effectiveness.

Life Cycle Environmental Impacts and Health Effects of Protein-Rich Food as Meat Alternatives: A Review

The food sector is responsible for a considerable impact on the environment in most environmental contexts: the food supply chain causes greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, reduction in cultivable land, and other environmental impacts. Thus, a change in food supply is required to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the food supply chain and to meet the increasing demand for sufficient and qualitative nutrition. Large herds of livestock are inappropriate to achieve these goals due to the relevant impact of meat supply chain on the environment, e.g., the land used to grow feed for animals is eight times more than that for human nutrition. The search for meat alternatives, especially for the intake of critical nutrients such as protein, is a consequent step. In the above context, this paper summarizes the health aspects of protein-rich food alternatives to meat and carries out a literature review on the life-cycle environmental impacts of this alternative food.

CADEIAS CURTAS DE ABASTECIMENTO DE ALIMENTOS: UMA CARACTERIZAÇÃO NOS MERCADOS LOCAIS POR MEIO DOS ESTUDOS EMPÍRICOS

Este estudo objetiva analisar o enraizamento que os produtores e consumidores apresentam em sua interação nos mercados locais por meio dos estudos empíricos nas cadeias curtas de abastecimento de alimentos. Para tanto, utilizou-se a metodologia de revisão sistemática para analisar as publicações sobre as cadeias curtas de abastecimento de alimentos, disponibilizadas nas bases Web of Science, SCOPUS e material complementar. Para isso, utilizou-se como apoio o software Ucinet®. Os resultados encontrados apontaram que, dos 26 trabalhos pesquisados, publicados de 2014 até 2019, 21 possuem aplicabilidade empírica. É possível vislumbrar, nesses estudos, que o aspecto social é o que possui o maior destaque, porque são capazes até de servir de ponte entre diferentes mundos sociais, tanto em seus componentes de necessidades quanto nos de seu potencial. Já o aspecto econômico aparece às vezes de forma neutra ou tendo a principal motivação na redução de custos de transporte e eliminação dos agentes intermediários que representavam gastos pesados. Algumas questões, como os cuidados ambientais de pequena escala em pequenas propriedades, por exemplo, mostram-se como lacunas do estudo, o que suscita a questão: as SFSCs (Short food supply chains) serão capazes de limitar os danos ambientais gerados e se conseguirão, além disso, promover externalidades positivas produzidas por alguns modelos de agricultura, em termos de aprimoramento da paisagem ou de proteção da agrobiodiversidade? O papel da confiança na relação produtor/consumidor mereceu destaque. Os demais estudos são pesquisas referentes ao perfil de consumidores ou de agricultores, pesquisas de comportamento e sociodemográficas.

Is the quest to eat healthy a route to enhancing consumer’s food security?

Background On an individual level, food security has multiple dimensions and consumers exhibit heterogeneity in the extent to which different attributes matter in their quest for enhanced food security. The aim of this paper is to explain how the quest for individual food security arises and its dynamic nature and its implications for how food security-enhancing attributes are defined and how they are signaled, and for the role of regulators and food supply chains in establishing credible signals. Results The paper finds that the quest for enhanced individual food security is a dynamic process that responds to the disequilibrium that change brings. The changing role of standards and grades as signals in food markets is discussed as a precursor to considering the implications for both market and non-market (regulatory) failure in determining the appropriate role for the public sector in regulating food safety and quality standards and labeling. The rise of private standards is examined, along with a consideration of how these standards differ in terms of scope and objective and their implications for international trade in increasingly globalized food supply chains. Conclusions Despite the growth of private standards, a clear role remains for mandatory public standards, yet challenges arise when these standards differ across countries.

Market power and food loss at the producer-retailer interface of fruit and vegetable supply chains in Germany

Food loss and waste are associated with an unnecessary consumption of natural resources and avoidable greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations have thus set the reduction of food loss and waste on the political agenda by means of the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3. The German Federal Government committed itself to this goal by implementing the National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction in 2019. However, this policy approach relies heavily on voluntary action by involved actors and neglects the possible role of power imbalances along the food supply chain. While current research on food loss and waste in industrialised countries predominantly focuses on the consumer level, this study puts emphasis on the under-researched early stages of the food supply chain from the field to retailers’ warehouses. Based on 22 expert interviews with producers, producer organisations and retailers, this article identifies major inter-stage drivers of food loss in the supply chains for fresh fruit and vegetables in Germany. Its main novelty is to demonstrate how market power imbalances and risk shifting between powerful and subordinate actors can reinforce the tendency of food loss on the part of producers further up the supply chain. Results indicate that prevalent institutional settings, such as contractual terms and conditions, trading practices, ordering processes, product specifications, and communication privilege retailers and encourage food loss. The mechanisms in which these imbalances manifest, go beyond the European Commission’s current legislation on Unfair Trading Practices. This study suggests a research agenda that might help to formulate adjusted policy instruments for re-structuring the German fruit and vegetable markets so that less food is wasted.

Food supply for the Home Army for the duration of the warsaw uprising

Literatura dotycząca Powstania Warszawskiego jest ogromna. Dotyczy ona różnych jego aspektów, począwszy od zagadnień strategiczno-operacyjnych, problemów politycznych, uwarunkowań wewnętrznych i międzynarodowych, analizy militarnych działań powstania, reakcji na powstanie, poprzez eksterminację ludności i powstańców, po zburzenie miasta. Mimo takiego bogactwa literatura powstańcza zawiera wiele luk i rozbieżności, wiele zagadnień czeka na bardziej obszerne zbadanie i opracowanie. Wykorzystując materiały archiwalne, w tym dokumenty z archiwów w Nowym Jorku, Londynie, Freiburgu oraz Polsce, jak również istniejącą literaturę przedmiotu, autor przedstawia nieznane dotychczas kwestie związane z zabezpieczeniem oddziałów AK w żywność i wodę na czas Powstania Warszawskiego. Wskazuje na stan przygotowań i występujące problemy z zaopatrzeniem. Twierdzi także, iż zabezpieczenie Armii Krajowej w żywność na czas walki było niewystarczające, a przez to miało istotny wpływ na rozwój wydarzeń w Warszawie latem 1944 r. W artykule autor dowodzi, że zaopatrzenie oddziałów powstańczych w żywność i wodę miało bardzo istotny wpływ nie tylko na morale, ale przede wszystkim możliwość prowadzenia działań zbrojnych w poszczególnych rejonach Warszawy przez powstańców. Wnikliwie opisuje brak przygotowania intendenckiego w okresie okupacji, jak również czynione próby uporania się z tym problemem w przed wybuchem walk przez kwatermistrza Okręgu Warszawa AK i wskazuje dlaczego nie mogły się w pełni powieść. Stan przygotowania obnażyły nie tylko pierwsze dni walk, ale przede wszystkim kolejne tygodnie zmagań w Warszawie. Dający się zauważyć chaos w kwestii zaopatrzenia miasta w żywność i wodę wynikał z wielu czynników, w tym przede wszystkim przyjęcia założenia o czasie trwania walk, jak również przygotowywania się do nich w warunkach okupacji, co skutkowało daleko posuniętą tajemnicą planowania i rozbieżnościami w wydawanych wytycznych między Komendą Główną AK a Okręgiem Warszawa AK.