scholarly journals Food supply chains and the antimicrobial resistance challenge: On the framing, accomplishments and limitations of corporate responsibility

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110152
Author(s):  
Alex Hughes ◽  
Emma Roe ◽  
Suzanne Hocknell
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Food System ◽  
Antibiotic Use ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Meat Production ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
The Uk

This paper presents a critique of supply chain responses to a particular global wicked problem – antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It evaluates the understanding of AMR (and drug-resistant infections) as a food system challenge and critically explores how responsibility for addressing it is framed and implemented. We place the spotlight on the AMR strategies applied in UK retailers’ domestic poultry and pork supply chains. This provides a timely analysis of corporate engagement with AMR in light of the 2016 O’Neill report on Tackling Drug Resistant Infections Globally, which positioned supermarket chains, processors, and regulators as holding key responsibilities. Research included interviews with retailers, industry bodies, policy makers, farmers, processors, consultants and campaigners. We evaluate how strategy for tackling AMR in the food system is focused on antimicrobial stewardship, particularly targets for reducing antibiotic use in domestic food production. The global value chain notion of multipolar governance, where influence derives from multiple nodes both inside and outside the supply chain, is blended with more-than-human assemblage perspectives to capture the implementation of targets. This conceptual fusion grasps how supply chain responsibility and influence works through both a distributed group of stakeholders and the ecological complexity of the AMR challenge. The paper demonstrates in turn: how the targets for reducing antibiotic use in domestic meat production represent a particular and narrowly defined strategic focus; how those targets have been met through distributed agency in the UK supply chain; and the geographical and biological limitations of the targets in tackling AMR as a wicked problem.

Modern slavery and transparency in supply chains: the role of business

2019 ◽  
pp. 187-218
Author(s):  
Colleen Theron
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Mandatory Reporting ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Voluntary Reporting ◽  
Reporting Requirements ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
The Uk

This chapter explores how business is implicated by modern slavery, and the salient requirements of the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA) transparency in supply chain provision, in the context of growing mandatory reporting requirements for business to report transparently on their supply chain impacts. It also examines how business has responded to the MSA. It concludes with some practical steps that business can take to address the risk of modern slavery in its supply chains. Among these are ensuring that top management is supportive of tackling modern slavery in the organisation and supply chains; understanding how these obligations fit within any wider mandatory or voluntary reporting undertaken by the business; putting policies in place; establishing robust due-diligence processes; mapping the supply and value chain of the business.

scholarly journals Subnational mobility and consumption-based environmental accounting of US corn in animal protein and ethanol supply chains

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (38) ◽  
pp. E7891-E7899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Smith ◽  
Andrew L. Goodkind ◽  
Taegon Kim ◽  
Rylie E. O. Pelton ◽  
Kyo Suh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Food System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Accounting ◽  
Animal Protein ◽  
Corn Production ◽  
Supply Networks

Corn production, and its associated inputs, is a relatively large source of greenhouse gas emissions and uses significant amounts of water and land, thus contributing to climate change, fossil fuel depletion, local air pollutants, and local water scarcity. As large consumers of this corn, corporations in the ethanol and animal protein industries are increasingly assessing and reporting sustainability impacts across their supply chains to identify, prioritize, and communicate sustainability risks and opportunities material to their operations. In doing so, many have discovered that the direct impacts of their owned operations are dwarfed by those upstream in the supply chain, requiring transparency and knowledge about environmental impacts along the supply chains. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) have been used to identify hotspots of environmental impacts at national levels, yet these provide little subnational information necessary for guiding firms’ specific supply networks. In this paper, our Food System Supply-Chain Sustainability (FoodS3) model connects spatial, firm-specific demand of corn purchasers with upstream corn production in the United States through a cost minimization transport model. This provides a means to link county-level corn production in the United States to firm-specific demand locations associated with downstream processing facilities. Our model substantially improves current LCA assessment efforts that are confined to broad national or state level impacts. In drilling down to subnational levels of environmental impacts that occur over heterogeneous areas and aggregating these landscape impacts by specific supply networks, targeted opportunities for improvements to the sustainability performance of supply chains are identified.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and Global Supply Chain Configuration: Economic and Emissions Impacts of Australia-China Trade Disruptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xunpeng Shi ◽  
Tsun Se Cheong ◽  
Michael Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Equilibrium Analysis ◽  
Output Analysis ◽  
Domestic Production ◽  
China Trade ◽  
Gross Domestic Production ◽  
Trade Embargo ◽  
Production Losses

Economic shocks from COVID-19, coupled with ongoing US-China tensions, have raised debates around supply chain (or global value chain) organisation, with China at the centre of the storm. However, quantitative studies that consider the global and economy-wide impacts of rerouting supply chains are limited. This study examines the economic and emissions impacts of reorganising supply chains, using Australia-China trade as an example. It augments the Hypothetical Extraction Method by replacing traditional Input-Output analysis with a Computable General Equilibrium analysis. The estimation results demonstrate that in both exports and imports, a trade embargo between Australia and China – despite being compensated for by alternative supply chains—will cause gross domestic production losses and emissions increases for both countries and the world overall. Moreover, even though all other economies gain from the markets left by China, many of them incur overall gross domestic production losses and emission increases. The finding that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and India may also suffer from an Australia-China trade embargo, despite a gain in trade volume, suggests that no country should add fuel to the fire. The results suggest that countries need to defend a rules-based trading regime and jointly address supply chain challenges.

Supply chain, geographical indicator and blockchain: provenance model for commodity

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohita Gangwar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Value Distribution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
The Right ◽  
Theory Framework

PurposeMany commodity supply chains suffer from an unfair value distribution across the supply chain like “Coffee Paradox.” This study explores the coffee supply chain to determine how the country of origin–geographical indicator can be used as a method of fair distribution of value and provenance across the supply chain effectuated by the blockchain technology. By looking at an exemplar case study for India, this study provides insights into diverse research streams and practice.Design/methodology/approachBased on the case method, analyzing the implementation of blockchain in the coffee industry by a leading Indian software implementation of the logic, dynamics and forces for a provenance model has been devised. It further adopts a stakeholder cum institutional theory framework to understand the logical implementation of a blockchain project embedded in a territorial logic for a commodity supply chain.FindingsThis study specifically looks at coffee which is representative of a commodity supply chain. It also explores how the malaise of unfair value distribution gets addressed by bringing farmers and the consumers on a common platform facilitated by blockchain technology. This study contributes to the literature on blockchain, territory, commodity and supply chain. Using stakeholder cum institutional theory, this study helps to explore how the implementation is successful by different actors in the supply chain through collaboration.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a new stream of multi-disciplinary study at the interface of supply chain, technology, international trade and geography.Practical implicationsBlockchains are embedded in the supply chain, and supply chains are embedded in territories. This linkage is paramount and the ability to make these blockchain projects successful requires the deep study of the interaction of territory, technology and actors from the provenance angle. De-commodification of coffee can be actualized through blockchain.Social implicationsThe coffee paradox and skewed value distribution is also a social problem wherein the farmers do not get the right price of their produce and are exploited. This case also highlights how this social malaise can be addressed and rightful and equitable distribution of value happens across the value chain.Originality/valueThis linkage between territory, blockchain, commodity supply chain and institutions has not been discussed in the literature. Adopting the territorial design approach, this study is an attempt to stimulate inter-disciplinary conversations and thereby create a provenance framework for commodity and research questions for scholars from different disciplines and divergent disciplinary perspectives.

On the Anti-Bribery “Watchlist”: Compliance and Labor/Anti-Trafficking Issues

2019 ◽  
pp. 675-696
Author(s):  
Andrew Boutros
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Child Labor ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Labor Laws ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Federal Contracts ◽  
The Uk

Today’s companies must understand and prevent the myriad problems flowing from labor issues. Increasingly demanding, serious compliance attention and resources are now being focused on the emerging area of human anti-trafficking and forced labor laws and regulations as they relate to business supply chains. These mandates include the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, the Executive Order on Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts, and the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015. By enlisting or conscripting companies into the fight against human trafficking, child labor, and other “forced” or “coerced” labor practices, these laws introduce a wholly new compliance reality requiring accountability and supply chain compliance.

scholarly journals Short Food Supply Chains and Their Contributions to Sustainability: Participants’ Views and Perceptions from 12 European Cases

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Vittersø ◽  
Hanne Torjusen ◽  
Kirsi Laitala ◽  
Barbara Tocco ◽  
Beatrice Biasini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Food Supply Chains ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Views And Perceptions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Short Food Supply Chains

The present food system faces major challenges in terms of sustainable development along social, economic and environmental dimensions. These challenges are often associated with industrialised production processes and longer and less transparent distribution chains. Thus, closer distribution systems through Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) may be considered as a sustainable alternative. This study explores the role of different types of SFSCs and their contribution to sustainability through participants’ (consumers, retailers and producers) views and perceptions. As part of the European H2020 project “Strength2Food” we conducted a cross-case analysis and examined 12 European SFSC cases from six countries: France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland and the UK. We applied a mixed method approach including primary data collection, via in-depth interviews and customer surveys, as well as desk research. The findings suggest that, irrespective of the type of SFSC, a strong agreement among the participants were found on the contribution of SFSCs to social sustainability. However, participants’ views considerably differ regarding the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. These differences relate to the way the SFSCs were organised and to some degrees to regional differences attributed to the significance of SFSC in different parts of Europe. The article concludes that the spatial heterogeneity of SFSCs, including supply chain actor differences, different types and organisational forms of SFSCs as well as regional and territorial characteristics, must be taken into account and further emphasised in future policies aimed at strengthening European food chain sustainability.

Farm business financial performance in local foods value chains

2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Clare Ahearn ◽  
Kathleen Liang ◽  
Stephan Goetz
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Financial Performance ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food System ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Direct Marketing ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Supply

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the factors associated with farm financial success for those farms known to produce for local supply chains. The analysis considers alternative measures of farm financial performance and considers the role of the local foods supply chain in the choice to market locally.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a two-stage Heckman approach which addresses the possibility of sample selection bias. In the first stage, the choice model to engage in direct marketing is estimated. In the second stage, the authors estimate a model of the financial performance of those in the sample that direct marketed which includes an IMR term calculated from the parameters of the first stage equation. The analysis uses national farm-level data from the Agricultural and Resource Management Survey of the US Department of Agriculture and combines data from 2009 to 2012 to overcome the constraint of small samples.FindingsIndicators of the development of a local foods supply were positively related to the choice to engage in direct marketing. Factors affecting farm financial performance varied significantly between a short-term and a long-term measure. The results emphasize the importance of considering multiple outcome measures, developing local supply chains and provide implications about beginning farms.Originality/valueIf a local foods system is going to thrive, the farms that market the agricultural products in the local food system must attain a certain level of profitability. The value of the analysis is an improved understanding of the financial performance of farms producing for a small, but growing segment of the food supply chain.

scholarly journals Broiler Farms and Carcasses Are an Important Reservoir of Multi-Drug Resistant Escherichia coli in Ecuador

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ortega-Paredes ◽  
Sofía de Janon ◽  
Fernando Villavicencio ◽  
Katherine Jaramillo Ruales ◽  
Kenny De La Torre ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Poultry Meat ◽  
Meat Production ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
Food Component ◽  
Production Chain ◽  
Animal Food ◽  
E Coli

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major health threat for public and animal health in the twenty-first century. In Ecuador, antibiotics have been used by the poultry industry for decades resulting in the presence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria in the poultry meat production chain, with the consequent risk for public health. This study evaluated the prevalence of ESBL/AmpC and mcr genes in third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli (3GC-R E. coli) isolated from broiler farms (animal component), broiler carcasses (food component), and human enteritis (human component) in Quito-Ecuador. Samples were collected weekly from November 2017 to November 2018. For the animal, food, and human components, 133, 335, and 302 samples were analyzed, respectively. Profiles of antimicrobial resistance were analyzed by an automated microdilution system. Resistance genes were studied by PCR and Sanger sequencing. From all samples, 122 (91.7%), 258 (77%), and 146 (48.3%) samples were positive for 3GC-R E. coli in the animal, food, and human components, respectively. Most of the isolates (472/526, 89.7%) presented MDR phenotypes. The ESBL blaCTX-M-55, blaCTX-M-3, blaCTX-M-15, blaCTX-M-65, blaCTX-M-27, and blaCTX-M-14 were the most prevalent ESBL genes while blaCMY-2 was the only AmpC detected gene. The mcr-1 gene was found in 20 (16.4%), 26 (10.1%), and 3 (2.1%) of isolates from animal, food, and human components, respectively. The implication of poultry products in the prevalence of ESBL/AmpC and mcr genes in 3GC-R must be considered in the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance.

UK initiatives to reduce antimicrobial resistant infections, 2013-2018

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Antibiotic Use ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the local, national and global actions from the UK to reduce the impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on human health. Design/methodology/approach – Synthesis of UK government policy, surveillance and research on AMR. Findings – Activities that are taking place by the UK government, public health and professional organisations are highlighted. Originality/value – This paper describes the development and areas for action of the UK AMR strategy. It highlights the many interventions that are being delivered to reduce antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistant infections.

Multi- and Extensive-Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in ICUs: Risk Factors, Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and co-harboring of gyrA and parC mutations

2020 ◽  
Vol EJMM29 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-116
Author(s):  
Enas A. Tantawy ◽  
Hanan M. El-Sayed ◽  
Heba M. Matar ◽  
Basma A. El-Azhary
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Acinetobacter Baumannii ◽  
High Resistance ◽  
Respiratory Infections ◽  
Gene Mutations ◽  
Antibiotic Use ◽  
Quinolone Resistance ◽  
Diffusion Method ◽  
Drug Resistant

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii is a gram-negative organism that is implicated in hospital acquired infections. It confers high resistance to many classes of antibiotics. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of multi and extensive drug-resistant (MDR & XDR) Acinetobacter baumannii, their risk factors, antimicrobial resistance patterns and the presence of gyrA and parC gene mutations of quinolone resistance. Methodology: The study included 106 ICU patients (56 males & 50 females), samples were collected according to sites of infections, Acinetobacter baumannii was identified by morphology, biochemical reactions &API 20NE. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by disc diffusion method. The E-test was used to detect MIC of Ciprofloxacin & Levofloxacin, then a polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism was performed to detect the occurence of gyrA and parC gene mutations of Quinolone resistance. Results: Thirty isolates were identified as Acinetobacter baumannii, most of which from respiratory infections (P=0.005) prolonged hospitalization, antibiotic use, urinary catheters & ventilator supports were found to be risk factors of infections. Acinetobacter baumannii isolates showed high resistance to most of the tested antibiotics (29 MDR & 28 XDR). All isolates were resistant to Ciprofloxacin & Levofloxacin with the co-presence of gyrA and parC mutations in all isolates (P<0.001). Conclusions: There is an increased prevalence of MDR & XDR Acinetobacter baumannii among ICU infections. The co-occurrence of gyrA and parC mutations is associated with high resistance to Quinolones.

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