scholarly journals An agent based model representation to assess resilience and efficiency of food supply chains

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0242323
Author(s):  
George Van Voorn ◽  
Geerten Hengeveld ◽  
Jan Verhagen
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Food And Nutrition Security ◽  
Food Supply Chains ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Food Requirement ◽  
Different Types

Trying to meet the Sustainable Development Goals is challenging. Food supply chains may have to become more efficient to meet the increasing food requirement of 10 Billion people by 2050. At the same time, food and nutrition security are at risk from increasingly likely shocks like extreme climate events, market shocks, pandemics, changing consumer preferences, and price volatility. Here we consider some possibilities and limitations regarding the improvement of resilience (the capacity to deal with shocks) and efficiency (here interpreted as the share of produced food delivered to consumers) of food supply chains. We employ an Agent Based Model of a generic food chain network consisting of stylized individuals representing producers, traders, and consumers. We do this: 1/ to describe the dynamically changing disaggregated flows of crop items between these agents, and 2/ to be able to explicitly consider agent behaviour. The agents have implicit personal objectives for trading. We quantify resilience and efficiency by linking these to the fraction of fulfilment of the overall explicit objective to have all consumers meet their food requirement. We consider different types of network structures in combination with different agent interaction types under different types of stylized shocks. We find that generally the network structures with higher efficiency are also more sensitive to shocks, while less efficient network types display more resilience. At first glance these results seem to confirm the existence of a system-level trade-off between resilience and efficiency similar to what is reported in business management and ecology literature. However, the results are modified by the trading interactions and the type of shock. In our simulations resilience and efficiency are affected by ‘soft’ boundaries caused by the preference and trust of agents (i.e., social aspects) in trading. The ability of agents to switch between trading partners represents an important aspect of resilience, namely a capacity to reorganize. These insights may be relevant when considering the reorganization of real-life food chains to increase their resilience to meet future food and nutrition security goals.

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.

Entrepreneurial behaviour in agri-food supply chains: the role of supply chain partners

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Brent Ross
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Entrepreneurial Firms ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Food Supply Chains ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Technological innovation, globalization and market segmentation have led to increasingly complex agri-food supply chains and networks. At the same time, they have also created opportunities for entrepreneurial firms to create new wealth. The objective of this study is to investigate the differences in entrepreneurial performance between firms that discover and exploit new wealth creation opportunities within existing supply chains as opposed to those that decide to establish the supply chain themselves. Using agent-based simulation, this study finds that agents that link with existing supply chains outperform those that do not both in terms of survival and wealth creation per firm. It also finds, however, that the presence of existing supply chains has positive effects for non-linked entrepreneurial firms as well.

scholarly journals Food and nutrition security under global trade: a relation-driven agent-based global trade model

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 201587
Author(s):  
Jiaqi Ge ◽  
J. Gareth Polhill ◽  
Jennie I. Macdiarmid ◽  
Nuala Fitton ◽  
Pete Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Food And Nutrition Security ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Trade Model ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Macro And Micronutrients ◽  
The Impact

This paper addresses the highly relevant and timely issues of global trade and food security by developing an empirically grounded, relation-driven agent-based global trade model. Contrary to most price-driven trade models in the literature, the relation-driven agent-based global trade model focuses on the role of relational factors such as trust, familiarity, trade history and conflicts in countries' trade behaviour. Moreover, the global trade model is linked to a comprehensive nutrition formula to investigate the impact of trade on food and nutrition security, including macro and micronutrients. Preliminary results show that global trade improves the food and nutrition security of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Trade also promotes a healthier and more balanced diet, as countries have access to an increased variety of food. The effect of trade in enhancing nutrition security, with an adequate supply of macro and micronutrients, is universal across nutrients and countries. As researchers call for a holistic and multifactorial approach to food security and climate change (Hammond and Dubé 2012 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109 , 12 356–12 363. ( doi:10.1073/pnas.0913003109 )), the paper is one of the first to develop an integrated framework that consists of socio-economic, geopolitical, nutrition, environmental and agri-food systems to tackle these global challenges. Given the ongoing events of Brexit, the US–China trade war and the global COVID-19 pandemic, the paper will provide valuable insights on the role of trade in improving the food and nutrition security across countries.

scholarly journals Food waste reduction in supply chains through innovations: a review

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lusine Aramyan ◽  
Matthew Grainger ◽  
Katja Logatcheva ◽  
Simone Piras ◽  
Marco Setti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Waste ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Retail Sector ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Food Supply Chains ◽  
Different Types

Purpose Agri-food supply chains are facing a number of challenges, which cause inefficiencies resulting in the waste of natural and economic resources, and in negative environmental and social impacts. Food waste (FW) is a result of such inefficiencies and supply chain actors search for economically viable innovations to prevent and reduce it. This study aims to analyse the drivers and the barriers that affect the decision of supply chain operators to adopt innovations (technological – TI, organisational – OI and marketing – MI) to reduce FW. Design/methodology/approach The analysis was carried out using a four-step approach that included: a literature review to identify factors affecting the decision to adopt innovations; analysis of FW drivers and reduction possibilities along agri-food supply chains through innovations; mapping the results of Steps 1 and 2 and deriving conclusions regarding the factors affecting the adoption of innovations to reduce and prevent FW. Findings Results show that different types of innovations have a high potential in reducing and preventing FW along the supply chain; however, they still must be economically feasible to be adopted by decision makers in the food supply chain. TI, OI and MI are often interrelated and can trigger each other. When it comes to a combination of different types of innovation to reduce and prevent FW, a good example of combining TI, OI and MI may be observed in the retail sector in Europe. Here, innovative smartphone apps (TI) to promote the sale of products nearing their expiration dates (OI in terms of organising the sales differently and MI in terms of marketing it differently) were developed and adopted via different retailing channels, leading to the creation of a new business model. Practical implications This study analyses the drivers of FW generation together with the factors affecting the decision to adopt innovations to reduce it and provides solutions to supply chain operators to prevent and reduce FW through different types of innovations. Originality/value Literature has not systematically addressed innovations aiming at the reduction of FW yet. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the determinants of innovation adoption and offers a novel view on the problem of FW reduction by means of innovation, by linking factors affecting the decision to innovate with FW drivers.

scholarly journals Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) as Local and Sustainable Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Jarzębowski ◽  
Michael Bourlakis ◽  
Agnieszka Bezat-Jarzębowska
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Food Supply Chains ◽  
Sustainable Systems ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Barriers To Growth ◽  
Short Food Supply Chains

We distinguish different types of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC); nevertheless, their common main characteristic relate to reduced numbers of intermediaries between farmers/food producers and consumers. The aim of the paper is to present the SFSCs as local and sustainable food systems with their possible development. The SFSC idea follows the concept of sustainability, which is based on three pillars: environmental, social, and economic. In the paper, the authors also highlight other barriers to growth, and challenges faced by local food systems.

Policy atlas on food and nutrition security: Kenya

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Marivoet ◽  
John M. Ulimwengu ◽  
Leysa Maty Sall
Keyword(s):  
Food And Nutrition Security ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Food And Nutrition

Local Dairy Supply Chains: A Profitability Analysis in Haryana

2020 ◽  
pp. 508-511
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Dairy Products ◽  
Food System ◽  
Economic Viability ◽  
Milk Supply ◽  
Food Supply Chains ◽  
Financial Position ◽  
Profitability Analysis ◽  
Dairy Processing

The shorter food supply chains were the emerging trend in the agro-food system. The characteristic of local food supply chains are regional, freshness, quality products, and health benefits to the consumers. The present study explores the existing local dairy supply chains in the Haryana state. The local dairy supply chains were analysed and found that the shorter milk supply chains were more profitable with reduced intermediaries and higher producer shares in consumer rupees for all dairy products. The supply chains which involved intermediaries had lesser cost per unit of operation in dairy processing but fetched lower prices due to the quality issues and more distance travelled by dairy products. The economic viability and financial position of the processing units exhibited favourable results for both supply chains but it was higher for Supply Chain-I.

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