SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Poignee, Oliver K.; Jahn, Volker; Hannus, Thomas; Schiefer, Gerhard.

This paper discusses an organisational framework for Tracking & Tracing and quality management in the agriculture and food network and thus providing increased transparency therein. The legal and market environments that especially European companies of the compound feeds sector face today is being analyzed with respect to resulting recent and present requirements. A technological solution for companies and supply chains that helps dealing with these requirements is presented with an organisational glance inside the QM-G system.

The International Quality Systems Environment

Palavras-chave: Tracking & Tracing; Feed Industry; Inter-Organizational Information System QM-G; Agribusiness; Industrial Organization.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7745

Krieger, Stephanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

Enterprises in the agri-food sector are increasingly confronted with the need to adjust their production processes and operations to the requirements of quality systems and to integrate these requirements into their own individual integrated process management system. Integra- tion efforts are further aggravated by correlations of quality system requirements with other process related requirements. First initiatives have started to benchmark the requirements of different quality systems to have an analyse about the level of the same requirements. Output of this article will be a description of an advisory model (database model with computerized support), which presents a support tool for the implementation of quality, environ- mental and occupational...

Transparency in Food: A Challenge for Research and Sector Initiatives

Palavras-chave: Quality standards; Benchmark; Harmonisation; Advisory model; Agribusiness; International Relations/Trade.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/6616

Collaborative Working Environments in Food Supply Networks

Schiefer, Gerhard.

Transparency in the Food Sector and especially towards consumers is an issue which receives increasingly attention in public and research. There is widespread agreement that the present state of transparency is not sufficient and needs engagement by research and the sector to move forward. A Strategic Research Agenda on Transparency (SRA) identifies opportunities and challenges for research to contribute to improvements in transparency supporting consumers’ trust in food and the society’s interest in food that is safe and considers the evolving environmental and social concerns

Tipo: Article

Palavras-chave: Transparency; Food chains; Research; Agribusiness; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121851

Pankiewicz, Maciek; Schiefer, Gerhard; Fritz, Melanie.

This paper will discuss the ongoing research in area of conceptualization, design of collaborative working environments and its adoption for food supply networks. There will be a group needs approach for designing such environments presented. Tracking and tracing, agreements on quality policy, improvements in logistics, dissemination of innovations, cooperation in quality planning and market orientation, access to knowledge bases, etc. are all examples which build on an increased horizontal or vertical integration in information and communication activities. For these purposes adoption of collaborative working environments may be of a crucial importance for food supply networks.

Customer Communication of Regional Quality Efforts: A Case From the Grain Sector

Palavras-chave: Collaborative working environment; E-community; E-collaboration.; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Farm Management; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Risk and Uncertainty.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/59185

Meyer, Christian H.; Fritz, Melanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

Usually, marketing communication efforts in the agrifood sector address the end consumers and concentrate on products that are processed and ready for consumption, thus quality efforts often concentrate on the final product. Moreover, there’s a widespread view that agricultural commodities like wheat aren’t suitable neither for product focused marketing nor branding. However, recent developments in the in agrifood sector challenge this view. The increasing use of biotechnology, the globalisation of markets and changing consumer demands for quality, food safety and process attributes require improved communication concepts and information sharing along whole production chains. This paper considers the development of a quality communication system to support...

Editorial: Food System Dynamics

Palavras-chave: Prototyping; Quality communication system; Region of origin; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Farm Management; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Production Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/100595

A multi-level cost benefit approach for regulatory decision support in food safety and quality assurance scenarios

The food system involves all actors, activities, resources, and environments that produce and provide food to people wherever they are. It serves basic human needs and is as such of core relevance for human survival. It is global in production, consumption, and environmental impacts. But it is also deeply rooted in the social, cultural, natural, political, and legal environments of society. It needs to serve a diversity of consumer needs and lifestyles and has to cope with an organizational complexity where, a.o. small scale farms or enterprises interact with globally active industry or retail groups and where rural sites of production are remote from the urban and ever growing centers of consumption.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Editorial; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91145

In complex policy decision situations where policy objectives can only be reached through appropriate activities of individual actors with own decision authority and individual objectives, the classical approaches for measuring the effects of regulatory initiatives through cost-benefit or related types of analysis do not provide the appropriate information for decision support. This paper discusses a framework for a multi-level analysis approach that could provide decision support in multi-level policy decision situations.

Electronic Collaboration Platforms for Communities

Palavras-chave: Cost-benefit analysis; Multi-level analysis; Policy decision support; Impact assessment; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/44274

Pankiewicz, Maciek; Fritz, Melanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

One of the critical success factors for the future development of the agri-food sector is the increased integration of enterprises and other stakeholders in horizontal and vertical ‘communities’. Tracking and tracing, agreements on quality policy, improvements in logistics, dissemination of innovations, cooperation in quality planning and market orientation, access to knowledge bases, etc. are all examples which build on an increased horizontal or vertical integration in information and communication activities. The paper will discuss ongoing research on the conceptualization, design and testing of online communities that provide the functionalities that might improve cooperation in the different (horizontal and vertical) dimensions. It builds on...

Conceptual framework for the design and conception of an electronic trade platform in agribusiness

Palavras-chave: E-community; Collaborative working environment.; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Farm Management; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Industrial Organization; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49885

Hausen, Tobias; Helbig, Ralf; Schiefer, Gerhard.

This article gives an overview of a conceptual framework for the designing and implementation of an electronic trade platform. The trade platform prototype is the basis of a general conception for the design and implementation of internet-based trade platforms in agribusiness. The main platform focus related to the concept are to convert traditional business relationships and transactions into an electronic system. The conceptual framework provides clarification with regard to the benefit of trade platforms and the individual requirements of different value chains and chain levels.

From Enterprise Activity Quality Management to Sector Initiative Quality Assurance: Development, Situation and Perspectives

Palavras-chave: Trade platform; Interorganisational relationship; E-business; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24926

Information Reference Models for European Pork Supply Networks

Schiefer, Gerhard.

In the agri-food sector, quality and food safety concerns receive increased attention and have been the focus of initiatives on various levels of activity, reaching from enterprises to the sector as a whole on regional, national and international levels. The initiatives have to integrate the business management approach of 'quality management' (QM) with the interests of society and consumers in food safety and trustworthy safety guarantees. This paper builds on enterprise level quality management concepts, integrates food safety concerns and develops a framework for a sector-encompassing system for quality and food safety assurance. It relates the framework to present sector initiatives and develops recommendations for the design and implementation of a...

Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper

Palavras-chave: Food safety; Quality management; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/15707

Lehmann, Richard J.; Fritz, Melanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

Several global developments such as diminishing production resources, limits in the availability of water and the growing demand for bio-energy as well as sector-wide crises (e.g. BSE, swine fever, dioxin) have led to a changing attitude of society towards the conse-quences of the food system‘s activities for social, economic and environmental issues, cap-tured in the term of sustainability. As a consequence, consumers show increasing interest in the characteristics of food, and in turn, on the availability of related information and guaran-tees. The paper introduces different information reference models for European pork supply networks, which give an aggregated overview about information availability and exchange in the pork sector, identify additional...

Tipo: Presentation

Palavras-chave: Information Modelling; Reference Modelling; Food Safety; Quality; Global Warm-ing Potential; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/122014

Quality Systems in the Agri-Food Industry - Implementation, Cost, Benefit and Strategies

Krieger, Stephanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

The management of supply chains of the agri-food sector has become a very complex structure. Product variety has decreased, changes in legislatives and quality management requirements have a high influence, international trade is much higher, consumer demands about product freshness and food quality is fluctuate and processors and retailers ask for the implementation of quality systems. This has resulted in individual changes in the process and organisation level of the enterprises and in order to keep the costs minimal. The focus of this paper will be a cost-benefit analysis for the implementation of quality management/assurance systems. Only a few studies with the focus on HACCP and food safety exists in the part of costs and benefits of quality systems...

Data Availability for Carbon Calculators in Measuring GHG Emissions Produced by the Food Sector

Palavras-chave: Agriculture in International Trade; Food policy; Accounting and Auditing; Analysis of Collective Decision-Making; Business Economics; Industrial Organization.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25795

Amani, Pegah; Schiefer, Gerhard.

The continuing increase in burning fossil fuels over recent decades along with the changing land use have resulted in a considerable increase in the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) which can potentially lead to climate change. Adaptation processes will become necessary in order to cope with these challenges in the future. Despite individuals’ and institutions’ willingness to reduce the amount of GHG emissions caused by their actions or their “carbon footprints”, they may lack the knowledge to make effective choices. Carbon calculators have been developed to address these knowledge gaps by measuring and communicating the overall magnitude of the impacts and also the extent to which different behavior patterns contribute to GHG emissions. LCA databases, as...

Tipo: Article

Palavras-chave: GHG emission; Carbon calculator; LCA databases; Food chain; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Productivity Analysis; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121956

Trust and Electronic Commerce in the Agrifood Sector. A Trust Model and Experimental Experiences

Fritz, Melanie; Hausen, Tobias; Schiefer, Gerhard; Canavari, Maurizio.

Opportunities coming from electronic commerce provide interesting support options for the Agrifood sector. However, due to the product specific information asymmetry in the agrifood sector, the anonymity of the medium creates a lack of trust increasing transaction costs to engage in e-commerce. This paper develops a trust model for electronic commerce in the agrifood industry allowing for the analysis of trust determinants in traditional agrifood transaction relationships and their transfer to appropriate trust determinants in the e-commerce environment. First experimental results validating the suitability of the model to derive appropriate electronic trust generating elements for a given agrifood transaction environment are presented.

Information Modelling for Quality and Sustainability

Palavras-chave: Transaction costs; Asymmetric and private information; Laboratory experiment; Electronic commerce; Trust; Agribusiness; D23; D82; C91.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24742

Lehmann, Richard J.; Reiche, Robert; Fritz, Melanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

The food sector is confronted with a growing number of public and private requirements, which call for provision of information about the quality and sustainability of food, such as, e.g., its origin, safety and production conditions. This forces enterprises to innovate towards demand driven and knowledge-based production of food. As a consequence, intra- and inter-enterprise production and information processes have to be integrated and suitable information systems need to be developed to provide information for related decision processes. The present paper introduces a generalized modelling framework for model-based decision support systems (DSS) involving production and information processes across whole supply networks. The different phases of a...

Risk Analysis in Selected European and International Food Chains

Palavras-chave: Supply chain management; Model-based decision support systems (DSS); Process integration; Unified Modeling Language (UML); Discrete-event simulation; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Farm Management; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Risk and Uncertainty.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/59197

Ameseder, Christoph; Haas, Rainer; Fritz, Melanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

The purpose of this study is to assess and evaluate the most important risks in selected European and international food chains from the perspective of the buying company. The primary objective is to identify the “non-acceptable” risks in terms of damage potential and likelihood of occurrence of value chains in the sectors grain, meat, fruit and vegetable, and olive oil. Data was collected by each partner of the European research project “e-trust” (FP6-CT-2006-043056) by conducting 81 qualitative expert interviews with business leaders in Europe (Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Spain) as well as in Brazil, Turkey, and the USA. The study focuses on a wider supply chain or network perspective for the risk assessment. Methodically the assessed...

The Challenge of Reaching Transparency: ‘T-readiness’ of Enterprises and Sector Networks

Palavras-chave: Risk; Risk analysis; Supply chain; Food; Risk map; Risk classification; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Farm Management; Food Security and Poverty; Industrial Organization; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Risk and Uncertainty.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/58708

Costs and Benefits of Quality Systems: Case Study

Discussions on the safety and quality of food as well as growing interest in the sustainability of the production, distribution and consumption of food have contributed to the emergence of ‘transparency’ as a critical success factor for the food sector. However, reaching transparency for different stakeholders from different backgrounds and cultural identities is a dynamic process which depends on certain capabilities of enterprises and organizations along the food value chain but also on the realization of a fitting communication scheme within the sector. This discussion asks for the identification and utilization of an indicator that could identify deficiencies and support enterprises and the sector in reaching a level of transparency that could serve...

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Risk and Uncertainty.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/97020

Krieger, Stephanie; Schiefer, Gerhard.

The variety of quality systems is a very important and an actual theme in the agri-food sector. These quality systems are only partly acknowledged by different quality standard organizations, but customers within the supply chain demand them. Enterprises, which supply different customers and export abroad this, face the problem that they have to deal with several standards and implement them within the enterprise as well as take part in several systems audits and certifications. The economic problem consists of determining the most efficient introduction of a quality system or a combination of quality systems in the enterprise. The emphasis of the work lies in the development of a framework for the benchmarking of quality systems at all stages of the...

SUSTAINABILITY IN FOOD NETWORKS

Palavras-chave: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Farm Management; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Industrial Organization.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49879

Sustainability in food networks has become a dominant issue in the development of the food sector in light of the challenging scenarios one might expect in the future. Products, enterprises, chains, consumers, and regions are all affected by this discussion. Environmental, social and economic pressures require the development of strategies on how to best meet the challenges and to move the sector with its global presence and its many SMEs towards a status which is sustainable and robust enough to remain so even if future scenarios might deviate from today’s expectations (dynamic sustainability). The paper outlines a framework for research on sustainability developments, sustainability assessments, consumer communication, and the transition of enterprises...

Developments and Development Directions of Electronic Trade Platforms in US and European Agri-Food Markets: Impact on Sector Organization

Palavras-chave: Sustainability; Food networks; LCA methodology; Agribusiness.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/52648