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This paper builds on a review of literature and EU policies for rural development, innovation, entrepreneurship and the bio‐based economy. It provides a basis for conceptualizing modern rural economies dealing with food, biobased value chains, and valorization of ecosystem services regarding future conditions for rural entrepreneurship (including agriculture), remote areas (including those in coastal areas), and urban‐rural integration. It will outline emerging opportunities to promote diversification, shared values, innovation, and resource conservation, and to reach a common understanding of the solutions to set up a “Modern Rural Economy” in different conditions. In general, there are many opportunities for rural development, many of them linked to emerging technologies which reduce the relevance of distance in marketing, sales and many other activity domains and to business opportunities evolving within the bio‐economy and ecosystem services. However, it becomes obvious that the realization of opportunities needs to build on the simultaneous engagement of various stakeholders in business development, research, and public administration. Successful developments require an integrated development approach which combines opportunities into a comprehensive development program., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 10, No 4 (2019)

Present trends towards urbanization are a challenge to rural development. However new opportunities in food markets, the use of renewable resources and the organization of ecosystem services, due to a.o. emerging developments in technology and logistics, may allow a (partial) reversal of the trend if supported by appropriate initiatives of research, policy and the business community., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 8, No 4 (2017)

Improvements in the food sector imply enhancements of delivering food which is safe, affordable, readily available, and of the quality and diversity consumers expect. However, prevalent information systems (IS) of companies in the food industry are not ready to support further significant improvements. They especially lack the capability to exchange relevant information in an efficient manner. Since recently, two major developments can be observed from IS perspective: the spreading of service-oriented architectures (SOA) as well as an increase in mass serialization (due to public and private traceability requirements, e.g.). So far, though most important due to food safety, a growing need to become more efficient as well as an increasing information demand of consumers, the food sector has attracted little attention in literature concerning an analysis about the potential of both service-orientation and the Electronic Product Code (EPC) Network. This is why this paper will investigate to which extent these two developments can contribute to facilitate food companies’ IS helping them to maintain their competiveness. As a starting point, the research paper will depict the state of the art including SOA and the EPC Network. After describing the research approach, it will proceed with a characterisation of the food sector including an examination why there is need for action. Based on current research findings as well as experience gathered in recent projects, the paper will investigate the application of the EPC Network with its three major components, i. e. EPCIS (EPC Information Services), ONS (Object Name Service) and the EPC Discovery Services, as part of future IS architectures in this sector. The paper will close with a discussion whether the envisioned IS architecture is appropriate to accomplish the previously identified challenges and requirements in the food sector in a more agile, efficient and effective way. What is more, it will highlight the most pressing challenges and provide an outlook as to the following steps of the research., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 4, No 4 (2013): Special issue: Transparency and the Future Internet

Production, processing, distribution, and consumption of a wide variety of products in the food sector have different ranges of environmental impacts. Methodologies used in environmental impact assessment differ in which set of impact categories is covered and which models are used to assess them. In the food sector, life cycle assessment results are mostly presented without any clear distinction of the principles applied to selecting the relevant methodology. In this paper, the most relevant life cycle impact assessment methodologies are determined from the list of recommended methodologies published recently in the international reference life cycle data system (ILCD) handbook. The range of the relevant impacts covered is considered as the main indicator decisive in selecting a methodology. The selection of the relevant set of impact categories is performed through an overview of more than 50 recent LCA case studies of different products in the sector. The result of the research is a short list of three LCIA methodologies recommended to be used for environmental impact assessment of products in the food sector., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 2, No 2 (2011)

Sustainability concerns are receiving increasingly attention by society and in turn, the food sector and consumers as the food sector’s final customers. Investments towards improvements in sustainability along the chain are usually not evenly distributed along the chain which affects the balance in the distribution of costs and returns. Transparency is a means for supporting an appropriate link between costs and returns. Various alternatives are being discussed. The chapter utilizes a case study approach for elaborating on the possibilities of regaining costs through price premiums, the communication of sustainability to consumers and the cooperation through horizontal and vertical networking alternatives that could support developments towards sustainability through gains in efficiency and concerted engagements in dealing with sustainability, costs and returns along the chain., Proceedings in Food System Dynamics, Proceedings in System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks 2015

Sustainability concerns are receiving increasingly attention by society and in turn, the food sector and consumers as the food sector’s final customers. Investments towards improvements in sustainability along the chain are usually not evenly distributed along the chain which affects the balance in the distribution of costs and returns. Transparency is a means for supporting an appropriate link between costs and returns. Various alternatives are being discussed. The chapter utilizes a case study approach for elaborating on the possibilities of regaining costs through price premiums, the communication of sustainability to consumers and the cooperation through horizontal and vertical networking alternatives that could support developments towards sustainability through gains in efficiency and concerted engagements in dealing with sustainability, costs and returns along the chain., Int J Food System Dynamics.Vol 6, No 1 (2015)

Due to raising pressures from civil society, consumers, businesses and public institutions, appropriate methodological, technological and organizational innovations acquired a central role for the establishment of global sustainable food supply chains. This paper presents an-line software able to support the implementation of sustainable policies for two highly traded products between Latina America and Europe that still raise environmental, social and economic concerns, namely soymeal and beef. The E-Platform propose itself as a synthesis of both scientific and management requirements, therefore combining complex analysis methods as life cycle analysis in the back-end and implementation and monitoring modules in the front-end. The system, currently in its test phase in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, has its primary objectives in facilitating the implementation of new sustainable production policies, in opening access to new markets and in complying with stringent requirements minimizing the certification costs and time investments for the actors of the supply chain., Proceedings in Food System Dynamics, Proceedings in System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks 2014

The food sector in Europe can be characterised as a complex, global and dynamically changing network of trade streams, food supply network relations and related product flows and offers a big spectrum for economic output and employment. Innovation is important for the competitivenessof the food industry that is to a large extent comprised by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore innovation has grown extremely subordinate to interaction in networks. Network initiatives that could provide appropriate support involve social interaction and knowledge exchange, learning and competence development, and coordination (organization) and management of implementation. This paper was designed to assess the factors that affect the performance of German food SME formal networks. It also addressed the consequences at the network and macro level. The analysis was explored by using the laddering technique based on means-end chain theory. These findings will help to build up a “network learning toolbox” that is adapted to the particular requirements of the different segments of the target group of SMEs, network managers and policy makers. The “network learning toolbox” should improve the network learning, which drives to raised innovation, economic growth and sustainable competitive advantage for food SMEs., Proceedings in Food System Dynamics, Proceedings in System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks 2014

The use of case studies in dealing with problems of the food sector is gaining increasingly attention in the scientific community. Case-based reasoning supports as a scientific approach the analysis of problems, relationships, behavior, and development directions of the sector and may contribute to understanding the sector’s opportunities and abilities in meeting the challenges of the future. This editorial provides a short introduction into the case study approach and links it to the publications in the special issue which cover case studies from the US, Canada, South America, Europe, and Africa., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 7, No 2 (2016): Special issue: Business case study analysis

One of the core requests in assuring competitiveness and sustainability in the food value chain is transparency. Food is a basic human need and as such of paramount interest to consumers. They expect retail to provide guarantees assuring that food is safe to eat and of the quality they request. Increasingly, interests of consumers reach beyond these basic needs but involve environmental or ethical aspects related to the production and distribution of food. The provision of the guarantees is communicated to consumers through claims that are expressed in messages (‘food is safe’), signals (‘food miles’), labels of various kind, or just clusters of information items (as e.g. ‘origin’). Appropriate communication provides transparency to consumers and allowed them to ‘make informed decisions’ that fit their needs. The complexity of the sector, the absence of focal players in the field, the complexity in the collection, processing and communication of information, and limitations in information and network technology have made it difficult to find concepts and solutions that could solve the transparency problem at consumers’ end. This is where the Future Internet provides opportunities that allowed to meet the challenge and to appropriately address the transparency problem. This paper introduces into the subject through a detailed outline of the transparency complexity of the food sector and the requirements on concepts and systems that could deal with it. This is followed by a presentation and discussion of a suitable concept, building on network elements of the Future Internet. The concept is based on a range of generic functionalities and system components that provide stability but also assure that the concept could easily be adapted to a broad range of sector scenarios in different product lines and food value chain organizations.

Improvements in the food sector imply enhancements of delivering food which is safe, affordable, readily available, and of the quality and diversity consumers expect. However, prevalent information systems (IS) of companies in the food industry are not ready to support further significant improve-ments. They especially lack the capability to exchange relevant information in an efficient manner. Since recently, two major developments can be observed from IS perspective: the spreading of ser-vice-oriented architectures (SOA) as well as an increase in mass serialization (due to public and pri-vate traceability requirements, e.g.). So far, though most important due to food safety, a growing need to become more efficient as well as an increasing information demand of consumers, the food sector has attracted little attention in literature concerning an analysis about the potential of both service-orientation and the Electronic Product Code (EPC) Network. This is why this paper will inves-tigate to which extent these two developments can contribute to facilitate food companies’ IS help-ing them to maintain their competiveness. As a starting point, the research paper will depict the state of the art including SOA and the EPC Net-work. After describing the research approach, it will proceed with a characterisation of the food sec-tor including an examination why there is need for action. Based on current research findings as well as experience gathered in recent projects, the paper will investigate the application of the EPC Net-work with its three major components, i. e. EPCIS (EPC Information Services), ONS (Object Name Service) and the EPC Discovery Services, as part of future IS architectures in this sector. The paper will close with a discussion whether the envisioned IS architecture is appropriate to accomplish the previously identified challenges and requirements in the food sector in a more agile, efficient and effective way. What is more, it will highlight the most pressing challenges and provide an outlook as to the following steps of the research., Proceedings in Food System Dynamics, Proceedings in System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks 2013

The driver for this paper is the need to better understand the potential for learning and innovation that networks can provide especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which comprise by far the majority of enterprises in the food sector. With the challenges the food sector is facing in the near future, learning and innovation or more focused, as it is being discussed in the paper, ‘learning for innovation’ are not just opportunities but pre‐conditions for the sustainability of the sector. Network initiatives that could provide appropriate support involve social interaction and knowledge exchange, learning, competence development, and coordination (organization) and management of implementation. The analysis identifies case studies in any of these orientations which serve different stages of the innovation process: invention and implementation. The variety of network case studies cover networks linked to a focus group for training, research, or consulting, networks dealing with focused market oriented product or process development, promotional networks, and networks for open exchange and social networking.

readily available, and of the quality and diversity consumers expect. However, prevalent information systems (IS) of companies in the food industry are not ready to support further significant improve-ments. They especially lack the capability to exchange relevant information in an efficient manner. Since recently, two major developments can be observed from IS perspective: the spreading of ser-vice-oriented architectures (SOA) as well as an increase in mass serialization (due to public and pri-vate traceability requirements, e.g.). So far, though most important due to food safety, a growing need to become more efficient as well as an increasing information demand of consumers, the food sector has attracted little attention in literature concerning an analysis about the potential of both service-orientation and the Electronic Product Code (EPC) Network. This is why this paper will inves-tigate to which extent these two developments can contribute to facilitate food companies’ IS help-ing them to maintain their competiveness. As a starting point, the research paper will depict the state of the art including SOA and the EPC Net-work. After describing the research approach, it will proceed with a characterisation of the food sec-tor including an examination why there is need for action. Based on current research findings as well as experience gathered in recent projects, the paper will investigate the application of the EPC Net-work with its three major components, i. e. EPCIS (EPC Information Services), ONS (Object Name Service) and the EPC Discovery Services, as part of future IS architectures in this sector. The paper will close with a discussion whether the envisioned IS architecture is appropriate to accomplish the previously identified challenges and requirements in the food sector in a more agile, efficient and effective way. What is more, it will highlight the most pressing challenges and provide an outlook as to the following steps of the research.

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 providers of inventory data for carbon calculators, have an important role in helping to develop more complete and accurate tools to measure and report produced GHG emissions. For emissions-intensive behavior patterns, the food life cycle is a significant contributor to emissions resulting from activities including agriculture, processing, transport, storage, retail, consumption, and waste handling. This research seeks to classify and characterize these calculators and the agricultural activities or practices they cover, to provide the reader with an idea on the differences between these calculators, and why some of them could be more applicable to the food sector. The intent is to bring clarity to the discussion which could be a step forward in paving the way for the development of more reliable and comprehensive carbon calculators for measuring the GHG emissions of the food sector

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 providers of inventory data for carbon calculators, have an important role in helping to develop more complete and accurate tools to measure and report produced GHG emissions. For emissions-intensive behavior patterns, the food life cycle is a significant contributor to emissions resulting from activities including agriculture, processing, transport, storage, retail, consumption, and waste handling. This research seeks to classify and characterize these calculators and the agricultural activities or practices they cover, to provide the reader with an idea on the differences between these calculators, and why some of them could be more applicable to the food sector. The intent is to bring clarity to the discussion which could be a step forward in paving the way for the development of more reliable and comprehensive carbon calculators for measuring the GHG emissions of the food sector, International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 2, No 4 (2011)

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 information demands of decision makers at different stages of pork production, and identify gaps in the existing information infrastructure. The models support different parties involved in pork production, such as enterprises, system developers and consultants, in developing enterprise or network specific solutions.

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 information demands of decision makers at different stages of pork production, and identify gaps in the existing information infrastructure. The models support different parties involved in pork production, such as enterprises, system developers and consultants, in developing enterprise or network specific solutions.

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

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 a regional wheat brand and prerequisites for quality management efforts., Proceedings in Food System Dynamics, Proceedings in System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks 2010

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 specified transparency needs., International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 1, No 3 (2010)

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.

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 decision process are supported by the integration of functional, behavioural and informational network models using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and discrete-event simulation.

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 risks were classified and then evaluated using a risk map matrix. Results point out nonacceptable risks and show the differences concerning the risk evaluation in the different value chains. Results provide interesting supply chain management approaches in these sectors.

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.

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 and chains towards improvements in sustainability.

Poster presented at the 1st Internationl Meat Week - Business meets Science, 17th - 20th of November, Bonn, Germany