Food System Dynamics (E-Journals)
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A CommonKADS Model Framework for Web Based Agricultural Decision Support System
Get PDFIncreased demand of farm products and depletion of natural resources compel the agriculture community to increase the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in various farming processes. Agricultural Decision Support Systems (DSS) proved useful in this regard. The majority of available Agricultural DSSs are either crop or task specific. Less emphasis has been placed on the development of comprehensive DSS, which are non-specific regarding crops or farming processes. The crop or task specific DSSs are mainly developed with rule based or knowledge transfer based approaches. The DSSs based on these methodologies lack the ability for scaling up and generalization. The Knowledge engineering modeling approach is more suitable for the development of large and generalized DSS. Unfortunately the model based knowledge engineering approach is not much exploited for the development of Agricultural DSS. CommonKADS is one of the popular modeling frameworks used for the development of Knowledge Based System (KBS). The paper presents the organization, agent, task, communication, knowledge and design models based on the CommonKADS approach for the development of scalable Agricultural DSS. A specific web based DSS application is used for demonstrating the multi agent CommonKADS modeling approach. The system offers decision support for irrigation scheduling and weather based disease forecasting for the popular crops of India. The proposed framework along with the required expert knowledge, provides a platform on which the larger DSS can be built for any crop at a given location
Urban Gardening Realities: The Example Case Study of Portsmouth, England
Get PDFThis paper offers an empirical case study of the potential for urban gardening to contribute to individual food security. Food security generally encompasses both availability and accessibility. In Western Europe, availability per se has declined in importance with the development of national and international transportation networks. During the past decade, urban gardening has gained political currency as a strategy to provide greater food security at the local level. However, prevailing economic and social structures hamper the likelihood that urban gardening might offer much greater food security. Realistically, contemporary urban gardening most closely resembles a middle-class pursuit for personal enjoyment
Analyzing Food Supply and Distribution Systems using complex systems methodologies
Get PDFThis paper discusses how a complex-systems perspective can shed light on the analysis of complex food-systems meeting urban food needs. The common features between complex systems and Food Supply and Distribution Systems (FSDS) are explored. A brief review of the major approaches - agent-based models (ABM), social network analysis (SNA), and system dynamics (SD) - is developed in order to make an assessment on the analysis performance of different complex system methodologies while dealing with FSDS. After sifting out the most suitable methodology for the study of FSDS, a system archetype analysis of the FSDS dynamics is elicited from the methodological guide of FAO, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. To finalize, three basic points for the analysis of FSDS obtained from the current research are explained. This content is part of the content leading the SD updates to FAO’s FSDS methodological guide
Sustainability of food chains - meeting the challenges of the future
Get PDFSustainability 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
Impediments to wheat export from Ukraine
Get PDFAccording to prospects of international organisations like OECD and FAO, Ukraine will be one of the important suppliers of agricultural products on the world market in the coming decade. Thus, Ukrainian agricultural production and exports are important elements in sustaining global food security. However, the country threatens global food security as well as its own agricultural development when applying grain export restrictions, as happened several times in recent years. Therefore, any impediments to grain trade in the country should be carefully inspected.In this paper we analyse recent developments of Ukrainian agricultural policy influencing grain trade. We show that any export restriction brings large welfare losses compared to a free trade situation. We support our claim by a comparative analysis of the different export policies applied by the Ukrainian government on the domestic wheat market between 2006 and 2014. Additionally, we suggest and discuss alternative policy responses to realise the policy goal of domestic food security. As the policies applied, export tax, export quota and tax reimbursement, cannot be compared directly we quantify the tax equivalent of each trade policy measure. Under a set of specific assumptions the tax equivalent can be used to compare the effects of policies theoretically and empirically.Our findings go along with theory and show that export quotas in 2006 and in 2010 had a more restrictive effect on export than export taxes in 2011. Effects of non-reimbursement of VAT are very close to the effects of export tax in 2011 (at the level of 9%), mainly because most of the time these two measures were implemented simultaneously. We also calculated tariff equivalent of VAT non-reimbursement excluding the period of export taxes. Based on these results, the measure corresponds to a slight decline of the tariff equivalent in absolute terms.As an alternative policy option for the Ukrainian government to respond more efficiently to increasing world market prices in the future it is advised to use consumer-oriented measures for the most vulnerable groups of people instead of distorting market mechanisms
Sustainable Consumption and the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap Phenomenon - Causes and Measurements towards a Sustainable Development
Get PDFSustainable development needs sustainable production and sustainable consumption. During the last decades the encouragement of sustainable production has been the focus of research and policy makers under the implicit assumption that the observable increasing ‘green’ values of consumers would also entail a growing sustainable consumption. However, it has been found that the actual purchasing behaviour often deviates from ‘green’ attitudes. This phenomenon is called the attitude-behaviour gap. It is influenced by individual, social and situational factors. The main purchasing barriers for sustainable (organic) food are price, lack of immediate availability, sensory criteria, lack or overload of information as well as the low-involvement feature of food products in conjunction with well-established consumption routines, lack of transparency and trust towards labels and certifications. The last three barriers are mainly of a psychological nature. Especially the low-involvement feature of food products due to daily purchase routines and relatively low prices tends to result in fast, automatic and subconscious decisions based on a so-called human mental system 1, derived from Daniel Kahneman’s2model in behavioural psychology. In contrast, the human mental system 2 is especially important for the transformations of individual behaviour towards a more sustainable consumption. Decisions based on the human mental system 2 are slow, logical, rational, conscious and arduous. This so-called dual action model also influences the reliability of responses in consumer surveys. It seems that the consumer behaviour is the most unstable and unpredictable part of the entire supply chain and requires special attention. Concrete measures to influence consumer behaviour towards sustainable consumption are highly complex. This paper presents a review of interdisciplinary research literature on the complexity of sustainable food consumption and an empirical analysis of selected countries worldwide. In a ‘best practice’ case study, it analyses the organic food sector in Denmark, especially in the 80ies and 90ies, where the market share rose to a leading position worldwide. The Danish example demonstrates that common efforts and a shared responsibility of consumers, business, interdisciplinary researchers, mass media and policy are needed. It takes pioneers of change who succeed in assembling a ‘critical mass’ willing to increase its ‘sustainable’ behaviour. Considering the strong psychological barriers of consumers and the continuing low market share of organic food, proactive policy measures would be conducive to foster the personal responsibility of the consumers and offer incentives towards a sustainable production. Also, further self-obligations of companies (Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR) as well as more transparency and simplification of reliable labels and certifications are needed to encourage the process towards a sustainable development
Does everyone reject modern pig production? Identification and characterisation of societal groups in Germany
Get PDFToday’s agriculture and food production has been topic in public discussions and the media in the last years. Societal perceptions and imaginations of agriculture seem to be far away from reality. There is no indication of a declining gap between consumers’ expectations and their perception of animal husbandry. However, precise information about expectations and priorities of the population are unknown. Thus, the paper concentrates on society’s views and opinions. On the example of intensive pig production, the objective of the study is to analyse societal perceptions, expectations and main points of criticism. It also aims on the identification and characterisation of societal groups with almost identical attitudes.By combining exploratory focus groups with a quantitative survey, a mixed method approach is pursued. Focus groups are carried out in September 2012 in three German cities to capture a variety of opinions and concerns among the population. On the basis of findings from focus groups a quantitative survey is carried out in spring 2013 per online survey with approximately 1500 German citizens to quantify qualitative results.The surveys’ findings confirmed many of the critical views gained in the focus groups. On the basis of four extracted attitudinal factors three groups with heterogeneous opinions are differentiated with respect to modern pig production. Besides a very engaged group which is characterised by a strong criticism in general and a strong critical perception of current production systems, also a considerable group accepting modern animal husbandry was identified. The multinomial logit regression finally allows for a characterisation of the identified societal segments by sociodemographic and regional aspects. Additionally, the question of responsibility and the acceptance of consequences of several governmental actions are included in the model. It turns out that gender and agricultural knowledge of the people are significant determinants in explaining cluster membership. Interestingly, opponents more often have a good knowledge of agriculture. These findings imply that negative attitudes cannot be traced back to a missing knowledge
Willingness to pay for P.D.O. certification: an empirical investigation
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer preferences and estimate their willingness to pay (WTP) for P.D.O. (Protected Designation of Origin) certification. The original contribution of this analysis is the evidence provided on regional differences among consumers in their evaluations. We interpret this result as the higher level of information available to consumers that live in the production region of the food product in question, thus giving less value to P.D.O. certification. The product that this study focuses on is Italian P.D.O. Fontina cheese. In order to conduct the study, we collected original data that we analyze through the conjoint analysis technique
A Green Leaf!? Consumers’ Knowledge and Perception of the Mandatory EU Organic Logo
Get PDFWith the introduction of the mandatory EU organic logo for all organic food products in 2010 the European Commission aimed at supporting a sustainable development and the effective functioning of the internal market for organic food. This approach presupposes consumers’ knowledge of the logo and their understanding of its meaning. By means of an online survey with 3000 participants in 6 European countries, knowledge of the logo and attitudes towards organic farming and European labelling as well as organic food purchase behaviour and socio-demographic indicators were elicited. The results indicate that knowledge of the logo is low. Only about 15% of all respondents knew its meaning. A binary logistic regression revealed that knowledge of the logo is higher among consumers who regularly buy organic food, who have good knowledge on the principles of organic farming and who consider freedom of chemical residues, of synthetic additives and organic production as important features of a high quality product. High education has a positive impact on the awareness of the logo, while age has a negative one. Large differences in knowledge exist between countries: the probability to know the EU logo is highest in Estonia and in Poland. Generally, knowledge of the EU organic logo is such low that the achievement of its purpose is doubted. Reasons are supposed to be the limited self-explanatory content of the logo as well as lacking awareness, resp. promotion campaigns
Agri-environmental Policies and their Impacts on the Environment and Different Farm Types in Japan: An Economic-Biophysical Model Approach
Get PDFPromoting environmentally friendly farming products is crucial to meeting consumer demand. Although governments implement policy measures to improve the environmental performance of the agriculture sector, their impacts are difficult to assess. This study analyses the performance of agri-environmental policies in Japan, by using the OECD’s policy impact model and reference level framework. In particular, it identifies the environmental impacts of three simulated agri-environmental policies based on farms’ characteristics. The results suggest that a policy mix of regulation and an incentive payment would reduce environmental impacts, suggesting that targeted approaches could improve the cost-effectiveness of agri-environmental policies