5pgs, The Covid-19 pandemic, global trends, and technological advancements lead to the perception that digitalization is about the most sustainable means of growing Africa’s agribusiness and food supply chains. Many global agribusinesses have successfully integrated digital technologies to enhance operational efficiencies and business relations with their upstream and downstream actors. However, evidence is scant on the uptake of digital technologies among small and medium agribusiness firms in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Against this backdrop, this review paper identifies research gaps regarding the adoption and implication of digitalization in building sustainable food systems for African economies. Our preliminary finds show some sustainable practices in the SSA food supply chains by adopting specific technologies related to production, grain storage, food waste management, and warehouse management but very low adoption of food processing technologies and digital marketing platforms. Most importantly, the application of the Internet of Things, Big data, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and/or Business Analytics is very rare. Most of the digitalization process tends to be mobile-based.
19 pages., Authors scanned literature in nine food systems journals to identify and characterize instances of "food waste" and "food loss" mentions. Findings indicated that this topic is growing within food studies but is still a marginal concept. They suggested three potential areas of food systems research to help advance the discourse and progress in reducing food loss and wastage.
Online from publication. 4 pages., Report about a panel presentation at a meeting of the Produce Marketing Association. Panelist moderator reported that food delivery services such as Grubhub, DoorDash and Postmates can charge restaurants 20-35 percent commission per order, in addition to the monthly fee for the service. Customers typically pay a delivery fee, a driver tip, and sales tax. The moderator urged restaurants, "Be smart about where your money is spent, and be firm, and try and make it a good experience for yourself and your customers."
17pgs, There is a lack of data on resources used and food produced at urban farms. This hampers attempts to quantify the environmental impacts of urban agriculture or craft policies for sustainable food production in cities. To address this gap, we used a citizen science approach to collect data from 72 urban agriculture sites, representing three types of spaces (urban farms, collective gardens, individual gardens), in five countries (France, Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, and United States). We answered three key questions about urban agriculture with this unprecedented dataset: (1) What are its land, water, nutrient, and energy demands? (2) How productive is it relative to conventional agriculture and across types of farms? and (3) What are its contributions to local biodiversity? We found that participant farms used dozens of inputs, most of which were organic (e.g., manure for fertilizers). Farms required on average 71.6 L of irrigation water, 5.5 L of compost, and 0.53 m2 of land per kilogram of harvested food. Irrigation was lower in individual gardens and higher in sites using drip irrigation. While extremely variable, yields at well-managed urban farms can exceed those of conventional counterparts. Although farm type did not predict yield, our cluster analysis demonstrated that individually managed leisure gardens had lower yields than other farms and gardens. Farms in our sample contributed significantly to local biodiversity, with an average of 20 different crops per farm not including ornamental plants. Aside from clarifying important trends in resource use at urban farms using a robust and open dataset, this study also raises numerous questions about how crop selection and growing practices influence the environmental impacts of growing food in cities. We conclude with a research agenda to tackle these and other pressing questions on resource use at urban farms.
Online via publisher website., This paper proposes a food safety traceability system based on the blockchain and the EPC Information Services and develops a prototype system.
3pgs, The award recognizes organizations working towards stronger local food systems and more power in the hands of smaller agricultural producers around the globe.
19pgs, Advocates of indoor vertical farming have pitched the enterprise as key to the future of food, an opportunity to use technological innovation to increase local food production, bolster urban sustainability, and create a world in which there is “real food” for everyone. At the same time, critics have raised concerns about the costs, energy usage, social impacts, and overall agricultural viability of these efforts, with some insisting that existing low-tech and community-based solutions of the “good food movement” offer a better path forward. Drawing from a mix of participant observation and other qualitative methods, this article examines the work of Square Roots, a Brooklyn-based indoor vertical farming company cofounded by entrepreneur Kimbal Musk and technology CEO Tobias Peggs. In an effort to create a market for what I refer to as “techno-local food,” Square Roots pitches its products as simultaneously “real” and technologically optimized. As a way to build trust in these novel products and better connect consumers with producers, Square Roots leans on transparency as a publicity tool. The company’s Transparency Timeline, for instance, uses photos and a narrative account of a product’s life-cycle to tell its story “from seed-to-store,” allowing potential customers to “know their farmer.” The information Square Roots shares, however, offers a narrow peek into its operations, limiting the view of operational dynamics that could help determine whether the company is actually living up to its promise. The research provides a clear case study of an organization using transparency–publicity as market strategy, illustrating the positive possibilities that such an approach can bring to consumer engagement, while also demonstrating how the tactic can distract from a company’s stated social responsibility goals.
8 pages., Originally published by Yes! magazine and reproduced by High Country News as part of the SoJo Exchange of COVID-19 stories from the Solutions Journalism Network., Some consumers have turned to community agriculture as the pandemic strains the nation's food system.
Online from publisher. 3 pages., Highlights and cited reactions to a 10-year plan, "New Era for Smarter Food Safety," from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Four key elements: tech-enabled traceability, smarter tools and approaches for prevention and outbreak response, new business models (such as e-commerce) and retail food modernization, and food safety culture.
