The food industry continues to attract considerable interest and attention from various stakeholders - consumers (increasingly concerned about the provenance, safety, nutritional composition and integrity of the food they buy), government (increasingly concerned about the health of the nation and the sustainability of agriculture and the food industry), academics (increasingly challenged by the juxtaposition of food poverty and food surpluses, economic and environmental sustainability, fast food and obesity, local food chains and global supply networks), practitioners (increasingly perplexed by the relentless pursuit of competitive advantage) and civil society (increasingly perplexed by the lack of strategic vision amongst policy-makers and large food corporations, more interested in returns from the ballot box and returns to shareholders than a return to a more holistic approach to sustainable competitive advantage. What makes the food industry so fascinating is the breadth and depth of the issues that it throws up - unequivocally multi-dimensional in nature and increasingly requiring a multi-functional and multi-disciplinary approach to their analysis, explanation and resolution. The series is designed to fill a gaping hole in the literature for a range of titles, from practical textbooks to research-based monographs, appealing to broad target market with a common interest in gaining a better understanding of how food chains function, why they break down and what corrective actions different stakeholders can take in pursuit of diverse objectives.
By Lisa Jack
September 23, 2009
At a time when food producers have to make significant changes to their businesses in order to survive, a review of benchmarking in agriculture and discussion of its future potential is critical. This book meets that need by providing an overview of existing benchmarking practices in agriculture ...
By Estelle Biénabe, Julio Berdegué, John Belt
November 28, 2011
The rapid changes taking place in the structure and governance of national and regional agri-food markets in developing countries seriously affect the ability of agriculture, especially small-scale agriculture, to contribute to economic growth and sustainable development. Reconnecting Markets is ...
Edited
By Bill Vorley, Andrew Fearne, Derek Ray
April 28, 2007
The internationalisation of food retailing and manufacturing that has swept through the agri-food system in industrialised countries is now moving into middle- and low-income countries with large rural populations, causing significant institutional changes that affect small producer agriculture and...