Open Access

Tamara Scheerer, Dieter Hertweck, Tim Hakenberg

• An important aspect of achieving global climate neutrality and food security is transforming our food system. To support the goal, Germany has set a national target of reaching a 30% share in organic farming. When looking at the transformation process from conventional to organic farming, it becomes apparent that measures need to be taken to reach the anticipated goal. Using Design Science Research, we model and analyze the as-is farm-to-fork value chain of public out-of-home-eaten meals to identify the central barriers and drivers of organic transformation. From the insights gained in the modeling process, we derive a digital platform model that addresses the current issues. We propose a digitally supported value network instead of a hierarchical value chain to share the co-design opportunities for different stakeholders more equally. We then elaborate on the potential to overcome the barriers to organic transformation with the network-based platform. To specify the main functionalities of the digital platform architecture, we map user requirements with the proposed to-be value network. The results further emphasize the need for a change in the current value chain perspective. We conclusively propose to further develop existing approaches under consideration of our identified requirements and the overall sustainability goal, rather than focusing solely on individual dimensions or metrics.