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Transforming our food system is important to achieving global climate neutrality and food security. Germany has set a national target of reaching a 30% share in organic farming to support the goal. When looking at the transformation process from conventional to organic farming, it becomes apparent that measures need to be taken to reach this anticipated goal. A particular emphasis of this work is placed on finding a digital solution and process improvements to ensure longevity and efficiency. Interviews with actors along the farm-to-fork value chain were conducted to identify central barriers and drivers of organic transformation. The results of the interviews show firstly, that three subsystems need to be distinguished when talking about the farm-to-fork value chain: (1) farmers, (2) intermediaries, and (3) the canteen system. Although all three subsystems can be combined to form a coherent value chain, they rarely act and communicate beyond the boundaries of their subsystem. Secondly, we were able to allocate primary barriers and drivers to each of the subsystems, highlighting the need to include all three in the transformation process and aim for a comprehensive digital solution. This work explores the potential of a network-based platform to improve the current practice of rigid and strictly hierarchical value chains. We focus on deriving user requirements from the interviews to describe the necessary functionality of the platform to address the identified barriers and exploit existing drivers.
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.
