FOOD CHAIN SECURITY

Food Chain Security



Food Chain Security

Introduction

Local food has emerged as a leading trend in the United States food economy. The food producer-consumer relationship has become increasingly intimate through improved access to farmers markets; community supported agriculture farms, and locally sourced products in traditional retail outlets. The researcher Hinrichs states, direct agricultural markets promise a human connection at the place where production and consumption of food converge. This human connection differentiates locally produced products from those supplied through more traditional means. The increased presence of local products is a direct response to consumer demand. Institutional markets are noted in literature as potentially new and viable markets for small and mid-scale food producers, but to reach those markets people supplying local food must scale up operations. While demand for local food is unambiguous, the definition of local is highly variable; and methods for scaling up access and supply so that local food can move into larger institutional markets are contested. In the food activist realm there are those who oppose scaling up and even utilizing corporations to reach a broader audience. There is concern that scaling up could pose risks to values and attributes associated with the local food movement. However, others believe that reaching a broader market is important and it will require accessibility of local food on a larger scale. As the experiences with organic and fair-trade products illustrate, this expansion often necessitates working through traditional food supply chains. This presents challenges as small and mid-scale food producers are often more accustomed to working through direct markets. Also, as local producers do access these larger markets it can be difficult to preserve the identity and attributes of local food as it moves through a longer supply chain. Therefore, all the issues related to Food Chain Security will be discussed in detail.

Risk Analysis

Demand for locally grown, raised, and processed food has exploded in recent years despite the ambiguity of its definition. A survey by Wilkins (1996) determined that political boundaries (counties, states, regions) are often used to determine whether or not a food is considered local. In a later study, Wilkins (2002) found that the definition of local food focused on distance and physical accessibility, in addition to specialty or uniqueness of products. Similarly, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that there is no agreed upon definition, but that geographic proximity commonly plays a central role. In addition, the concept of local has been associated with certain agricultural production practices, characteristics of the grower and the farm, or even characteristics of the supply chain. Recently, the term regional has been used more frequently in agrifood literature and among advocates; although it's perceived definitional boundaries have yet to be assessed. Regional foods are less vague in the sense that they describe products from a specific region, and the distance associated with this terminology is typically larger than what is thought of for local foods. Whether local or regional, definitions are multidimensional and sometimes contradicting (Atkins, 2001, ...