Of COVID-19 and Chickens: The Ethics of One Workplace Safety Policy Early in the Pandemic

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic created considerable challenges for the food supply chain. One of the industries hardest hit was the agricultural and agri-foods industry. This industry has long faced worker shortages and regularly relied on temporary foreign workers. In this case, Roosters, a chicken processing and production company in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, had just come off a very costly 12-day closure following a COVID-19 exposure risk in two of its processing plants. With the company back in operation a new safety policy has been implemented to limit future virus exposure and shutdown risks. The policy, however, targets a small group of temporary foreign workers, one of whom is challenging the lengths the company can go in the name of protecting employees from the virus and the company from losses due to closure. © 2022 Neilson Journals Publishing.

Social media on the route to circular economy transition from a dialogic perspective: evidence from the agri-food industry

Purpose: This paper investigates circular economy communications and stakeholder dialogic engagement with circular economy posts published by European agri-food companies on Twitter from the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the use of social media as a dialogic tool to activate circular economy engagement in order to involve all supply-chain actors on the route to a circular transition. Design/methodology/approach: A coding framework based on the reclassification of the Glossary of Circular Economy, according to a 4-R paradigm (reduce, reuse, recycle and recover), was developed for the analysis. All tweets published by a sample of European agri-food companies, starting from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic until data extraction, were collected, purified and analysed. Findings: Agri-food companies showed a higher level of engagement through social media, even if mainly focused on "recycling” and "general circular economy” issues. In general, awareness among social network users of the need to be part of the circular economy transition emerged. Moreover, the highest percentage of posts published by the companies' Twitter accounts was informative rather than interactive. In addition, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the circular economy has arisen as a central topic of debate and a driver for the rethinking process of the agri-food business community. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this research represents the first study focused on circular economy engagement through social media from the company perspective in the agri-food industry. © 2023, Benedetta Esposito, Daniela Sica, Ornella Malandrino and Stefania Supino.

Technological innovation in agri-food supply chains

PurposeThis study aims to analyse how the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies can help different types of agri-food supply chains introduce and manage innovations in response to the challenges and opportunities that emerged following the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review methodology was used to bring together the most relevant contributions from different disciplines and provide comprehensive results on the use of I4.0 technologies in the agri-food industry.FindingsFour technological clusters are identified, which group together the I4.0 technologies based on the applications in the agri-food industry, the objectives and the advantages provided. In addition, three types of agri-food supply chains have been identified and their configuration and dynamics have been studied. Finally, the I4.0 technologies most suited for each type of supply chain have been identified, and suggestions on how to effectively introduce and manage innovations at different levels of the supply chain are provided.Originality/valueThe study highlights how the effective adoption of I4.0 technologies in the agri-food industry depends on the characteristics of the supply chains. Technologies can be used for different purposes and managers should carefully consider the objectives to be achieved and the synergies between technologies and supply chain dynamics.

Material flow cost accounting (MFCA) to enhance environmental entrepreneurship in the meat sector: Challenges and opportunities.

The material flow cost accounting (MFCA) is one of the most broadly standardized tools accepted in environmental, social and economic research, which traces and quantifies material flows and stock in physical and economic units. Although its application has been recently developed in the field of resource and waste management, few academic articles have investigated its value towards food waste management, which represents a topical concern on a global scale. The present research applies the MFCA to investigate the material, energetic and economic costs associated with the Italian beef, pork and poultry production, exploring related challenges and opportunities towards the enhancement of the environmental entrepreneurship in the meat sector. The present countryside analysis is based on literature and empirical data collected during the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights the need to improve knowledge on food waste issue under the economic perspective and its dual impact: when it is generated, in terms of income losses due to by-products and finished products sales failure, and when it is disposed, in terms of disposal costs sustained by farms, processing plants and distribution and sales centers. It is estimated that more than 0.45-0.50 Mt of fresh meat is wasted along the entire Italian agri-food chain, equal to more than 242-268 million euros, to which additional energy and water losses should be added (435-481 million euros). MFCA results are useful for business decisions, highlighting quantities, qualities and costs otherwise not considered in common financial reports.

Competitive strategies in the agri-food industry in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic: an application of K-means cluster analysis

Purpose: This paper aims at understanding how companies in the agri-food are reconfiguring their competitive strategies to face the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Literature has focused mainly on the effect of the pandemic on the supply chain or in its value chain but little has been said on the competitive strategies adopted to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted on Italian companies operating in the agri-food industry from May to September 2020, following a mixed method approach. First, a focus group with experts in competitive strategy and agri-food industry has been organized to identify the most important challenges that companies are facing. Second, through a structured questionnaire, data from 123 companies operating in the agri-food industry were gathered and analyzed with K-means clustering method. Findings: Four clusters of companies were identified, each implementing different strategies to face the COVID-19 pandemic: “the cost fanatics”, “the brand focused”, “the sales centered” and “the strategists”. Furthermore, it was possible to identify new trends in competitive strategies to increase the added value that the Italian agri-food industry can provide to the customer. Originality/value: The paper answers to the need for an investigation of the competitive strategies that agri-food companies have put in place to face the COVID-19 pandemic;moreover, it provides insights on how companies are adapting themselves to this rapidly changing environment. From a managerial point of view, it gives practitioners and managers useful insights on the different strategies that companies are undertaking to maintain a competitive advantage. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.