SUS-CHAIN

Expected achievements

The following achievements are expected:

• A macro-level description and analysis of the experiences in different parts of Europe in building sustainability into food supply chains, taking account of the structural features of the food system, the initiatives to increase sustainability/trust, and the importance/durability of such initiatives in different parts of Europe;
• An analysis of the different ways in which sustainability is conceptualised in relation to the key consumer concerns of health, food safety, ethics and environmental quality, putting these concerns within the wider context of rural development;
• An analysis of a number of diverse case studies of sustainable food chains in each country to reveal the different ways in which bottlenecks have been overcome;
• A development of a set of indicators which allows assessment of the performance of food supply chains in terms of their ability to encourage technical change along the food chain, to restore consumer confidence, to incorporate societal demands and to increase integration along the food chain in relation to sustainability;
• The recommendation of a set of best practice guidelines to actors involved in the development of sustainable food chain initiatives, including consideration of specifications, ways of reducing transaction costs, and enhancement of consumer confidence and co-ordination of the different actors; and
• A recommendation to a range of public institutions about the ways in which sustainable food chains can be most successfully promoted at different scales and levels.