Monika Hartmann - Böcker

Against the background of global market liberalization, increasing consumer awareness and concerns and the spreading of complex technology, new ways to produce, distribute and consume food are evolving. The organization of agricultural production and distribution systems need to adapt, including the development and maintenance of sustainable business relationships between farmers, food processors and grocery retailers. While agricultural value chains have been promoted for decades, more attention is needed on how to enable economic agents to develop lasting relationships and trust within value chains. Using qualitative and quantitative empirical results, Agri-food Chain Relationships offers an insight into the sustainability of current agribusiness relationships and discusses how these may be improved. Theoretical foundations for analysing agri-food chain relations are considered alongside case studies of different countries, food chains and chain stages regarding the issues of sustainable relationships and trust.

This Festschrift in honour of Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. P. Michael Schmitz covers theoretical as well as empirical works on challenges prevailing in the food and agricultural sector. Discussions of conflicts between social and ecological requests of citizens and market outcomes are provided. The contributors discuss options of policy interventions as well as their limitations. Empirical facts that can contribute to a more evidence based policy formation are also presented. The book itself consists of two parts: «agri-food markets and policies» and «agriculture, trade and development». Topics covered are moral, markets and policies, farm animal welfare, fat taxes, agricultural derivatives markets, future food value chains, free trade agreements, food security, food waste and climate change.