Abstract
The agri-food sector plays a pivotal role in sustaining life on our planet by providing essential resources such as food, fiber, and fuel. However, the sector's impacts have extended beyond the production of food, emphasizing the need to incorporate the concept of externalities. These externalities encompass a spectrum of social and environmental impacts, both positive and negative, ranging from soil erosion and pollution to deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional agri-food systems often fail to account for them, which not only affects the industry itself, but also the broader ecosystem.
To tackle these challenges, the agri-food sector must embrace a paradigm shift and transition to more sustainable business models. Agribusiness models represent various approaches, strategies and structures to engage in agricultural activities. These models are designed to generate income, create value, and contribute to the overall productivity of the agri-food sector. This project aims to establish an equilibrium between the true cost of agribusiness models and the creation of additional value.
The path to this equilibrium not only entails acknowledging the costs but also recognizing the untapped potential for value creation in agribusiness models. Therefore, the first step is to develop a methodological framework tailored to agri-food systems that identifies their values and establishes robust evaluation pathways. This framework can then be applied to existing agribusiness models to assess the values associated with them. Another critical aspect is analyzing whether the cost of incorporating these values exceeds their added value. Lastly, the novel agribusiness models will be tested with stakeholders and their upscaling and outscaling possibilities will be investigated. In conclusion, the project aims to cultivate innovative agribusiness models that strike a balance between economic, social, and environmental costs and value.
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