A Tale of Two Food Chains: The Duality of Practices on Well‐being

Aleda Roth and Yanchong Zheng

Production and Operations Management, 2021, vol. 30, issue 3, 783-801

Abstract: In this paper, we honor Stanford University Professor Hau Lee, who is a great inspiration and thought leader in the supply chain and operations management (SC&OM) field. Our discussion centers around one of the most challenging SC&OM problems—food production, distribution, and consumption from dirt to table. We advocate and link our notions of emergent regenerative, organic food value chains (ROFVC) with quadruple‐aim performance (QAP) that connects financial outcomes with ecological, human, and socioeconomic well‐being. To do so, we first overview the systemic problems underlying the conventional food supply chains (CFSC) that render them unsustainable in the long run. In contrast, we introduce salient distinctions between CFSC and the new paradigm of ROFVC that uphold QAP. We believe the ideas generated in this paper can move the food systems’ SC&OM design, implementation, and performance measurement from an efficiency‐oriented industrial paradigm of large‐scale, factory farming toward a more encompassing view of eco‐responsible practices. In CFSC, the many hidden costs are cumulative and have broad deleterious consequences; however, in ROFVC, pollution is shunned and “taxed,” and sustainability, as a public good, is rewarded by sequestering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maintaining biodiversity, living soil, as well as clean air and water. We conclude with research, teaching, and policy agendas. We believe that the underlying principles here cut across sectors by fostering the introduction of regenerative business models that take a system's view in capturing QAP in their value chain strategy and execution.

Date: 2021
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