UNE Business School/AARES New England Branch Seminar, Friday 9 September

The food sector and food chain sustainability has become a buzzword with an extensive policy discussion and action, but limited results.

Professor Gerhard Schiefer’s seminar took a closer examination of the sustainability challenge, considering the available support in moving forward, the barriers that limit broad success, and also individual movements to provide models for a future development path.

The seminar took place as part of University of Bonn’s visit to UNE during their collaboration on 2 year project “Chain Failure and Chain Goods in Sustainable Food Chains” with members of UNE Business School.

A key limitation to success is the lack of coordination and cooperation in the food sector, necessary for joint action within a sector where sustainability depends on joint engagements from farmers to retail and, eventually, households. Prof. Schiefer put together a powerful case for working on the co-operation and co-ordination of People, Technology and Knowledge, leading to a more robust agrifood system.  The audience heard of some interesting similarities around attitudes of young people in future roles in the industry, including the need for the re-invigoration of the ‘image’ of farming and agribusiness. There was also some great discussion around the impact of governance in the sector, particularly noting the differences between Germany and Australia in terms of governing bodies and representation for difference stages of the value chain. We look forward to hearing more news of this collaborations in coming months.

UNE Business School was pleased to host staff, students and community members as well as friends of the Centre for Agribusiness for this seminar on Friday the 9th to hear from Professor Schiefer.

Material from the seminar can be downloaded via the UNE Business School Seminar Series resource page.

Gerhard Schiefer is Professor in Business and Food Chain Management at the International Center for Food Chain and Network Research at University of Bonn, Germany. Professor Shiefer graduated of his MSc in Agricultural Economics and PhD in Economics at University of Hohenheim, Germany. He has professorships in several German universities, including Kiel, Hohenheim, Giessen, and Bonn. He has had prolonged research visits at Stanford University (at Operations Research and Food Research Institute), Harvard Business School, University of Florida, and universities in Sweden, Brazil, and Trinidad. He has various international engagements such as founding president of the European Federation for IT in Agriculture (EFITA); Initiator and coordinator of the International Network for IT in Agriculture (INFITA); co-founder of the joint industry/research European Technology Platform ‘Food for Life’. In addition, he has various university related engagements such as founding director of the International Center for Food Chain and Network Research at University of Bonn; Establishment of the annual conference series ‘International European Forum on system Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks’; Executive editor of “International Food and Agribusiness Management Review” and “International Journal on Food System Dynamics”; and Executive board member IFAMA; His research interests are: Food chain management, organization, networks, information systems, transparency, quality management and digital economy.