A Local Gap in Sustainable Food Procurement: Organic Vegetables in Berlin’s School Meals
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Chair of Economics of Horticulture and Landscaping, School of Management and School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Alte Akademie 16, 85354 Freising, Germany
2
Unit of Policy and Markets in the Agri-Food-Sector, University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde, Schicklerstr. 5, 16225 Eberswalde, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2018, 10(11), 4245; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114245
Received: 21 October 2018 / Revised: 11 November 2018 / Accepted: 15 November 2018 / Published: 17 November 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Procurement for Sustainability)
Organic and local food plays an important role in the discussion of sustainable public procurement for school catering services. The present study investigates the value chain supplying school catering with organic produce, using the organic vegetable industry in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in Germany as an example. The qualitative case study employs a structuration theory approach to explore value chain actors’ perspectives and their practices. Data is collected by conducting 14 in-depth interviews with actors on different supply chain levels (farming, wholesale, and catering) and analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis. The results suggest that, while organic food is generally important in school catering in Berlin, locally produced organic vegetables play only a minor role. A constraining factor is the lack of incentives for the use of locally produced organic food in the procurement guidelines, combined with a very limited budget for sourcing. Also, there are no preprocessing facilities in the region, while work organization in school catering services depends heavily on preprocessed food. From a farmers’ perspective, focusing on process grade vegetables is rarely a common marketing strategy.
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Keywords:
sustainable public procurement; school catering services; agri-food value chains; structuration theory
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MDPI and ACS Style
Braun, C.L.; Rombach, M.; Häring, A.M.; Bitsch, V. A Local Gap in Sustainable Food Procurement: Organic Vegetables in Berlin’s School Meals. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4245.
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