Information Reference Models for European Pork Supply Networks – Identifying Gaps in Information Infrastructures –

Abstract

Several global developments such as diminishing production resources, limits in the availability of water and the growing demand for bio-energy as well as sector-wide crises (e.g. BSE, swine fever, dioxin) have led to a changing attitude of society towards the conse-quences of the food system‘s activities for social, economic and environmental issues, cap-tured in the term of sustainability. As a consequence, consumers show increasing interest in the characteristics of food, and in turn, on the availability of related information and guaran-tees. The paper introduces different information reference models for European pork supply networks, which give an aggregated overview about information availability and exchange in the pork sector, identify additional information demands of decision makers at different stages of pork production, and identify gaps in the existing information infrastructure. The models support different parties involved in pork production, such as enterprises, system developers and consultants, in developing enterprise or network specific solutions.