The National Agricultural Directory 2009

Een overzicht van 428 internationale databases en databasesystemen met specifieke gegevens

Big Data technologies have the potential to revolutionize the agriculture sector, in particular food safety and quality practices. This book is designed to provide a foundational understanding of various applications of Big Data in Food Safety. Big Data requires the use of sophisticated approaches for cleaning, processing and extracting useful information to improve decision-making. The contributed volume reviews some of these approaches and algorithms in the context of real-world food safety studies. Food safety and quality related data are being generated in large volumes and from a variety of sources such as farms, processors, retailers, government organizations, and other industries. The editors have included examples of how big data can be used in the fields of bacteriology, virology and mycology to improve food safety. Additional chapters detail how the big data sources are aggregated and used in food safety and quality areas such as food spoilage and quality deterioration along the supply chain, food supply chain traceability, as well as policy and regulations. The volume also contains solutions to address standardization, data interoperability, and other data governance and data related technical challenges. Furthermore, this volume discusses how the application of machine-learning has successfully improved the speed and/or accuracy of many processes in the food supply chain, and also discusses some of the inherent challenges. Included in this volume as well is a practical example of the digital transformation that happened in Dubai, with a particular emphasis on how data is enabling better decision-making in food safety. To complete this volume, researchers discuss how although big data is and will continue to be a major disruptor in the area of food safety, it also raises some important questions with regards to issues such as security/privacy, data control and data governance, all of which must be carefully considered by governments and law makers.

A series of coordinated case studies compares the structure, size, and performance of local food supply chains with those of mainstream supply chains. Interviews and site visits with farms and businesses, supplemented with secondary data, describe how food moves from farms to consumers in 15 food supply chains. Key comparisons between supply chains include the degree of product differentiation, diversification of marketing outlets, and information conveyed to consumers about product origin. The cases highlight differences in prices and the distribution of revenues among supply chain participants, local retention of wages and proprietor income, transportation fuel use, and social capital creation. Charts and tables.