RAPID Collaborative: Networks and Spatial Dynamics of the US Food Supply Chain amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

RAPID 协作：COVID-19 大流行期间美国食品供应链的网络和空间动态

• 批准号: 2032312
• 负责人: Jeffrey Johnson
• 金额: $ 5.07万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2032312&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Networks; Spatial; Dynamics

Security and safety in food supply chains is critical to preventing the transmission of COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that the US food-supply system is vulnerable. As the pandemic forced restaurants to close, or dramatically curtail operations, the news reported that farmers were discarding products because the buyers (restaurants) were no longer buying. At the same time consumers are struggling to find products in the supermarkets. Restaurant-supply networks may play a larger role in the resilience and sustainability of the US supply network than people had thought. It is clear now that these food distribution networks likely have evolved independently to maximize efficiency, not resiliency to risks such as pandemics. Recognizing this problem, and the potential impact on the economy, jobs, and national security, the US government has invested billions of dollars to buy and redistribute food that farmers were discarding. This research will pinpoint weak links in the food-supply network during the COVID-19 pandemic by rapidly assessing disruptions in restaurant-supply network, which include restaurateurs, distributors, and producers. The team’s novel spatial, ethnographic, networks (SENs) approach will also advance supply chain management theory by quantifying difficult-to-reach components within supply chains. The goal is to provide actionable strategies that can identify how people can adapt and help create a more resilient and sustainable US Food System amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and avoid these disruptions in future unanticipated events. Finally, the project’s novel SENs approach will train students in research methods that can be rapidly applied to tackle unexpected changes in our global food system. Supply-chain scholars are calling for new theoretical developments that account for the complexities and dynamics, and provides visibility to hidden components in supply networks. This project will bridge the gap in knowledge through spatial, ethnographically-derived, networks (SENs). A multi-phase comparative research design is employed that allows the ability to maximize the comparison potential of the analysis along key dimensions: the onset and intensity of COVID-19 and the influence of regional supply distribution over time. The overall goal is to understand what are the structural and spatial characteristics of actors’ (restaurateurs’, distributors’, and farmers’) supply networks that lead to various outcomes (e.g., new business opportunities, more sustainable practices, staying in business, or closing shop). Key informant interviews will be used to design structured interviews that will be conducted at two points in time. A number of measures will be derived from these survey spatially-explicit food supply networks for key informants, including a Sourcing Diversity Index that characterizes distributor typologies, geography, and ego network measures. By capturing these disruptions at the onset, and throughout the pandemic, this project will be able to identify key areas of the food-supply network that are vulnerable, not only for this pandemic, but other global disruptions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

食品供应链的安全对于防止 COVID-19 的传播至关重要。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，由于大流行迫使餐馆关闭或大幅减少，美国的食品供应系统显然很脆弱。据报道，农民正在丢弃产品，因为买家（餐馆）不再购买，同时消费者正在努力在超市中寻找产品，餐馆供应网络可能在恢复力和可持续性方面发挥着更大的作用。美国的供应网络比现在很明显，这些食品分配网络可能是为了最大限度地提高效率而独立发展的，而不是为了应对流行病等风险，美国政府认识到了这一问题及其对经济、就业和国家安全的潜在影响。已投资数十亿美元购买和重新分配农民丢弃的食物。这项研究将通过快速评估餐馆供应网络的中断情况来查明食品供应网络中的薄弱环节，其中包括。该团队新颖的空间、人种学、网络 (SEN) 方法还将通过量化供应链中难以到达的组成部分来推进链供应管理理论，目标是提供可操作的策略，以识别人们的行为方式。可以适应并帮助在 COVID-19 大流行中创建一个更具弹性和可持续性的美国粮食系统，并避免未来意外事件中的这些干扰。最后，该项目新颖的 SEN 方法将培训学生可快速应用的研究方法。为了解决全球食品系统中的意外变化，供应链学者呼吁新的理论发展，以解释供应网络中的复杂性和动态性，并提供对供应网络中隐藏组成部分的可见性。采用多阶段比较研究设计，能够最大限度地发挥关键维度的比较潜力：COVID-19 的爆发和强度以及区域供应分布随时间的影响。总体目标是了解什么是结构和参与者（餐馆老板、分销商和农民）供应网络的空间特征会导致各种结果（例如，新的商业机会、更可持续的做法、继续经营或关闭商店）。设计将在两个时间点进行的结构化访谈，这些空间测量将从这些针对关键信息提供者的明确的食品供应网络中得出，包括描述经销商类型、地理位置和自我网络的采购多样性指数。通过在大流行开始时和整个大流行期间捕获这些干扰，该项目将能够确定食品供应网络中易受攻击的关键领域，不仅针对本次大流行，而且还针对其他全球干扰。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定规定。使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。