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.

食品供应链的安全保障对预防COVID-19传播至关重要。在COVID-19大流行期间，美国食品供应系统显然很脆弱。随着疫情迫使餐馆关闭或大幅削减业务，新闻报道说，农民正在丢弃产品，因为买家（餐馆）不再购买。与此同时，消费者正在努力寻找超市的产品。在美国供应网络的弹性和可持续性方面，清洁剂供应网络可能比人们想象的发挥更大的作用。现在很明显，这些食品分配网络可能是独立发展的，以最大限度地提高效率，而不是对流行病等风险的弹性。认识到这一问题及其对经济、就业和国家安全的潜在影响，美国政府投入了数十亿美元购买和重新分配农民丢弃的粮食。这项研究将通过快速评估餐馆供应网络（包括餐馆老板、分销商和生产商）的中断情况，查明COVID-19大流行期间食品供应网络的薄弱环节。该团队新颖的空间，人种学，网络（SENs）方法也将通过量化供应链中难以到达的组件来推进供应链管理理论。我们的目标是提供可操作的策略，以确定人们如何在COVID-19大流行期间适应并帮助创建一个更具弹性和可持续性的美国食品系统，并避免在未来意外事件中出现这些中断。最后，该项目新颖的SENs方法将培训学生研究方法，这些方法可以快速应用于解决我们全球粮食系统中的意外变化。供应链学者正在呼吁新的理论发展，解释复杂性和动态性，并提供供应网络中隐藏组件的可见性。该项目将通过人种学衍生的空间网络弥合知识上的差距。采用多阶段比较研究设计，能够最大限度地发挥分析沿着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。总体目标是了解行为者（餐馆老板、经销商和农民）供应网络的结构和空间特征，这些特征导致各种结果（例如，新的商业机会，更可持续的做法，继续营业，或关闭商店）。将使用关键线人访谈设计分两个时间点进行的结构化访谈。一些措施将来自这些调查的空间明确的食品供应网络的关键线人，包括一个采购多样性指数的特点分销商类型，地理和自我网络的措施。通过在疫情爆发时和整个疫情期间捕捉这些干扰，该项目将能够确定食品供应网络中易受影响的关键区域，不仅是此次疫情，而且是其他全球干扰。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。