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.

The development of sustainable agri-food systems requires not only new academic knowledge, but also concrete social and organizational change in practice. This article reflects on the action research process that supported and explored the learning process in an emerging agri-food value chain in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in eastern Germany. The action research study involved value chain actors, academic researchers, and process facilitators in a learning network. By framing the network’s learning and problem solving processes in concepts of organizational learning, lessons were drawn for researchers and value chain developers. The results underline the importance of process facilitation in a learning value chain to create a social space, in which the actors in the value chain can interact and find a common basis for collaboration. In the learning process, facilitators used an iterative design to consistently align learning activities with the needs of practitioners to ensure practical relevance. To establish new practices and partnerships, value chain actors challenged existing routines and developed new ideas and visions, while at the same time improving established practices within their organizations and along the entire value chain.

The present study explores the development of agri-food value chains from an organizational learning perspective, using the German organic food sector as an example. We illustrate how the developme...

The article draws on the notion of boundary work to explore innovation in emerging agri-food value chains. Based on a six-year action research study, we examined boundary work among value chain actors and interventions that enabled the reconfiguration of boundaries through learning and collaboration. Illustrated by micro cases, the findings conceptualize three modes of boundary work, which include (1) uncovering knowledge to build a shared understanding of the local food sector, (2) creating and integrating domain knowledge to improve professional practices, and (3) negotiating and implementing shared strategies for value creation. Additionally, the article emphasizes the need for higher-level boundary work that enables practices for value creation through purposeful interventions, as a form of configurational boundary work. The study serves as an example of creating spaces for change in local agri-food systems and enhances the understanding of learning and innovation in such inter-organizational settings.