Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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    Analyzing the complexity of animal products’ processing and its impact on sustainability
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2024-08-21) Germond A; Fardet A; Álvarez García C; Boland M; Ming Hoang H; Mullen A-M; Kaur L; Nevárez-Moorillón GV
    Processing is an inevitable step in the manufacturing of animal-based foods (ABF) and animal by-products (ABP). However, our society has reached a point where our food systems have reached unsustainable levels. The impact of ABF/ABP processing on sustainability has been arguably overlooked in comparison with production. This perspective paper aims to discuss and identify research gaps regarding the assessments of the sustainability of ABF/ABF processing. First, we describe why processing techniques can have various levels of complexity, with uses that are more or less impactful on the environment depending on the products and possible synergies. In the second part, we review how impacts on sustainability have been evaluated at global and local scales using life cycle assessments (LCA). To contribute to such an approach, we suggest novel or recently introduced types of indicators that would improve future LCA studies by capturing relevant information. In the third part, we encourage a systemic view of sustainability by considering the complexity of the whole supply chains of ABF and ABP. We highlight the current gaps or challenges in evaluating sustainability across supply chains and point the readers toward recent studies that address these limitations. We hope this perspective will help improve the design of academic and industrial studies or evaluation of ABF and ABP sustainability.
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    Blockchain and information integration: Applications in New Zealand’s prefabrication supply chain
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-12-03) Bakhtiarizadeh E; Shahzad WM; Poshdar M; Khalfan M; Rotimi JOB; Banaitis A
    New Zealand’s rising demand for new and affordable homes is driving innovative and effective methods for project delivery. Prefabrication or off-site construction is considered an innovative approach to project delivery that eliminates the limitations of traditional construction methods. However, the prefabrication industry struggles with several challenges, including poor coordination and low supply chain integration amongst its partner organisations. There has been previous literature on improving the prefabrication supply chain integration, but few studies about the role of technology in this sector. Therefore, this article provides intuitions into the applicability and benefits of advanced technologies, namely blockchain, for improving supply chain integration in the context of prefabrication in New Zealand. A questionnaire survey was used to identify the channels used for information exchange between clients and contractors. Moreover, the questionnaire ascertained the positive effects of blockchain on enhancing supply chain integration between the two partners. Blockchain has proven to be a secure information integration instrument that can improve the integration of the prefabrication supply chain by fostering collaboration between organisations.
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    Uncoupling Molecular Testing for SARS-CoV-2 From International Supply Chains
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2022-01-24) Stanton J-AL; O'Brien R; Hall RJ; Chernyavtseva A; Ha HJ; Jelley L; Mace PD; Klenov A; Treece JM; Fraser JD; Clow F; Clarke L; Su Y; Kurup HM; Filichev VV; Rolleston W; Law L; Rendle PM; Harris LD; Wood JM; Scully TW; Ussher JE; Grant J; Hore TA; Moser TV; Harfoot R; Lawley B; Quiñones-Mateu ME; Collins P; Blaikie R; Sørensen JL
    The rapid global rise of COVID-19 from late 2019 caught major manufacturers of RT-qPCR reagents by surprise and threw into sharp focus the heavy reliance of molecular diagnostic providers on a handful of reagent suppliers. In addition, lockdown and transport bans, necessarily imposed to contain disease spread, put pressure on global supply lines with freight volumes severely restricted. These issues were acutely felt in New Zealand, an island nation located at the end of most supply lines. This led New Zealand scientists to pose the hypothetical question: in a doomsday scenario where access to COVID-19 RT-qPCR reagents became unavailable, would New Zealand possess the expertise and infrastructure to make its own reagents onshore? In this work we describe a review of New Zealand's COVID-19 test requirements, bring together local experts and resources to make all reagents for the RT-qPCR process, and create a COVID-19 diagnostic assay referred to as HomeBrew (HB) RT-qPCR from onshore synthesized components. This one-step RT-qPCR assay was evaluated using clinical samples and shown to be comparable to a commercial COVID-19 assay. Through this work we show New Zealand has both the expertise and, with sufficient lead time and forward planning, infrastructure capacity to meet reagent supply challenges if they were ever to emerge.
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    Sustainable Farmer Development for Agri-Food Supply Chains in Developing Countries
    (MDPI AG, 2023-10-20) De Silva L; Jayamaha N; Garnevska E
    Improving the supplier’s capabilities and relationships with the buyer to improve triple-bottom-line outcomes for multiple actors in the supply chain (including the suppliers and buyers) is the very purpose of sustainable supplier development. We apply the concept of sustainable supplier development in an agri-food context in a developing economy. The study aims to create a theoretical framework that explains how initiatives by buyers (often processors in the agri-food industry) to develop farmers can result in sustainable farmer performance. Collectively, the propositions derived by us via a literature synthesis propose that farmer development leads to farmer capability development and improved relationships (with the buyer), enabling the farmer to achieve sustainable performance (i.e., performance in economic, social, and environmental domains). The importance of the study from a theory-building perspective is that the study attempts to reconcile the supply chain management literature on supplier development in tangible goods manufacturing with the agribusiness literature in developing economies whether or not the farmer occupies the bottom of the income pyramid. The study is also important to academia and policymakers because it acts as a forerunner for the further development of the theoretical model and its testing with a large sample of data to interpret what the results imply from practical and theoretical standpoints.