Publications

16 May 2016
HBS Case

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

Margaret L. Rodriguez, Mérieux NutriSciences: Marketing Food Safety Testing. Food safety problems can be quite costly. An E. coli outbreak in Germany in 2011 caused $1.3 billion in losses to the global agricultural industry. Yet, a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

company so dedicated to reinventing agriculture to be more sustainable and less polluting use planet-friendly packaging? It wasn’t an oversight. As founder Viraj Puri recalls, when the company was starting... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

December 2007 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Vegpro Group: Growing in Harmony

By: David E. Bell, Brian Milder and Mary Shelman

Vegpro, a horticulture company, is Kenya's largest exporter of fresh vegetables and flowers to top supermarkets in the U.K. and Europe. In 2007, Vegpro's business is threatened by growing consumer concern about the environmental impact of food production and transport,... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Developing Countries and Economies; Ethics; Food; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Kenya; Europe; United Kingdom

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October 2010 (Revised October 2011)
Case

Polyface: The Farm of Many Faces

By: Deishin Lee and Stephanie van Sice

This case explores a method of value creation through exploiting synergies that exist in an environment where there is diversity. The context of the case is a farm where biodiversity is leveraged to create value. This is contrasted to industrial farming, which operates... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Product Development; Production; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Value Creation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

Corporation (MCC), provides aid to developing countries, focusing on poverty reduction through economic growth. It measures results through an economic rate of return based on increases in farmer incomes anticipated over twenty years. As MCC and Ghana finalize a $547... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2008
Teaching Note

Vegpro Group: Growing in Harmony (TN)

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Teaching Note for [508-001]. View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Customers; Production; Price; Ethics; Environmental Sustainability; Development Economics; Supply Chain; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; Kenya

03 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 3, 2008

resources to environmental protection? How should we think about the notion of firms sacrificing profits in the social interest? May they do so within the scope of their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders? Can they do so on a View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Mar 2016
First Look

March 29, 2016

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50648 2016 New York: Oxford University Press Consumers, Corporations, and Public Health: A Case-Based Approach to Sustainable Business By: Quelch, John A. Abstract—The public health footprint... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2021
Case

Grapery

By: Forest Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred

27 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 27

executive board meeting that afternoon. Jöhr recognized the meeting as a key opportunity to strategize far into the future, reexamining how his team's efforts in sustainable agricultural sourcing supported... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Migros

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman

In October 2005, Urs Riedener, head of marketing at Swiss retailer Migros, is contemplating the company's competitive position. Primarily a retailer for foods and near-foods products, the cooperative Migros, with close to 600 retail outlets in Switzerland (but only... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Corporate Governance; Corporate Strategy; Cooperative Ownership; Supply Chain Management; Product Marketing; Environmental Sustainability; Social Enterprise; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Switzerland

03 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 3, 2007

Working PapersNone this week Cases & Course MaterialsCommon Agricultural Policy and the Future of French Farming Harvard Business School Case 707-027 Presents the history and evolution of the EU Common View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2018
Book

Food Citizenship: Food System Advocates in an Era of Distrust

By: Ray A. Goldberg

The global food system is the largest segment of the world's economy. As agribusiness-studies pioneer Ray Goldberg suggests, it is also the largest health system on the planet. And it is changing fast. Its size and importance to human, environmental, and economic... View Details

Keywords: Food; System; Global Range; Health; Environmental Sustainability; Development Economics; Partners and Partnerships; Public Opinion; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

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November 2002 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Global Conservation Trust, The: A Foundation for Food Security

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Biodiversity is being lost due to the delegation of the ability to store and maintain various types of plants to governments and foundations with no or little financial base. How does one develop the resources to maintain plant diversity for the future benefit of... View Details

Keywords: Food; Safety; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; Finance; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

challenged when politicians declaim microfinance as exploitation of the poor and severely restrict business practices. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/212018-PDF-ENG Dow Chemical: Innovating for Sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Disrupting the Meat Industry: Tissue Culture Beef

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

Dr. Mark Post and his team at Maastricht University were perfecting their tissue culture beef product—made entirely from muscle grown in his lab—to give it the same taste, texture and appearance of a traditional beef hamburger. A previous iteration of this product had... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Beef Production; Environmental Impacts Of Food Production; Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Environmental Sustainability; Food; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Netherlands; United States; United Kingdom