An Organizational Model of a Food Production Chain: A Case Study in the Poultry Sector in Foggia (Italy)

The purpose of this study was to analyze the poultry chain in southern Italy to describe the characteristics of farms and their locations and to propose an optimized organizational model with a broader approach that considers not only economic and environmental factors, but also ethical ones, including animal welfare protection, particularly in the poultry food safety chain. To obtain these results, the geolocations of poultry facilities, identifying possible verticalizations in the supply chain, were used. Data were collected in the province of Foggia (Italy) and organized in a dataset in collaboration with the Prevention Department of the Local Health Authority. A geo-imputation procedure and centroid calculation allowed us to formulate an optimizing hypothesis regarding the geolocation of upstream and downstream facilities in the process of chicken breeding by identifying a possible verticalization in the supply chain. Our results highlight the importance of broadening the concept of industrial symbiosis in the management of poultry farming, not only from an environmental perspective, but also from a social perspective. In particular, concerning ethical aspects, protecting animal welfare today is an essential goal of the sector to ensure high quality and yield of poultry meat. The results represent the first step towards proposing an optimized organizational model that takes ethical and social aspects into consideration. The paper is intended to highlight how, in the poultry sector, an organizational scheme can also reconcile other aspects, such as safeguarding the welfare conditions of animals on farms and during transport to improve food safety.