Master of Science / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Jason D. Ellis / Agricultural sustainability is a growing concern for the general public because of agriculture’s considerable use of land, water, and other natural resources. In response to this growing concern, companies have started to publish sustainability reports to highlight sustainable practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of sustainability reporting from companies in the agri-food supply chain. The research objectives of this study were (1) determine the prevalence of sustainability reporting among food system companies, (2) identify, to what extent, the three components of the triple bottom line model are represented in sustainability reports, (3) determine if/how sustainability reporting differs among sectors of the agriculture supply chain, (4) assess how companies describe stakeholder engagement in sustainability reports, and (5) explore which aspects of reputation are included in sustainability reports. In total, 66 agribusinesses were included in this study of which 16 had published sustainability reports. Data for the quantitative content analysis were collected using a scorecard based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Results indicated that sustainability reporting is limited among companies involved in the agriculture and food supply chain. Though better than sectors studied in previous research, agribusinesses also struggle to explain stakeholder engagement and need to focus sustainability report content to align more closely with the three components of the triple bottom line model – environment, economic, and social.

[pt] A COVID-19 foi declarada como uma pandemia em março de 2020 pela OMS (Organização Mundial da Saúde) e até abril de 2022 infectou aproximadamente 490,7 milhões de pessoas, com pelo menos 6,17 milhões de mortes. A pandemia desafiou a segurança alimentar, agricultura e cadeias de alimentos frescos. Pesquisas sobre a análise de cadeias de suprimentos agroalimentares durante a COVID-19 indicam um maior impacto em pequenos fornecedores destas cadeias, principalmente as cadeias mais curtas, que são aquelas que possuem poucos elos. Neste contexto, esse trabalho analisa os efeitos da COVID-19 em cadeias de alimentos frescos. É desenvolvido, assim, um estudo de caso em uma organização de produtores do Rio de Janeiro. Esse estudo cobre uma revisão de escopo que identifica na literatura os principais impactos e políticas da pandemia nessa cadeia. Em seguida, os resultados são avaliados através de uma pesquisa de levantamento (survey) na organização para avaliar se as variáveis encontradas na literatura possuem aderência com as variáveis identificadas pelos respondentes da survey, que são pequenos produtores no estado do Rio de Janeiro. Por fim, o problema é modelado por meio de uma simulação por dinâmica de sistemas. Os resultados mostraram que a cadeia de suprimentos da organização é sensível a variáveis de impacto como aumento do custo de produção e não entrega de produtos, pois ao aumentar o custo de produção e a não entregar produtos, a taxa de vendas é impactada negativamente. A política de investimento em logística mostra que a taxa de vendas é impactada positivamente quando se aumenta o investimento. / [en] COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the WHO (World Health Organization), and at the beginning of April 2022, it had infected approximately 490.7 million people, with at least 6.17 million deaths. The pandemic has challenged food security, agriculture, and fresh food chains. Research on the analysis of agri-food supply chains during COVID-19 indicates a more significant impact on small suppliers of these chains, especially the shorter chains, which are those with few links. In this context, this work analyzes the effects of COVID-19 on fresh food chains. Thus, a case study is developed in a producer organization in Rio de Janeiro. This study covers a scoping review that identifies in the literature the main impacts and policies of the pandemic in this chain. Then, the results are evaluated through a survey in the organization to assess whether the variables found in the literature match the variables identified by the survey respondents, who are small producers in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Finally, the problem is modeled through a system dynamics simulation. The results showed that the organization s supply chain is sensitive to impact variables such as increased production cost and non-delivery of products. As increasing production cost and not delivering products, the sales rate is negatively impacted. The investment policy in logistics shows that the sales rate is positively impacted when investment increases.