Create innovative platform to sustain food ecology via value creation cycle

Affected by the past Taiwan free trade policies and agricultural development policies, coupled with income instability, lack of attractiveness and relocation of rural population, many of Taiwan''s agricultural land fallow to enter or has changed for other purposes and human resources in agricultural industry has been decreasing. Food supply of Taiwan has highly dependent on import and the food self-sufficiency rate remains only about 30 percent. However, extreme weather of global climate change makes the environment worsen for crops growth, global food availability and food system stability are threaten. As the amount of global food supplies inadequate and unstable, food prices will rise and cause a big crisis for Taiwan which highly dependent on the imported food, and this will affect the living quality and cause a burden for the economy of Taiwan. Therefore, these problems should be addressed, and while waiting for the improvement of government policies, consumers, farmers, farm workers, agricultural distributors, etc., should take the initiative to make our food ecology balance and sustainable. In this study, the characteristics of consumer demand and food production, and the role of distributors are observed and analyzed. A sustainable food ecology innovative e-commerce platform is created via value creation cycle and inclusion of the core concept of community supported agriculture. By using the technology of internet and e-commerce, eco-friendly farming farmers and consumers who want to buy healthy, safety and quality farm produce are connected. With the help of higher transparency of information through the internet, consumers can have a better understanding of the growing process, and therefore have more trust on the purchased products. Through this connection, those eco-friendly farming farmers who need funds, they can seek for help and community support in this platform. With the integration of logistics operation center and pick-up-point distribution system, the cost of transport and distribution are lowered, this ensure a good purchasing price for consumers, and at the same time, those farmers and platform gain a reasonable profit, so the value creation cycle operations sustainably. This business model offers consumers safe and high quality agricultural product at reasonable prices, and they can understand the farmer''s hard work and the relationship between people and the land, so they will be more appreciate the value of food. Besides that, farmers who willing to invest in eco-friendly farming get a secured and reasonable return, so that their quality of life is guaranteed. With this win-win results from the model, this study hopes it can encourage more people can be put into agricultural work, and willing to grow crops in an environment-friendly farming way to maintain the soil nutrients, preserve water resources and conserve the biodiversity of the environment, thus promoting Taiwan sustainable agriculture, improving food safety and quality, and increasing the food self-sufficiency rate.