in the coming decades: the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates an increase of the world population from the current 6 billion people to 9-11 billion people by 2050 leading to a doubling of world-wide food demand (FAO 2009). In the meantime, we have already exceeded the carrying capacity of planet Earth with the current methods of agricultural production. Further globalization, climate change, growing welfare in emerging economies, a shift from a fuel-based towards a bio-based economy in the industrialized countries and competing claims on land, fresh water and labor will complicate the challenge to feed the world within the carrying capacity of planet Earth without further pollution or overexploitation. In industrialized countries, it is expected that novel technologies will decrease the gap between actual and attainable yields based on agro-ecological endowments under rain-fed high-input farming which will lead to an increase in food supply, locally up to a potential of 60% (Bruinsma 2003). Beside food security and sustainability, food safety has increasingly become a very important issue driven by scandals such as polluted baby milk powder in China or contamination of horse meat in Europe. These might be isolated incidents, but they have a huge impact on the overall perception of the integrity of food production. In relation to these issues, transparency in food network