Another reference (this one's annotated)

T.A. Lyson and J. Green. 1999. The agricultural marketplace: A framework for sustaining agriculture and communities in the northeast. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 15:133-150.

This paper describes both the local and global food system impacts on the northeastern US. The authors use NY as a case study. Distribution is mentioned as part of the food system, but is certainly not the emphasis. I thought this might be interesting paper to look at for the structure and how they describe the differences in impacts between local and global.

List of indicators

Here's a pared down list of indicators which seem to be most applicable to the distribution sector:

Energy Intensity
Greenhouse gas intensity
Access (distance) to farmer’s markets
Access (distance) to grocery stores
Food miles
Share of profits between farmer/processor/retailer
Distance between farmer/retailer/processor/packaging
Nutritional value of food
Food safety
Worker satisfaction/quality of life
% of food lost due to spoilage

List of References – not annotated. I can email any of these papers to you in pdf. Also, I have some papers on both European and US distribution sectors (not on food distribution) that I didn’t include in this list, but can

Hendrickson, M.K. and W.D Heffernan. 2002. Opening Spaces through Relocalization: Locating Potential Resistance in the Weaknesses of the Global Food System. Sociologia Ruralis. Vol 42. No. 4

Maxime, D., M. Marcotte, Y. Arcand. 2006. Development of eco-efficienncy indicators for the Candian food and beverage industry. Journal of cleaner Production. Vol 14. 636-648

Jungbluth, N., O. Tietje, R. Scholz. 2000. Food Purchases: Impacts from the consumers’ point of view investigated with modular LCA. International Journal of LCA. Vol 5. no. 3 134-142

Pothukuchi, K. , J.L. Kaufman. 1999. Placing the food system on the urban agenda. The role of municipal institution in food systems planning. Agriculture and Human Values 16. 213-224

King, R.P., P. F. Phumpiu. 1999. Reengineering the Food Supply Chain: The ECR Initiative in the Grocery Industry. American journal of Agricultural economics. Vol 78. no. 5. 1181-1186.

Boehlje, M. 1999. Structural changes in the agricultural industries: How do we measure, analyze and understand them? American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol 78. No. 5. 1028-1041.

Jones, A. 2002. An environmental assessment of food supply chains: A case Study on dessert apples. Environmental Management Vol. 30. No. 4. 560-578.

Heller, M.C. and G. A. Keoleian. Life cycle based sustainability indicators for assessment of the US. Food System. Center for sustainable systems, university of Michigan. Report No. CSS00-04. December 6, 2000.

Pretty, J.N., A.S. Ball, T. Lang, J.I.L Morison. 2005. Farm costs and food miles: An assessment of the full cost of the UK weekly food basket. Food Policy. 30.1.1-19

Koc. M. and K. A. Dahlberg. 1999. The restructuring of food systems. Trends, research and policy issues. Agriculture and Human Values. 16. 109-116.

Van Der Vorst, J.G.A.J, A.M. Buelens, W. De Wit, P. Van Beek, 1998. Supply chain management in food chains: Improving performance by reducing uncertainty. International transactions of operational research. Vol. 5. No. 6. 487-499