Promoting Organic Food in Public Catering: A Theory Based Approach to Sustainable Public Catering Systems 
Mikkola, M. & Mikkelsen, B.E. 
Key words: organic food, public catering, sustainable public catering system
Abstract 
The paper focuses on public catering as a significant service provider in the modern society and a potential large scale user of organic food. In order to argue for the use of organic food by public catering, the traditional nutrition oriented public catering is reframed and repositioned as sustainable public catering system, responsible in mediating the well-being of both bio-physical environment and individual consumers. The repositioning is based on theory of ecological communication within social systems by Niklas Luhmann. The development towards sustainable public catering systems is examined by analysing Danish and Finnish public catering cases, which make visible the role of economy, law, science, politics and education in contextual networks governing public catering. This theoretically based approach confirms the networks and their mutual communication as bearing on the use of organic food, rendering public catering organisations ‘centres of sustainability’ in every-day life of (post)modern citizens.
Introduction 
Public catering plays an important role in modern public foodservice provision at schools, kindergartens, hospitals, old age homes, day-care centres, primary, secondary and tertiary level education institutions, army and prison units as well as work place canteens and thus contributes to every-day well-being of a very large number of citizens. The central concern of public catering has traditionally been nutritional; recently, new emphasis has been placed on environmental, local economy and sensory aspects of the public meal.  Morgan and Sonnino (2005) conceptualised this quest as public catering for sustainability. Similar initiatives are taken to varying extent in European municipalities, for instance in Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Support for the use of organic food in public catering is also clearly indicated by public policies.
Public catering holds the potential to become a promising sales channel for organic foods due to its size. For instance, in the Nordic countries the value of the institutional foodservice is more than 6 billion euros yearly. In fact, public catering has been viewed as one of the ways to increase the sales volume of organic food. However, in general the promising efforts to make public catering an extensive user of organic foods have been rather disappointing and the use of organic food is still somewhat limited. Against this background, it is evident that a more profound understanding about the phenomenon of public catering is needed, if its use of organic food is to be enlarged. In other words, the use of organic food in public catering needs perspective making and perspective taking (Boland and Tenkasi 1995) in order to argue for the use of organic food and to identify governing elements by which this can be accomplished. The aim of this paper is to make a theoretically grounded perspective on public catering by applying theory of ecological communication within social systems (Luhmann 1989), by which the paper takes a system based approach for the use of organic food in public catering. This theoretical framing renders public catering organisations sustainable public catering systems and suggests dynamic governance by sub-systemic networks in the use of organic food.  
Luhmann’s ecological communication theory applied in public catering 
Public catering operates in a complex modern society, the profound features of which have been theorised by Luhmann in highly constitutive and structured way. These features concern public catering organisations poignantly and are used here to characterise the phenomenon of public catering. First, public catering is a layered network of normative expectations by organisations, firms and individual workers and consumers. The network depends for its existence on the bio-physical environment as source of food and the environment of individuals forming the network. Public catering as a system should learn more about its two environments, in order to adapt to environmental problems in effective ways and avoid environmental threats, e.g. pollution and obesity. The language used in public catering is critical in constructing the connection between the well-being of environment and eaters. Public catering organisations also tend to have limited contact surface to ecological ideas and change for sustainability is often slow.
Luhman sees the society to consist of foundational social subsystems, which include economy, law, science, politics, religion and education. These subsystems function as 'operators' of the modern society and are responsible mediators of the continuity of the environment-dependent social system into unlimited future.  Luhmann focuses on the ability of subsystems to communicate and operate in alignment to avoid ecological threats. In this paper, public catering is 'upgraded' to a sustainable public catering system, if it as a stage for subsystems is able to communicate within and across its sub-systemic networks about environmental threats and act as a mediator for the sustained activity and well-being of bio-physical environment and individual citizens.
The concept of sustainable public catering system is applied on Danish and Finnish public catering cases, to see how networks of actors from economy, law, science, politics and education align in terms of the use of organic food. The cases represent extensive empirical material from both countries and time period of more than five years (Mikkelsen et al. 2007, Mikkola and Bergström 2007). 
Organic food in public catering: Danish and Finnish cases
Danish cases
Economy: Public food procurement for schools represents only a minor share in overall municipal spending. Some emerging school food provision initiatives focus mostly on organic foods with limited price premium such as milk, bread, potatoes, and vegetables. Organic foods are regularly bought in a number of municipalities such as the members of the Dogme 2000 network (www.dogme2000) and in Western Zealand, mainly with limited cost increase.
Science: Environmental research results about ground water pollution by nitrates from conventional agriculture supported the use of organic foods by Copenhagen municipality. Research in organic food has been supported by public government funding for instance through the framework of the DARCOF and public procurement of organic foods has recently come into focus of the research community.  
Law and policy: Food provision for pupils is not a statutory requirement in Denmark. However, a growing number of municipalities and schools take on this type of service provision on a voluntary basis. There are also a number of policy statements for municipalities and schools to adopt food and nutrition policies and funding programmes to fuel innovation in voluntary food provision at schools, in effect from 2000 to 2007, resulting in more than 2000 institutions having experiences of implementation of school foodservice.
Education: Food and nutrition at schools is a part of the national primary and secondary education curriculum in two subjects: home economics and health. In addition new emerging school food provision policies in some cases aim to link nutrition education to school foodservice.

Finnish cases
Economy: Food for statutory public catering represents a minor share in municipal costs. However, these regular costs are under strict budget discipline. Price premium of organic food directs the use of organic cereals, potatoes, vegetables and milk in public catering. Some municipalities run ecological day-care centres,  use (local) organic food and organise organic meal days or weeks at schools. Available funding and considerations about organic food effect on future development. (Mikkola and Bergström 2007).    
Science: Organic food is renowned for not having residues and not entailing excessive transportation, but is sometimes suspected for problems in nutritional content. Domestic, local, organic and local organic food are generally seen as ecological alternatives, but catering organisations look for better understanding of  the environmental and nutritional character of organic food (Mikkola and Bergström 2007).
Law and policy: Starting in 1948, free and nutritionally balanced warm meal is a statutory part of school activities. The public procurement of organic food takes place as a technical specification, but political orientation for conversion is strong mainly locally. There are policies for local food as well as sustainable development supporting also the use of organic food.
Education: School meals are included in the new curriculum launched in 2007 as experiential learning crossing the boundaries of subjects like home economics, health and biology, a possibility for organic food.

Case analysis in terms of sustainable public catering systems 

Sub-systemic alignment for the use of organic food in public catering exhibited somewhat different patterns in Denmark and Finland. In Denmark, initiatives for developing school foodservice with organic food were granted resources, but in Finland food procurement for traditional free meal service met difficulties with premium prices of organic food. However, in both countries premium prices directed the use to particular organic foods. More profound understanding of environmental and nutritional quality of organic food by catering organisations was identified as a resource for increasing the use of organic food. The statutory position of school foodservice varied in these countries, being initiative based in Denmark and mandatory in Finland. However, this difference may be seen as posing different developmental challenges. Policies for sustainability were approved, but implemented more or less coherently in terms of organic food, resulting in patchy development in both countries. In Finland there exist also policies for local food, not known in Denmark. Educational development in both countries aimed at integration of organic school meals and theoretical teaching in new curricula. The analysis indicated communication and activities needed in order to proceed from public catering organisations to sustainable public catering systems.   
Concluding remarks: towards sustainable public catering systems 
The Luhmann inspired frame for public catering guided the perspective making, by which public catering could be reframed and repositioned as sustainable public catering system, and become more clearly 'centre of sustainability' in every-day life. Here the sustainable public catering system adopts a mediating role for sustainability between two environments – the bio-physical environment and the environment of individuals. The perspective taking by analysing Danish and Finnish case histories indicated - in spite of country and site specific variation - that strengthening the governing links between networks of economy, science, law, policy and education could build up the developmental path to sustainable public catering systems, in which the use of organic food is a core element.     
References 
Boland, R.J. Jr. And Tenkasi, R.V. (1995): Perspective Making and Perspective Taking in Communities of Knowing. Organization Science, Vol 6, No. 4:350-372. 
Luhmann, N. (1989): Ecological communication. Polity Press in association with Basil Blackwell, Cambridge and Oxford, 187 p.
Mikkelsen, B. E., Vittersø G., Roos, G., Vramo, L. Bergström, K. (2007): The public as political consumer - case findings from implementation of organic procurement polices in public food systems in Scandinavia, In Proceedings of the Nordic Consumer Policy Research Conference, Helsinki, October 3–5, 2007. http://www.consumer2007.info/ (accessed 2007-10-29). 

Mikkola, M., Bergström, K. (2007): Intertwining ecological food into public catering. Manuscript submitted to Ecological Economics 14.10.2007.