Agricultural and food networks have become increasingly private and powerful, closely coordinated or fully vertically integrated, self-regulated, global and experience-based. A new cohort of wealthier consumers is demanding new and different goods and services. Delivery of this consumer food experience requires a very well-coordinated value chain or value system. Coordination and cooperation among chain partners involved in these networks are mandatory if they are to be profitable and sustainable. The economic issue is: How should all the chain or system partners be aligned to deliver food experiences that maximise consumer willingness to pay, and also be efficient? And what if any is the role of government in organising or facilitating these systems? To answer these questions we reviewed the literature across a number of discipline areas as well as a variety of published evaluations of red meat innovations. We used this review to develop, outline and explain a new theoretical framework relating to value chain failure and the provision of value chain goods. We illustrated how this framework could have been applied to past red meat investments, and we proposed a procedure for assessing future RD&E proposals within this framework. All red meat stake holders should benefit from a greater appreciation of these issues in RD&E funding.