TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains
AU - Meemken, Eva Marie
AU - Barrett, Christopher B.
AU - Michelson, Hope C.
AU - Qaim, Matin
AU - Reardon, Thomas
AU - Sellare, Jorge
N1 - Funding Information:
Farmers. Farmers incur fixed costs (for example, protective gear for pesticide application) and variable costs (for example, hired labour) to attain and maintain certification3,40. Many smallholder farmers cannot meet certification requirements without financial and/ or technical assistance and group-based certification. The latter reduces the logistical costs certification agencies face and farmers’ costs41,42. For example, farmer organizations often provide training, credit and inputs. Thus, many certification-related costs (for example, higher-skilled employees43) are borne by farmer organizations, which often receive financial support from development agencies or buyers44. For larger farms, especially in higher-income countries, individual farm-level certification is most common.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - Agrifood supply chains contribute to many environmental and social problems. Sustainability standards—rules that supply chain actors may follow to demonstrate their commitment to social equity and/or environmental protection—aim to mitigate such problems. We provide a narrative review of the effects of many distinct sustainability standards on different supply chain actors spanning multiple crops. Furthermore, we discuss five emerging questions—causality, exclusion, compliance and monitoring, excess supply and emerging country markets—and identify directions for future research. We find that, while sustainability standards can help improve the sustainability of production processes in certain situations, they are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability at scale, nor do they advance equity objectives in agrifood supply chains.
AB - Agrifood supply chains contribute to many environmental and social problems. Sustainability standards—rules that supply chain actors may follow to demonstrate their commitment to social equity and/or environmental protection—aim to mitigate such problems. We provide a narrative review of the effects of many distinct sustainability standards on different supply chain actors spanning multiple crops. Furthermore, we discuss five emerging questions—causality, exclusion, compliance and monitoring, excess supply and emerging country markets—and identify directions for future research. We find that, while sustainability standards can help improve the sustainability of production processes in certain situations, they are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability at scale, nor do they advance equity objectives in agrifood supply chains.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114645418&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85114645418&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43016-021-00360-3
DO - 10.1038/s43016-021-00360-3
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85114645418
SN - 2662-1355
VL - 2
SP - 758
EP - 765
JO - Nature Food
JF - Nature Food
IS - 10
ER -