Sustainable Certification Standards: Environmental and Social Impacts

There is a consensus among scientists and policymakers that food production systems must become more sustainable. Sustainable food production requires rising productivities without harming the physical environment such as soil, water, and human health. To this end, the introduction of the third-party voluntary certification standard is a market-based approach that promotes different aspects of sustainability in food production processes. There is a broad range of certification standards pertaining to sustainability, with different foci and requirements. Most of them are based on the idea that consumers are motivated and willing to pay higher prices for products that meet a specific set of environmental and social standards. The price premia are intended to be used to promote environmental and social sustainability in the areas of production, often in so-called developing countries.

Among the standards and certifications, “Fairtrade”, according to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), and “Organic”, according to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), are the most well-known and widely adopted certifications for different agricultural products i.e. coffee, rice, pepper, etc. The global market for products certified according to these standards has grown significantly in recent decades, mostly in developed countries but is also beginning to now grow in developing countries as well. There are other certification standards which are worth mentioning also, for example, “Rainforest Alliance” and “UTZ”.

In addition to the third-party certification standards, the participatory guarantee system (PGS) and farmer-to-farmer agroecological certification play important roles to support smallholder farmers practicing eco-friendly agriculture. PGS as defined by IFOAM, are "locally focused quality assurance systems. They certify producers based on the active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks, and knowledge exchange". They can complement third-party certification with a private label that brings additional guarantees and transparency.

However, certification is a complex process and interplay of various stakeholders that takes place throughout the entire value chain. The certification of coffee, the biggest among all the certified products in terms of global sales, involves huge power and knowledge asymmetries, with giant retail chains such as Starbucks on the one hand, and marginalized smallholders in developing countries on the other. In-depth research is needed to assess the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of certification processes and certified networks both in terms of their environmental and social impacts.

This Research Topic aims to solicit the current state of the discussion by combining articles from researchers, practitioners, NGOs, and other stakeholders, providing theoretical insights and/or empirical analysis focusing on the linkage of sustainable certification in food production processes to environmental, social, food security, land use, and gender equality issues. It is expected that certification programs may have positive impacts on sustainability in some of these dimensions. A particular focus will be on the validity of the research design in the impact studies. Studies that attempt to consider the impact pathways between certification standards and the different sustainability dimensions in a holistic manner are encouraged. Both quantitative and qualitative studies will be accepted for consideration in this Research Topic.