Sustainability refers to “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” as defined in 1987 by the United Nations Brundtland Commission. Sustainability is often associated with the environment and natural resources. However, from a broader perspective, sustainability refers to “the long-term self-supporting viability of any type of system (Throsby, 1997)” including environment, natural resources, economic and social systems including cultural systems, norms, and values that sustain societies.
Sustainability in the food system is an increasingly important issue, which can be addressed by two main approaches including regulatory measures and voluntary measures. Traditionally, policymakers have introduced a wide range of regulatory measures including a ‘command and control’ approach, strict bans, penalties, incentives, and more. In the recent past, voluntary measures have emerged as a potential approach to achieving sustainability.
Labeling and certification, such as eco-labeling and Environmental Management Systems (EMS), are voluntary measures. Labeling is product specific while EMS is firm-specific, and is awarded by an independent body, which provides written assurance that the product or the firm in question meets specific requirements. Mainly due to the labeling and certification, increasingly more firms in the food system are voluntarily applying sustainable practices in their business operations and producing food products keeping in view the demand and price premium of attributes valued by the consumers. Both consumers and firms are driving changes toward sustainable production processes. Millennials and those in Generation Z, who are becoming a larger proportion of global consumers, are more likely to take sustainability into account in their purchasing behaviors. Thus, labeling and certification have a great potential to address the issue of asymmetric information between producers and consumers and lead to economic and social welfare that is sustainable in the long run. However, labeling and certification in food systems and their effectiveness in promoting sustainability face several challenges. First, the different economic conditions may lead countries to define priorities, while a global effort for a transformation in food systems governance is desirable. Another challenge of labeling and certification is to clearly assess their effectiveness in terms of sustainable development goals achievement, at least seven out of 17 SDGs (2, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15), leading to a real food system transformation to deliver food security without increasing environmental degradation or social inequity by unaffordable sustainable foods.

In fact, although there is an increasing trend in the adoption of food labels and certifications by firms in the food system, there is still a huge gap between actual and potential adoption rates, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. Thus, there is a need to examine the economics of labeling and certification at the market level, producer perspectives, and consumer perspectives. Governments have an important role in establishing sustainable standards and facilitating the labels and certifications application and assessing their efficiency while avoiding greenwashing practices by companies. On the other hand, civil society as consumers may orient the market perspective and seek sustainable solutions.

This Research Topic aims to gather state-of-the-art original research articles, review articles, and case studies of evidence-based solutions for sustainability in food systems through standards and certifications (ecolabels, EMS, and others), adopted by farms and firms and their effectiveness assessment.
This Research Topic welcomes studies on the following topics but not limited to the following:

• Sustainability certification requirements across different countries
• Environmental efficiency assessment of sustainable food labels referring to food production, distribution, processing, and packaging
• Eco-label policy in local and international markets
• Environmental Management System (EMS) and sustainability
• Policy gaps allowing greenwashing practices
• Measurements of food sustainable labels impacts on SDGs achievement
• Certification based on religion and other norms and values
• Consumers' preference toward sustainable certifications

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Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

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