Article
Fisheries
Vilde Steiro Amundsen
Summary: This study examines the application and implications of private sustainability standards in the salmon aquaculture industry, highlighting the importance of moving away from a technology-centric certification approach and calling for continuous improvement of these standards.
Review
Environmental Studies
Andrea Pierucci, Silvia Columbu, Laurence T. Kell
Summary: This study investigates the factors influencing withdrawal of fisheries from the Marine Stewardship Council certification process. It found that fishing gear used and geographical location were the principal factors affecting withdrawal likelihood. The study also reviews the uneven global expansion of MSC ecolabelling and identifies factors that need to be considered.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Jan Gerhards, Dan Greenwood
Summary: The past two decades have witnessed an increased use and evolving forms of governance instruments to promote sustainability in increasingly complex and varied contexts. These primarily voluntary instruments combine sustainability strategy and/or monitoring guidance with marketable public information, but there is still a need for evaluation of legitimacy. The One Planet Living framework established by Bioregional in the UK has been successful in promoting effective, participatory, and transparent programs, with limitations related to uptake, resource requirements, and measurement integration.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2021)
Article
Fisheries
Choyon Kumar Saha
Summary: This study explores the extent to which sociocultural principles are included in aquaculture certification standards and finds that current standards focus more on health and well-being issues while neglecting ethical practices and issues affecting indigenous peoples and local communities. The study also compares several certification standards and concludes that some standards are weaker in addressing sociocultural sustainability. The exclusion and lack of attention to crucial sociocultural issues in certification standards can potentially undermine the goal of ensuring sociocultural sustainability in aquaculture.
Article
Geography
Felipe Alexandre de Lima, Daiane Mulling Neutzling, Marcus Gomes
Summary: Organic standards serve as a governance mechanism to ensure consumer transparency and promote sustainable food systems. While third-party certification and Participatory Guarantee Systems are widely used in the governance of organic food production, research on their sustainability dynamics is lacking. The study reveals that third-party certification focuses on ecological and economic aspects of sustainability, while Participatory Guarantee Systems foster social, ecological, economic, and political sustainability in organic food systems.
JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES
(2021)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Olga Chkanikova, Robert Sroufe
Summary: This study aims to examine the proliferation of retail-driven sustainability certification schemes and their design from a corporate perspective. Different cases of certification design in the food retailing industry were explored, providing new insights important to researchers, retailers, and supply chains. The results show that retail efforts to develop certifications are driven by better alignment with the business' goal of improving sustainability performance. Additionally, the study identifies numerous factors that influence the development of certifications via collaborative or unilateral efforts.
JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
(2021)
Article
Development Studies
Eva-Marie Meemken
Summary: The study explores the impact of sustainability certification on farm income and practices across both smallholder and large farms in Peru. Certification is found to be more common among large farms, associated with higher farm incomes and changes in practices. Geographical clustering of certified farms was observed, highlighting the potential benefits of certification in the large farm sector.
Article
Environmental Studies
Choyon Kumar Saha
Summary: This study chronicles the emergence and evolution of aquaculture certification schemes and highlights the influence of markets, politics, and ideas. It provides important insights into resolving confusion and duplication of certification schemes.
Review
Development Studies
Vincent Canwat
Summary: Sustainable development concerns have been incorporated into global value chains, but our understanding of the sustainability effects of sustainable value chains is limited by the narrow focus, methodological weaknesses, and contextual diversity. This article analyzes the contributions of sustainable coffee value chains to sustainable development, finding that the effects vary across dimensions and standards. Fairtrade has a greater impact on social sustainability, while organic standards and the Rainforest Alliance have a greater impact on ecological sustainability. Sustainable coffee value chains have more contributions to social and ecological sustainability than economic sustainability, but combining standards can reduce trade-offs. The sustainability effects also differ across cooperatives due to their heterogeneity.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Thomas Vogelpohl
Summary: This paper challenges the notion that sustainability standards lead to a neoliberalization of nature by examining the cases of the EU, Brazil, and Indonesia. The results show that these standards are primarily designed and introduced to serve the material interests of the state and industrial factions, rather than promote neoliberal ideologies. They are strategies to maintain the path of modernization and industrial development already taken or envisioned.
SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Rebekkah Navas, Hyo Jung (Julie) Chang, Samina Khan, Jo Woon Chong
Summary: The study aimed to examine the impact of blockchain technology on consumers, and the results indicated that Generation Y tends to have higher trust and knowledge measures. Companies should effectively integrate this technology to mutually benefit the retailer and consumers of different generations.
Review
Food Science & Technology
Eva-Marie Meemken, Christopher B. Barrett, Hope C. Michelson, Matin Qaim, Thomas Reardon, Jorge Sellare
Summary: Sustainability standards have varying effects on different supply chain actors and crops, but are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability and equity objectives in agrifood supply chains. The ongoing proliferation of certification schemes in the food sector calls for continuous evaluation of their impacts.
Article
Development Studies
Karla Rubio-Jovel, Jorge Sellare, Yannic Damm, Thomas Dietz
Summary: This article assesses the contribution of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) through a case study from the coffee sector in Costa Rica. The study finds that relying solely on VSS is not sufficient to promote a transition to more sustainable coffee production, as trade-offs between different SDGs emerge. Modifications in implementation are required to promote sustainable practices and ensure socio-economic benefits for producers, workers, and their families.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Review
Food Science & Technology
Juliana Barreto A. Peixoto, Joana F. Silva, M. Beatriz P. P. Oliveira, Rita C. Alves
Summary: This review focuses on the sustainability concerns in the coffee industry and discusses the strategies being developed to achieve sustainability. It emphasizes the need for collaboration among all stakeholders to attain sustainable coffee chain.
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND FOOD SAFETY
(2023)
Article
Geography
Jorge Sellare
Summary: Fairtrade requires buyers to pay farmers minimum prices and a social premium, which is used for projects to benefit the community. However, most of the social premium does not go towards community development projects, but does have a positive impact on education expenditure among farmers.
JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES
(2022)
