Edited by: Professor Louise Manning, University of Lincoln, UK
There is increasing scrutiny of the safety, environmental and social impact of food production. However, the complexity of modern agri-food supply chains has significantly complicated the process of setting and enforcing appropriate standards. The thematic scope of standards has also expanded from its original focus on safety and quality to cover social responsibility and ethical trading, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, biodiversity loss and nature-related risks.
Finally, the range of stakeholders involved in setting and monitoring standards governing agri-food supply chains has proliferated, from official national, regional and international bodies to non-government organisations (NGOs), the food industry itself and now the investment sector concerned to ensure their clients meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards.
Improving standards and certification in agri-food supply chains: Ensuring safety, sustainability and social responsibility comprehensively addresses the challenges raised by this complex picture and features contributions from leading international experts from the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Rainforest Alliance. The book discusses how to reconcile the roles of different stakeholders in standard setting, how changes in governance and technology can improve accountability, as well as the different ways of enhancing good agricultural practices (GAP) to meet new ways of producing food.
The book also discusses the challenges and solutions in achieving effective standards promoting more socially responsible production and how best to address emerging practices to improve environmental sustainability such as regenerative agriculture.
Key Features
- Considers a range of techniques used for measuring compliance and improving performance across the agri-food supply chain, including those used to measure on-farm carbon footprints and biodiversity
- Provides a useful and comprehensive context to the role of governments and other food safety agencies in setting safety, quality and sustainability standards for global agri-food supply chains
- Reviews the key issues in developing voluntary standards, focussing on those encountered during the development of robust carbon-neutral and biodiversity offsetting certification schemes