Improving standards and certification in agri-food supply chains: Ensuring safety, sustainability and social responsibility / edited by Louise Manning.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Manning, Louise.

Contributor:

Manning

Series:

Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science, 2059-6944 ; 148

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agriculture.

Local Subjects:

Agriculture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (449 pages)

Edition:

1st ed. 2025.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK : Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited : Imprint: Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, 2025.

Summary:

“From the very first pages, this collective work impresses with the rigour of its composition. A carefully-structured table of contents guides the reader through the multiple dimensions of agro-environmental standards – from their institutional definitions to the assessment of their impact on the management of quality, safety and traceability. The book also explores their practical implementation across diverse sectors such as regenerative agriculture, livestock farming, forestry, carbon markets, and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) schemes. It will become an essential reference – helping policymakers, producers and researchers navigate the shifting complexities of these standards.” (Book Review Published in Nature Built Social Environment Health) 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.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Half Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Series list

Introduction

Part 1 Setting standards

Chapter 1 The international context: the role of Codex Alimentarius in setting safety and quality standards for global agri-food supply chains

1 Introduction

2 The development of food standards

3 The Codex organisational structure

4 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Codex Strategic Plan 2020-2025

5 Codex, the World Trade Organization, and trade harmonisation

6 Conclusion and future trends

7 References

Chapter 2 The role of governments in driving sustainability standards: governance structures and green finance

2 Governance structures to support sustainability: the role of supranational governance

3 Governance structures to support sustainability: the move to hybrid governance

4 The role of green finance in driving effective governance

5 Conclusion

6 References

Chapter 3 The role and range of voluntary standards and certification systems governing sustainable agricultural practices

2 The integration of sustainability into international discourse

3 The rise of corporate social responsibility and voluntary sustainability standards

4 Towards a 'sustainability deal' across value chains

5 Connecting the dots for sustainable international value chains

6 Mapping sustainability standards: the International Trade Centre Standards Map

7 New approaches: traceability and transparency through technology

8 New approaches: reducing carbon footprints

9 Sustainability standards and resilience: the case of the COVID-19 pandemic

10 Financial markets: managing risk through sustainability standards

11 Policymakers: developing due diligence frameworks

12 Smallholder uptake of sustainability standards.

13 Consumer attitudes to sustainability standards

14 Conclusion

15 References

Chapter 4 The role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in improving safety, quality and sustainability standards in agri-food supply chains

2 Outcomes environmental NGOs hope to achieve and how to measure them

3 Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF): overview

4 The role of NGOs in improving sustainability standards and advocating for sustainable farming systems

5 Challenges in improving sustainability standards for NGOs, farmers, supply chains and government

7 References and further reading

Part 2 The expanding scope of agri-food chain standards

Chapter 5 Sustainability standards and certification for agriculture: an overview

2 What are sustainability standards?

3 A framework to understand sustainability standards

4 Sustainability standard selection by companies

5 Standards and smallholders

6 Conclusion

7 Where to look for further information

8 References

Chapter 6 Carbon farming, regenerative agriculture, and environmental sustainability: practices and standards

2 Carbon farming

3 Measuring carbon balances

4 Product carbon footprints and life cycle assessment

5 Carbon trading

6 Regenerative agriculture

7 Supply chain standards for environmental sustainability

8 Conclusion

9 Where to look for further information

10 References

Chapter 7 Biodiversity and nature credit markets: opportunities and challenges for landowners and land managers

2 Drivers behind biodiversity offsets and nature credit schemes

3 Options for landowners and land managers

4 Governance and regulation

5 Monitoring and reporting

7 Where to look for further information.

8 References

Chapter 8 The role of standards in improving the sustainability of livestock production: current challenges and future perspectives

2 Current research on livestock sustainability standards

3 Understanding developments in dairy sustainability standards using transition theory: the sustainable market transformation model (SMTM)

4 Understanding developments in dairy sustainability standards using the SMTM framework: practical examples

5 How dairy sustainability standards work: two case studies

6 Future developments: competition versus convergence

7 Future developments: stability versus continuous improvement and harmonisation versus differentiation

8 Future developments: measuring impact

9 Conclusion

10 Where to look for further information

11 References

Chapter 9 Developing good agricultural practices (GAP) across global agri-food supply chains: challenges and opportunities

2 The evolution of GAP as a concept

3 The development of GAP standards

4 Challenges facing GAP standards and implementation

5 Ensuring the effectiveness and inclusivity of GAP: the case of VietGAP

7 Acknowledgements

Chapter 10 Improving sustainable agricultural principles and practices: the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN)

2 Towards a more sustainable future for agriculture: the Sustainable Agriculture Network

3 The Sustainable Agriculture Framework

4 Examples of sustainability programmes guided by SAF: the Integrated Landscape Approach (TerraViva)

5 Examples of sustainability programmes guided by SAF: on-farm biodiversity and integrated pest management (Ecoasis)

6 Examples of sustainability programmes guided by SAF: multifunctional field margins (Operation Pollinator)

7 Future trends

8 Conclusion.

9 References

Chapter 11 Fulfilling the promise of sustainability certification: reflections from the Rainforest Alliance

2 Origins

3 How Rainforest Alliance certification works

4 Challenges and future directions

5 The next frontier: a level playing field

Chapter 12 Forest certification - an answer to the challenge of sustainable forest management?

2 How forest certification works and different forest standards

3 Delivering environmental, social and financial value

4 Case study: small private forest owners' motives for forest certification

5 Forest certification for small private forest owners

Part 3 Measuring compliance and improving performance

Chapter 13 The role of technology in monitoring and verifying safety, quality and sustainability in agri-food supply chains

2 The value of food traceability systems

3 Making food traceability systems smart: blockchain and other distributed ledger technology solutions for food traceability

4 Making food traceability system smart: Internet of Things

5 Making food traceability systems smart: big data and artificial intelligence

6 Making food traceability systems smart: digital twins

7 Transparency in food supply chains

9 References

Chapter 14 Measuring and improving good agricultural practices (GAP) related to safety of fresh produce: the case of controlled environment agriculture

2 Food safety objectives (FSO), performance objectives (PO) and other measures

3 Risk analysis and risk assessment in fresh produce production

4 Good agricultural practices (GAP) in the context of controlled environment agriculture (CEA).

5 Managing contamination risks in CEA systems

6 Hygiene indicators for CEA systems

7 Conclusion

8 Where to look for further information

Chapter 15 Measuring and modelling on-farm greenhouse gas emissions : the basis for achieving climate-neutral farming

2 Greenhouse gas emissions on the farm

3 Methods to measure greenhouse gas emissions from cropland and grasslands: chamber measurements

4 Methods to measure greenhouse gas emissions from cropland and grasslands: eddy covariance measurements

5 Methods to measure greenhouse gas emissions from cropland and grasslands: remote sensing

6 Methods to measure greenhouse gas emissions from livestock

7 Models to estimate greenhouse gas emissions on the farm

8 Farm assessment tools to estimate greenhouse gas emissions

9 How do different methods contribute to net zero?

10 Future developments in measuring greenhouse gas emissions at the farm scale

Chapter 16 The role of standards and certification in delivering safe, sustainable and socially responsible agri-food supply chains

2 The evolution of standards

3 Measuring compliance and improving performance

4 Conclusion

5 Where to look for further information

Index.

ISBN:

1-80146-452-9

1-80146-453-7

OCLC:

1481722876