Sustainability of certified production systems : the case of labels in the food sector

In a label initiative, the stakeholders are manifold but most important are the producers and producers’associations, the retail sector, the public authorities, the control organisations, environmental NGO’s, consumer representatives and so on. The basic hypothesis investigated is that the prevailing rules of a label are constructed in such a way that the common objectives of all these stakeholders are maximised while minimising the negative impacts of the label on each of them (e.g. maximising the market share while minimising the cost for producers, retail sector, control cost for both public authorities andcertifying organisations and so on). This can explain differences among labels depending who has been initiating the label or certificate or because of differences in power structure among the stakeholders, but also provide reasons why labels are evolving in a certain way or are not going further although improvements could be possible. The research was based on analysing different labels in the fruit and vegetable sector who have as one of their main objectives to reduce the effects of pesticides on the public health and the environment. Following research questions were analysed:
1. what is the impact of the label or certification rules on farm practices and may these differences ineffects on farm management explain differences in success of labels among farmers;
2. can the environmental impacts of the rules within a label be assessed and can this be an objective basis for analysing differences in emphasis among labels and for evaluating possible improvements in existing labels;
3. are there differences in the social construction of labels, ad who does impact the way labels change farmers’ practices;
4. how do consumers formulate the question of pesticides and do labels provide adequate responses to these questions
5. how do farmers and other stakeholders formulate the question of pesticides and does this influences their view on labelling strategies
6. how do farmers react on possible trajectories to change the rules in a label ?