IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jsd123/v8y2015i6p196.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ecolabeling as a Sustainability Strategy for Smallholder Farming? The Emergence of Participatory Certification Systems in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Guilherme Radomsky
  • Ondina Leal

Abstract

This article explores the emergence of ecolabeling of organic products in the context of the contemporary debate on global risks related to food production and consumption, focusing in particular on the implications for smallholder farming in Brazil. Independent certification is sustained by technical and bureaucratic mechanisms, sanctioned by international organizations and multilateral agencies whose power structures encourage the production of rules and systems of enforcement. By contrast, local food movements and civil society initiatives point to the emergence of alternative, participatory forms of ecolabeling. These local organizations have come up with new ways of constructing collective quality seals and assurances for products. They have spurred debates on the technologies, power structures and risks associated with corporate agriculture, large-scale pesticide use and chemically grown produce. As an alternative, ecolabeling requires a multi-level articulation of smallholder farming, food cooperatives and farmer markets, in order to create a local certification system for eco-sustainable produce and maintain the sustainability of traditional modes of existence of small farmers. Grounded in a long-term ethnographic study among ecological family farming in the western region of Santa Catarina, Brazil, this paper examines ecolabeling legal frameworks both globally and locally. It highlights the complexity of the eco-labeling process in Brazil, a context where diverse farmers’ movements, non-governmental organizations and technical and State political actors grapple with questions relating to the social and economic values of sustainable organic agriculture. The data presented here is based on bibliographical, documental research and analysis of laws, decrees and norms. The study examines the recent historical process involving certification rules and regulations, especially those affecting agriculture. It also surveys the literature on the topic, bringing to light interpretive variations and other cases offering a contrast to Brazil’s experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Guilherme Radomsky & Ondina Leal, 2015. "Ecolabeling as a Sustainability Strategy for Smallholder Farming? The Emergence of Participatory Certification Systems in Brazil," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(6), pages 196-196, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:8:y:2015:i:6:p:196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/download/47861/27647
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/47861
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hatanaka, Maki & Bain, Carmen & Busch, Lawrence, 2005. "Third-party certification in the global agrifood system," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 354-369, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alexander E. Saak, 2017. "The Value of Delegated Quality Control," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 309-335, June.
    2. Charity, Nabwire Ephamia Juma, "undated". "Economic Analysis Of Consumers’ Awareness And Willingness To Pay For Geographical Indicators And Other Quality Attributes Of Honey In Kenya," Research Theses 265574, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    3. Friedrich, Nina & Heyder, Matthias & Theuvsen, Ludwig, 2012. "Sustainability Management in Agribusiness: Challenges, Concepts, Responsibilities and Performance," 2012 International European Forum, February 13-17, 2012, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 144979, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    4. Belton, Ben & Haque, Mohammad Mahfujul & Little, David C. & Sinh, Le Xuan, 2011. "Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it matter?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 289-299, April.
    5. Stefan Mann, 2016. "Governing complementary responsibility goods through hybrid systems in a globalizing world," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 9(1), pages 14-21.
    6. Anders, Sven M. & Souza Monteiro, Diogo M. & Rouviere, Elodie, 2007. "Objectiveness in the Market for Third-Party Certification: Does market structure matter?," 105th Seminar, March 8-10, 2007, Bologna, Italy 7894, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Islam, Md. Saidul, 2008. "From pond to plate: Towards a twin-driven commodity chain in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 209-223, June.
    8. Hugh Campbell & Anne Murcott & Angela MacKenzie, 2011. "Kosher in New York City, halal in Aquitaine: challenging the relationship between neoliberalism and food auditing," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(1), pages 67-79, February.
    9. Eric Giraud-Héraud & Cristina Grazia & Abdelhakim Hammoudi, 2012. "Explaining the Emergence of Private Standards in Food Supply Chains," Working Papers hal-00749345, HAL.
    10. Bailey, Alison P. & Garforth, Chris, 2014. "An industry viewpoint on the role of farm assurance in delivering food safety to the consumer: The case of the dairy sector of England and Wales," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 14-24.
    11. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    12. Jean-Pierre Galland, 2017. "Big Third-Party Certifiers and the Construction of Transnational Regulation," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 670(1), pages 263-279, March.
    13. Stefan Ouma, 2010. "Global Standards, Local Realities: Private Agrifood Governance and the Restructuring of the Kenyan Horticulture Industry," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(2), pages 197-222, April.
    14. Neda Trifković, 2014. "Food Standards and Vertical Coordination in Aquaculture: The Case of Pangasius from Vietnam," IFRO Working Paper 2014/01, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    15. Annalisa Zezza & Federica Demaria & Tiziana Laureti & Luca Secondi, 2020. "Supervising third-party control bodies for certification: the case of organic farming in Italy," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, December.
    16. Carmen Bain & Tamera Dandachi, 2014. "Governing GMOs: The (Counter) Movement for Mandatory and Voluntary Non-GMO Labels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-21, December.
    17. Janssen, Meike & Hamm, Ulrich, 2014. "Governmental and private certification labels for organic food: Consumer attitudes and preferences in Germany," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P2), pages 437-448.
    18. Henson, Spencer & Reardon, Thomas, 2005. "Private agri-food standards: Implications for food policy and the agri-food system," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 241-253, June.
    19. Phatra Samerwong & Hilde M Toonen & Peter Oosterveer & Simon R Bush, 2020. "A capability approach to assess aquaculture sustainability standard compliance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, January.
    20. Mohammed, Rezgar & Zheng, Yuqing, 2017. "International Diffusion Of Food Safety Standards: The Role Of Domestic Certifiers And International Trade," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(2), pages 296-322, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:8:y:2015:i:6:p:196. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.