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AbstractOver the past 20 years, standards and certification have become the leading governance mechanism for determining what sustainability entails, how to measure it, and how to assess it. This system of sustainability standards has generally relied upon the third‐party certification (TPC) model to ensure that producers are complying with standards. Over the past ten to fifteen years, critiques of this model have emerged in both practitioner and academic circles that question the appropriateness of this model based on the type of knowledge that is privileged, the marginalisation of some actors, and the allocation of accountability to individual rather than collective actors. We draw upon case studies from Japan and Chile to examine the ways that participatory guarantee systems (PGS) institute practices for defining, measuring, and assessing sustainability that empower local actors – both producers and consumers. Our cases illustrate that expert and lay knowledges are both relevant and often have different strengths. We argue that PGS offer an alternative approach to sustainability governance, one that may be more democratic and hence, produce forms of sustainability that incorporate the lived experiences of people around the world.

AbstractThird‐party certification (TPC) is becoming an integral component of the global agrifood system. However, little is known about its functions, structures and practices. In this article we examine the emergence of TPC as a governance mechanism, its organisational structure, and its practices. Distinguishing between two forms of 'independence'– organisational and operational – we argue that TPC exhibits organisational, but not operational independence. Thus, in contrast to the view of TPC as an objective governance mechanism, we argue that TPC is embedded in social, political and economic networks. This finding, we argue, raises questions as to how TPC is structured and operates, who gets to decide the ways it is structured and operates, and the ways that TPC might differentially impact on actors in the food and agricultural sector.

Over the past twenty years, standards and certification have become the leading governance mechanism for determining what sustainability entails, how to measure it, and how to assess it. This system of sustainability standards has generally relied upon the third-party certification (TPC) model to ensure that producers are complying with standards. Over the past ten to fifteen years, critiques of this model have emerged in both practitioner and academic circles that question the appropriateness of this model based on the type of knowledge that is privileged, the marginalization of some actors, and the allocation of accountability to individual rather than collective actors. We draw upon case studies from Japan and Chile to examine the ways that participatory guarantee systems (PGS) institute practices for defining, measuring, and assessing sustainability that empower local actors – both producers and consumers. Our cases illustrate that expert and lay knowledges are both relevant and often have different strengths. We argue that PGS offer an alternative approach to sustainability governance, one that may be more democratic and hence, produce forms of sustainability that incorporate the lived experiences of people around the world.

Over the past twenty years, standards and certification have become the leading governance mechanism for determining what sustainability entails, how to measure it, and how to assess it. This system of sustainability standards has generally relied upon the third-party certification (TPC) model to ensure that producers are complying with standards. Over the past ten to fifteen years, critiques of this model have emerged in both practitioner and academic circles that question the appropriateness of this model based on the type of knowledge that is privileged, the marginalization of some actors, and the allocation of accountability to individual rather than collective actors. We draw upon case studies from Japan and Chile to examine the ways that participatory guarantee systems (PGS) institute practices for defining, measuring, and assessing sustainability that empower local actors – both producers and consumers. Our cases illustrate that expert and lay knowledges are both relevant and often have different strengths. We argue that PGS offer an alternative approach to sustainability governance, one that may be more democratic and hence, produce forms of sustainability that incorporate the lived experiences of people around the world. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Over the past twenty years, standards and certification have become the leading governance mechanism for determining what sustainability entails, how to measure it, and how to assess it. This system of sustainability standards has generally relied upon the third-party certification (TPC) model to ensure that producers are complying with standards. Over the past ten to fifteen years, critiques of this model have emerged in both practitioner and academic circles that question the appropriateness of this model based on the type of knowledge that is privileged, the marginalization of some actors, and the allocation of accountability to individual rather than collective actors. We draw upon case studies from Japan and Chile to examine the ways that participatory guarantee systems (PGS) institute practices for defining, measuring, and assessing sustainability that empower local actors – both producers and consumers. Our cases illustrate that expert and lay knowledges are both relevant and often have different strengths. We argue that PGS offer an alternative approach to sustainability governance, one that may be more democratic and hence, produce forms of sustainability that incorporate the lived experiences of people around the world. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The industrial agrifood system is in crisis regarding its negative ecological, economic, and social externalities: it is unsustainable on all dimensions. This book documents and engages competing visions and contested discourses of agrifood sustainability. Using an incremental/reformist to transformation/radical continuum framework for alternative agrifood movements, this book identifies tensions between competing discourses that stress food sovereignty, social justice, and fair trade and those that emphasize food security, efficiency and free trade. In particular, it highlights the role that governance processes play in sustainability transitions and the ways that power and politics affect sustainability visions and discourses. The book includes chapters that review sustainability discourses at the macro and meso levels, as well as case studies from Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, South America and the USA.

Contested sustainability discourses in the agrifood system : an overview / Douglas H. Constance -- Sustainable intensification: agroecological appropriation or contestation? / Les Levidow -- Sustainable intensification as a sociotechnical imaginary / Paul B. Thompson -- Agrifood discourses and feeding the world : unpacking sustainable intensification / Douglas H. Constance and Athena Moseley -- Sustainability as the civil commons : laying the groundwork for sustainable agriculture / Jennifer Sumner -- Zero hunger discourse : neoliberal, progressive, reformist or radical? / Kiah Smith -- Greenwashing the animal-industrial complex : sustainable intensification and the livestock revolution / Livia Boscardin -- Are food quality schemes an alternative to the conventional food system? : reflections on the EU metaphors on agrifood quality regulation / Josep Espluga-Trenc, Marina Di Masso, and Marta G. Rivera-Ferre and Arantxa Capdevila -- Discourses on sustainability in the French farming sector : the redefinition of a consensual and knowledge-intensive "agroecology" / Jessica Thomas -- Dueling discourses of sustainability : neo-conventional and organic farming on the Canadian prairies / Michael Gertler, JoAnn Jaffe, and Mary Beckie -- Contested sustainability discourses as lived experience : conflicted feelings towards meat in consumers' narratives and life stories / Robert M. Chiles -- Shifting visions of sustainability in the United States agriculture : a case study of the role of multi-stakeholder governance / Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka -- Understanding the challenge of problem fefinition in multistakeholder initiatives : lessons from sustainability policy frames in Canadian non-state food strategies / Margaret Bancerz -- Standardizing "unsused" land : the politics of indicators in land classification / Daniel Bornstein -- Justifying the standardization of sustainability impact / Allison Marie Loconto -- Fault lines in sustainability : contestation, cooptation, reform, and transformation / Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka

AbstractIn recent years, performance metrics and digital technologies have gained substantial support to advance on‐farm sustainability. The combined use of metrics and digital technologies represents a potentially important shift in agricultural sustainability governance, which has largely been dominated by the use of standards and certification. Focusing on the U.S. context, this paper examines the operationalization of the emerging metrics and data (M&D) approach to sustainability governance in food and agriculture. Specifically, we analyze the factors undergirding the growing usage of an M&D approach to sustainability, the structure, and practices of such an approach as well as the roles and implications for key actors in agrifood systems. Our analysis indicates that although an M&D approach to an agricultural sustainability transition potentially addresses some of the critiques and limitations associated with the use of standards and certification and has the growing support of a range of stakeholders, it also faces numerous challenges. These include a lack of incentives and insufficient value for growers, concerns over data ownership and access, and barriers to the translation of data into changes in grower management and practices.