European Organic Standard Setting Organisations and Climate Change Standards

During the past decade several European organic standard-setting organisations have introduced or considered standards relating to greenhouse gas emissions associated with the supply of certified produce. For the most part, these standards have focused on the transport of fruits and vegetables, and specifically air-freight used in the transport of imports. The focus on air freight is due to its relatively high level of CO2 emissions This paper reviews private-sector policies proposed or adopted by organic standard-setting organizations in three European countries: Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. For each case study it reviews the main initiatives in terms of the markets and products that they refer to, their proposed aims and coverage, the way that they were developed and designed, the reaction of different groups of stakeholders to them and the responses of their designers to these reactions. Only in one case has a standard actually been implemented, so discussion of outcomes is mainly speculative. Reflecting on the pattern of events uncovered, the paper tentatively concludes that the more prior consultation was involved with stakeholders, the less likely was a standard based on nonscientific principles. It observes, as well, that while the standards in question are usually driven by domestic producer organisations, they directly challenge the interests of large-scale retailers, which is to maximize supply and demand. By disqualifying products from the market, or rather from a growing market segment, they threaten the growth of sales. Retailers’ clear lack of enthusiasm tends to leave standards proponents isolated when attacks came from other sources 1. During the past decade several European organic standard-setting organisations have introduced or considered standards based on the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted during the production or supply of certified organic produce. The organisations concerned are Bio-Suisse (Switzerland), KRAV (Sweden) and the Soil Association (SA) (UK). In addition, Naturland (Germany) took a decision to develop such a standard, although it remains to be formulated. 2 2. These standards primarily, though not only, focus on air freight in the transport of imports. Consumers of organically grown products tend to be more environmentally conscious than the population at large. As public concern over climate change has grown, so has the interest of some organic consumers in the carbon ―footprint‖ of their consumption decisions. The relatively high growth rate of air freight and its related GHG emissions, and the disproportionate contribution of air freight to overall GHG emissions from food distribution, was highlighted especially with the advent in the early 1990s of the notion of ―food miles‖ — the distance that food travels from where it is produced to where it is consumed (Iles, 2005, p.163). Though the ―food miles‖ approach was criticized as overly simplistic and biased against the interests of developing-country exporters of agricultural products, the idea that high carbon emissions were incompatible with the philosophy of organic farming soon took hold among some quarters of the organic 1 The views expressed in this study are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of any of its Member governments. The author would like to thank Ronald Steenblik, and Dale Andrew for comments. Any remaining errors and omissions are the responsibility of the author. 2 Naturland established a working group on climate-related standards in 2007 with the aim of writing a draft standard by November 2008. The report of the working group was referred back with a call for further investigation. There is no longer a timetable for this activity (Interview 1).