Footprinting (carbon, water) labelling, organic, gluten free, preservatives free, 'this' friendly...you know, you've seem it on the shelves in your local Woolies; on food products you're trying to choose. Can the information; supposedly embodied into the label not distort (pervert, disguise) the bio-agroeconomic reality it is supposed to represent? What kind of signal is it really sending to the food/fibre production sector? Those two questions are not really simple, are they?
Behind the label
Lots of people are ready for 'responsible consuming' but we all know it depends on the information we want to have (i mean we are not all defining 'responsibility' the same way), we can have and we can understand (knowledge, time). Even economists have accepted to change the 'consuming' model and include more social factors in their analysis. Retailers have found a never before dreamed of opportunity to renew their image, their market share and their market bargaining power. But we also all know then, when its written 'carbon neutral, 45CO2eq. or water efficient, or '5 swimming pools of water were needed in the process of making this beef', or 'chemicals or preservatives free'...we know it's not exactly what the actual cow, or the two pigs used in this sausages, or those 12 different cherry tomatoes, that actually went through that (this consumption of water, this carbon emission...). I'm sure we all understand it's an average, that this exact number or these scales (that qualifies or not the products to be in one category of the other) are calculation. Do we all know that they are not only calculations, but also estimates. An estimation rest on 'assumptions' and 'statistics' instead of measurement. It's a bit like the difference between a survey and a census. So for example, in the case of the carbon footprint of your tomatoes, an equation has already fixed parameters (g of Co2 emitted during the life cycle of this variety of tomato in this area (soil, type of culture), given level of emission of the different inputs (fert, pest...), emissions corresponding to the energy used for this tomatoe (average of total use on a reference number, yield of the tomato). Relatively, variables of the equation are not that many (the season, the volume) and the variable are actually the only measured elements. The equations are no less important in the 'substance free' product and most of the time; it doesn't mean that all the product and its components are free of the substance. It's presence under a certain level and equation are needed to fix an acceptable level, according to the production method and the possible consequences (healths, concerns).
So how does it work? One company of the labelling system has built a data base and the corresponding software, another is settings the standards and third company is organising the controls. I wont go further on this in this post, but i wanted to spell out simply (?) some elements behind the labels. Now let's have a look at the consequences or the relation with the producing system.
The label and the farm?
I have already outlined that the claims made on the labels of products, don't correspond to the product actually contained within, and that these claims are not specific to the farm having produced it. The farmer may have similar concerns about sustainablity as the consumers, but certainly the main driving influence is it's economic (depending on the socio-economic context ie government subsidised, or commercial value) viabilty. Other farms could be interested in doing the corresponding changes (checking the corresponding with the standards, measuring some references points to benchmark the farm among the other supplier) if it appears economically interesting. Some farm may have less alternatives if the usual and bigger buyer realised that in this location these farm have good 'estimates' and it would supply an important volume of product which could be labeled.
What's tricky is that agronomy, as much (if less) as economic, is not a totally exact science and farmers (small or corporate). Good observations and good measurement are key to manage with the soil, the weather, the local biodiversity, the local energy and water supply. So it would be thoughtful to make sure these equations are discussed, revised, adapted, also shared by the farmers, reset depending on measurement. Everybody can understand that a minimum of certainty, stability is needed for the marketing (from the labeling creation to the placement of the product). Everybody can't ignore that if these labels are setting standards not corresponding to a 'clever' way of production, it may again have some un-wanted impact. For example, focusing only on the greenhouse gas emissions is now leading the science to find way to adapt the digestive systems of ruminants. Organic producing needs more time and sometimes more skills or more space to produce the same volumes. In some cases, mono-criteria labeling (focusing of one little details of the agronomic production system) can have contradictory effects on another criteria. For example, hormones free products could mean more emissions as well as it could mean, in some regions. A low water footprint may be compensated with more total energy consumption (fertilizers, pesticides). This demonstration tends to lead to the conclusion than a comprehensive label like 'organic and environment neutral' is needed. Right. We're not there yet and i don't think there is a 'one fits all' solution. There is a new trend in the 'ag network' to relate very quickly 'food crisis - hunger' to a need a global increased production. There are plenty of reasonable concerns regarding the availability of land, water, the need to maintain and increase production and productivity. It also seems so simple to forget that overproduction in some countries has never been simply related to hunger in another. But it's also too simple to propose 'unique size' or ones that have strong impacts on farms practices and global productivity. On one side, shared, checked and valued information should play a much more important part and the way to guarantee this can't be forgotten. On the other side productivity definitions must may be thought in another way to reflect current production complexity and complex consumers demands.
To conclude, the technical and -at least apparently-scientific claims done on mushrooming food/fiber labels tends to make us forget that they are a medium with both marketing and informative purposes. The history and reflection on the media and journalism industry may brought an interesting light in this debate. I'll work on this question.
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