Between farms and forks

Food industry perspectives on the future of EU food labelling

authored by

Christoph Schulze, Bettina Matzdorf, Jens Rommel, Mikołaj Czajkowski, Marina García-Llorente, Inés Gutiérrez-Briceño, Lina Larsson, Katarzyna Zagórska, Wojciech Zawadzki

Abstract

This study assesses how information about the provision of ecosystem services can contribute to an integrative food labelling framework within the European Unions' Farm to Fork Strategy. By applying Q-methodology with 43 food industry experts from four European member states – Germany, Poland, Spain, and Sweden –, we identify common viewpoints among food processors, retailers and labelling organisations. We find a consensus in support of introducing new food labels that would encourage farmers to deliver more ecosystem services, such as increased farm biodiversity. Applying factor analysis and using the qualitative information from the interviews, we derive three distinct prototypes of a future European food label: 1) a producer-driven ecosystem services label, 2) a consumer-oriented information label, and 3) a new EU sustainable food label. These label prototypes are partly country-specific and invoked by multiple stakeholder groups. We conclude that a future European Union food labelling framework must account for all three label prototypes. Policymakers are advised to embrace the diversity of viewpoints of food system actors, as they are the main drivers of the success and failure of labels.

Organisation(s)

Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Sciences

External Organisation(s)

Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
University of Warsaw
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
KRAV ekonomisk förening

Type

Article

Journal

Ecological economics

Volume

217

No. of pages

12

ISSN

0921-8009

Publication date

03.2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Science(all), Economics and Econometrics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108066 (Access: Closed)