3. Private standards as regulatory tools
By increasing the visibility of actors’ actions to others in the
value chain standards enable the maintenance of trust in relationships
that are distant or indirect. Nevertheless, as Mol (2015)
points out, enhanced visibility or transparency is not equally
distributed. While producers and processors are subject to
increased surveillance and regulation by buyers, the reverse is
rarely true (see also Mutersbaugh, 2004). As regulatory tools,
standards empower those with capacity to control the content of
standards and/or to impose demands for certification on others.
This is generally seen as responsible for something of a realignment
of power in the agrifood sector from transnational agrichemical,
commodity trading and food processing businesses to large retailers
(Bain et al., 2013). However, a key factor in the rapid growth
of retailer-led private standards from the early 1990s was the threat
that if retailers did not do more to protect the integrity and safety of
their supply chains then governments would force them to do so.1
The UK Food Safety Act 1990, for example, established financial and
custodial penalties for a variety of acts including those that render
food injurious to health or which mislead consumers (Aasprong,
2013). To defend themselves against such charges in the event of
a food safety incident businesses must demonstrate ‘due diligence’;
that is, that ‘all reasonable care’ has been taken to avoid committing
an offence (Food Standards Agency, 2009). As Lockie et al. (2013)
point out, demonstration of due diligence in the management of
risks associated with well established activities is usually achieved
through reference to standards and codes of conduct. While legal
directives to implement HACCP-based safety systems may focus on
a small number of ‘high risk’ food sectors, the due diligence
requirement in food safety legislation makes adoption of such
systems more-or-less mandatory for any business seeking to
reduce its potential liability for safety breaches.
Private food standards have developed and continue to evolve,
therefore, through interaction with state-based regulatory regimes.
HACCP principles function in these interactions as meta-standards
to guide the evolution of private standards in ways that meet the
objectives of government agencies. But food safety laws are not the
only legislative requirements relevant to private food standards.
Explicit attention is thus paid in the GLOBALG.A.P. standard to
additional legal requirements pertaining, most particularly, to
environmental protection and the rights, occupational health and
safety of employees. In order to explain the relationship between
government and private requirements, GLOBALG.A.P.’s Integrated
Farm Assurance Version 4 states that:
Legislation overrides GLOBALG.A.P. where relevant legislation is
more demanding. Where there is no legislation (or legislation is
not so strict), GLOBALG.A.P. provides a minimum acceptable
level of compliance. Legal compliance of all applicable legislation
per se is not a condition for certification. The audit carried out by
the GLOBALG.A.P. Certification Body is not replacing the responsibilities
of public compliance agencies to enforce legislation
(GLOBALG.A.P., 2012: 5; emphasis in original).
The GLOBALG.A.P. standard is thus positioned as subordinate to
state legislation wherever the requirements of that legislation
exceed those of GLOBALG.A.P. In practice, this is likely to be often.
The majority of GLOBALG.A.P. compliance points relevant to worker
welfare and the environment impose prescriptive requirements to
produce risk assessments, plans, procedures, records and training
opportunities but provide little (with the notable exception of
chemical use and storage practices) guidance as to the level of
performance expected. Businesses wanting a more tangible
endorsement of social performance may certify against the GLOBALG.
A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice (GRASP) voluntary addon
module. However, GRASP Assessments are available only for
countries with National Interpretation Guidelines specifying