Sustainability of European Food Quality Schemes

This edited volume evaluates recent EU quality policy, focusing on the structure, governance, technical specifications and performances - economic, environmental and social - of Food Quality Schemes (FQS) in the European Union and South East Asia. The intended benefits of FQS include generating a fair return for farmers and producers, and enabling consumers to make better-informed purchasing choices through effective labeling. In addition, policy makers now consider FQS as a means of guaranteeing not only quality in food production, but also sustainability.

Despite these potential benefits, the economic performance of the FQS (e.g. PDO, PGI, organic) has been variable. While some support significant value-added production, with substantial benefits to producers, consumers and wider economies, many others have failed to become economically sustainable. In addition, the environmental and social performance of FQS remains largely unexamined, with theexception of the environmental performance of organic products.

The editors examine these discrepancies and offer a nuanced evaluation of the effectiveness of such policies. Several unique features make this volume a key resource for those interested in FQS and in the sustainability of food products. The editors provide a concise description of the value chain, the governance and the technical specifications of 27 FQS in Europe and South East Asia. The editors also provide a sustainability assessment of each of these FQS, and support or question the view that FQS are moving from "quality" to "sustainability." Finally, the volume serves as a repository of key data on these FQS. Readers have access to the raw data necessary to compute the indicators used in the sustainability assessment (eg. value added, number of jobs, quantity of fertilizers, etc), allowing them to conduct novel re-analysis.