Private standards are spreading rapidly in international food production and trade, and are moving beyond food quality and safety aspect to address environmental and social concerns. We examine how effective private standards are in improving employment conditions in global food supply chains. Using...

The aim of this article was to contribute to the discussion about whether standardization has a positive or negative impact on working conditions. The case studies of organizations certified to the quality management standard ISO 9000 served as the empirical base. The article shows that there is no ...

Worker welfare and employment conditions in the agri-food-producing and processing sectors in the global south have become an increasing concern for consumers. Sustainability standards, such as Fairtrade, play an important role in agri-food markets of horticultural produce and may be a tool to addre...

There is a growing body of literature that analyses the implications of private food standards for developing countries. Most of this literature has focused on the trade effects of standards and on the effects on exporters and producers. Very few studies have looked at the effect of standards for wo...

There is a growing recognition that the “Rising Powers”, namely the emerging economies, in particular, but not only, China, India and Brazil, whose economic dynamism has begun to transform the contours of the global economy, will bring about radical shifts in global governance. A critical question t...

This paper analyzes the possibilities and challenges of Fair Trade certification as a movement seeking to improve the well-being of small-scale coffee growers and coffee laborers in the global South. Six months of fieldwork was conducted in 2005–2006 to study the roles of a wide range of farmers, la...

In this paper the authors analyse the impact of GlobalGAP on workers welfare and whether the farm size affects that impact. They measure welfaire in terms of human capital, income, physical and mental health. In response to their hypothesis, the find that certification with GlobalGAP does have a pos...

Although research into fair and alternative trade networks has increased significantly in recent years, very little synthesis of the literature has occurred thus far, especially for social considerations such as gender, health, labor, and equity. We draw on insights from critical theorists to reflec...

This study looks at the impact of Fairtrade on labour rights using a case study in the flower production undustry in Ecuador. The analysis highlights how tensions between the traditional market (rooted in competition, efficiency and standardization) and alternative domestic and civil conventions ...