Codex Planetarius Over Fragmented Certification

“Are there any other solutions that we may be missing and which we should be looking at to make supply chains more sustainable? There are two. First, we should be looking at different ownership and finance models. We should explore worker and producer equity models as ways to help the transition to a more sustainable food system that poses less risk for both producers and buyers. Second, Codex Alimentarius took health and safety standards for globally traded food out of the hands of thousands of certification programmes nearly 60 years ago. Could a Codex Planetarius, run by the FAO, ensure a set of six to eight environmental performance standards for globally traded commodities?”

“The conditions and timelines were specific and results based. We want to see results, not tell people how to achieve them. If we agree on the problems and what success would look like, the producers can find the best way to fix them. The fundamental question, however, is, ‘Why do we have certification bodies?’ The answer is ‘because governments aren’t doing their job to protect the planet for future generations’. Consequently, we’re creating parallel structures run by people who mostly don’t know much about producing products, much less about producing them sustainably. Certification is not the best”