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The private governance of food: equitable exchange or bizarre bazaar?

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  • Lawrence Busch

Abstract

In recent years, we have witnessed three parallel and intertwined trends: First, food retail and processing firms have embraced private standards, usually with some form of third party certification employed to verify adherence to those standards. Second, firms have increasingly aligned themselves with, as opposed to fighting off, environmental, fair trade, and other NGOs. Third, firms have embraced supply chain management as a strategy for increasing profits and market share. Together, these trends are part and parcel of the neoliberal blurring of the older liberal distinction between state and civil society. In this paper I ask what the implications of these changes are from the vantage point of the three major approaches to ethics: consequentialism, virtue theory, and rights theory. What are the consequences of these changes for food safety, for suppliers, for consumers? What virtues (e.g., trust, fairness) are these changes likely to embrace and what vices may accompany them? Whose rights will be furthered or curtailed by these changes? Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence Busch, 2011. "The private governance of food: equitable exchange or bizarre bazaar?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(3), pages 345-352, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:28:y:2011:i:3:p:345-352
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-009-9210-0
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    11. Agni Kalfagianni, 2014. "Addressing the Global Sustainability Challenge: The Potential and Pitfalls of Private Governance from the Perspective of Human Capabilities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 307-320, June.
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    13. Douglas H. Constance, 2023. "The doctors of agrifood studies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 31-43, March.
    14. Carmen Bain & Tamera Dandachi, 2014. "Governing GMOs: The (Counter) Movement for Mandatory and Voluntary Non-GMO Labels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-21, December.
    15. Olga Rodak, 2020. "Hashtag hijacking and crowdsourcing transparency: social media affordances and the governance of farm animal protection," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 281-294, June.
    16. Jason Konefal, 2015. "Governing Sustainability Transitions: Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives and Regime Change in United States Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, January.
    17. Inghelbrecht, Linde & Dessein, Joost & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2013. "PR - To Commercialize Or Not To Commercialize Genetically Modified Crops In The Eu Environment," 19th Congress, Warsaw, Poland, 2013 345710, International Farm Management Association.
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    19. Nicholas G. Marconi & Neal H. Hooker & Nicholas DiMarcello III, 2017. "What's in a Name? The Impact of Fair Trade Claims on Product Price," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 160-174, April.

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