Sustainability indicators for food quality schemes: methodology development and feedback from pilot cases in the context of the H2020 Strength2Food project
Résumé
The topic of our paper is to present an empirical case of development of methodology which mobilizes diverse disciplines and actors on the question of sustainability of food quality schemes (FQS).
This project, named Strength2Food, is a five years € 6.9 million European project to improve the effectiveness of EU FQS, public sector food procurement (PSFP) and to stimulate Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) through research, innovation and demonstration activities. The 30-partner consortium representing 11 EU and four non-EU countries combines academic, communication, SMEs and stakeholder organizations to ensure a multi-actor approach. It will undertake case study-based quantitative research to measure economic, environmental and social impacts of FQS, PSFP and SFSC.
For the sustainability assessment of FQSs – namely products certified as either organic or of protected geographical origin or indication – the question boiled down to: how to measure economical, environmental and social impact of FQS in different countries and subject to the resource constraints of an H2020 project? As an answer, 25 indicators were designed. In order to balance indicator precision and indicator applicability, three angles of prioritization are set, together with a series of guidelines and supporting tool for data collection and indicator computation. We will present this list of indicators on how to assess sustainability in food supply chains, together with the guidelines on data collection, prioritization and counterpart selection. Finally, we will illustrate the method on three pilot cases, together with the adjustments made to the methodology in reaction to the feedbacks these pilots. We will highlight a specific point about the fact that the interdisciplinary and comparison dimensions of this methodology imply necessary compromises and simplifications. It is at this price that we will be able to deploy a feasible methodology over the 30 FQS case studies covered by the sustainability assessment of the Strength2Food project.