TY - JOUR

T1 - Between farms and forks

T2 - Food industry perspectives on the future of EU food labelling

AU - Schulze, Christoph

AU - Matzdorf, Bettina

AU - Rommel, Jens

AU - Czajkowski, Mikołaj

AU - García-Llorente, Marina

AU - Gutiérrez-Briceño, Inés

AU - Larsson, Lina

AU - Zagórska, Katarzyna

AU - Zawadzki, Wojciech

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement n° 818190 ). We thank two anonymous referees for their valuable feedback and Andrej Hagenmüller for his support of the project. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not represent an official view of their organizations.

PY - 2024/3

Y1 - 2024/3

N2 - This study assesses how information about the provision of ecosystem services can contribute to an integrative food labelling framework within the European Unions' Farm to Fork Strategy. By applying Q-methodology with 43 food industry experts from four European member states – Germany, Poland, Spain, and Sweden –, we identify common viewpoints among food processors, retailers and labelling organisations. We find a consensus in support of introducing new food labels that would encourage farmers to deliver more ecosystem services, such as increased farm biodiversity. Applying factor analysis and using the qualitative information from the interviews, we derive three distinct prototypes of a future European food label: 1) a producer-driven ecosystem services label, 2) a consumer-oriented information label, and 3) a new EU sustainable food label. These label prototypes are partly country-specific and invoked by multiple stakeholder groups. We conclude that a future European Union food labelling framework must account for all three label prototypes. Policymakers are advised to embrace the diversity of viewpoints of food system actors, as they are the main drivers of the success and failure of labels.

AB - This study assesses how information about the provision of ecosystem services can contribute to an integrative food labelling framework within the European Unions' Farm to Fork Strategy. By applying Q-methodology with 43 food industry experts from four European member states – Germany, Poland, Spain, and Sweden –, we identify common viewpoints among food processors, retailers and labelling organisations. We find a consensus in support of introducing new food labels that would encourage farmers to deliver more ecosystem services, such as increased farm biodiversity. Applying factor analysis and using the qualitative information from the interviews, we derive three distinct prototypes of a future European food label: 1) a producer-driven ecosystem services label, 2) a consumer-oriented information label, and 3) a new EU sustainable food label. These label prototypes are partly country-specific and invoked by multiple stakeholder groups. We conclude that a future European Union food labelling framework must account for all three label prototypes. Policymakers are advised to embrace the diversity of viewpoints of food system actors, as they are the main drivers of the success and failure of labels.

KW - Ecosystem services

KW - Farm to fork strategy

KW - Food labels

KW - Food system common agricultural policy

KW - Q methodology

KW - Value chain

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179442479&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108066

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108066

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85179442479

VL - 217

JO - Ecological economics

JF - Ecological economics

SN - 0921-8009

M1 - 108066

ER -