Most trade agreements, as for example the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, undervalue the intimate connection between agriculture and the environment. This neglect has potentially ruinous consequences for both nature and farming. For an increase in cross-border trade in agricultural goods will predominantly lead to a further spread of industrial agriculture, i.e. large-scale farming systems that are capable of delivering large quantities of standardized products at low prices for shipment, processing and retailing. Yet large-scale farming relies heavily on external inputs, such as engineered seeds, energy-intensive fertilizers, chemical pesticides, electricity, fuel, and irrigation. Industrial agriculture is based on predatory technologies. As a result, agricultural trade liberalization speeds up the degradation of local and global ecosystems. Transnational markets, however, should induce a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom; high standards should be their distinguishing mark rather than low standards. For this reason, any trade flows that pass natoinal borders should conform to basic quality standards; certification is both a proof of quality and – in the long run – an entry ticket for the world market.

 

However, globally defined standards for environmental and social quality are not without problems. They tend to put small farmers, especially in the South, at a disadvantage, because certification is costly and complicated. Moreover, by their global nature they tend to be insufficiently responsive to the great variability within ecosystems and natural endowments. For these reasons, it is important to foster the development of local and independent certification schemes, to include the participation of farmers, NGOs, local retailers and small-scale sellers in the standard-setting process, and to link ‘fair trade’ labels to ‘organic’ labels in order to guarantee a fair share of the price to small organic farmers that enter the world market. In view of these parameters, it will be internationally federated licensing bodies rather than globally uniform standards that guarantee good standards in world markets. Meta-Standards at the multilateral level will ensure that contries need have sustainabilty process and production standards in place that are appropriate for their economic, social and ecological settings, and that have been developed in a fair and participatory standard setting process.

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