Research Grant: Achieving Public Climate Goals in private food supply chain relationships

The project aims at organizing four high profile workshops and the creation of a couple of short videos (interview-style).
Newspapers report that people and governments should step up their efforts in combatting (the negative effects of) climate change. However, governments often tend to create general frameworks and goals, while private actors (like banks, suppliers, etc.) need to create legal (contractual) frameworks through which the very broad public goals are achieved. The food supply chain offers a nice example. While governments (and the EU) set targets and/or forbid certain practices (e.g., deforestation for the creation of farmland, etc.), they do not always stipulate how, and which party should be liable in case of infringements. In practice, this requires data collection, data governance, data sharing and contractual due diligence schemes in the entire food supply chain, including parties within the chain on whom de (EU) legislation / regulation does not even apply.
The core objectives are:
- Identifying and mapping how private actors, even if not falling under the applicable legislation, can be impacted in their private relationships by legislation imposed on bigger, multinational corporations within the food supply chain.
- Defining both key elements and complexities relevant for developing an adequate legislative framework for sustainable food systems considering the concerns of all parties, actors involved (farmers, producers, industries, food auditors, supermarket chains and consumers).
- Exploring how private actors within the food supply chain can create awareness and compliance for public goals (a.o. by the insertion of contractual due diligence requirements, shifting consumer behavior towards a more ecological, sustainable consumption (including paying more for a eco-friendly production process).

The workshops will address these objectives around 4 themes, important to the food supply chain:
1. Workshop 1: Eco-labelling and information disclosure between competitors and towards consumers (including topics like greenwashing and green hushing).
2. Workshop 2: How to finance a greener and ecological food production industry?
3. Workshop 3: How can actors within the food supply chain allocate the risks linked to infringements (e.g., misuse of workers, abuse of market positions, unfair commercial practices)?
4. Workshop 4: How can actors within the food supply chain allocate the risks linked to deforestation?