Priority Issues
Each sector has been designated priority issues with the description of where it occurs in the production chain. The priority issues are the most pressing problems in each sector according to Fairfood International, extracted from the wider scope of our sustainability agenda.
In the soy sector, Fairfood International has identified the following priority issues:
Brand Owners are required to cover a minimum number of five out of six of the priority issues.
Successes
Fairfood has lobbied meat, diary, egg and poultry brand owners to switch to more responsible soy for their animal feed. So far, three main players on the Dutch egg market have made this switch:
Kwetters, Guliker & Roodbol and Natuurfarm De Boed. At least 90% of the soy needed by all three companies to produce their eggs is now sustainable Basel soy (see description below). Campina, the largest dairy brand in the Netherlands, has been sourcing increasing amounts of sustainable soy too. It is the first European dairy company to make such a commitment. Campina recently started participating in soy family farming projects for sustainable soy from South America. The companies CONO (producing Beemster cheese) and Ben & Jerry’s are also involved in sustainable soy family farming projects in India.
Certification labels
ProTerra (Basel soy) – The ProTerra Standard forms a set of criteria for sustainable soy. The certification standard is developed by the Brazilian organisation Cert-ID and meets the so-called “Basel criteria”; these criteria concern the environment as well as labour conditions. ProTerra labelled soy does not involve more forest clearing and the community and/or its labour force are not being exploited. Certified producers shall provide evidence that all of their land use is legal. Companies such as Campina, De Hoeve, Kwetters, Gulliker & Roodbol, Natuurfarm de Boed and Alpro Soja buy Basel soy for their animal feed.
EcoSocial – EcoSocial is a Brazilian certification label that is available for organic soy producers only. Soy farmers that produce for this label not only use environmentally sustainable methods, but also offer sound wages to their workers and good health and safety conditions at work. The label guarantees a reliable relationship between buyer and seller, clear agreements and open price negotiations. The aim of EcoSocial is to leave room for the local context and practises of the producers. In Europe, all the organic products of Alpro Soja have the EcoSocial label.
Fairtrade – the Fairtrade (FLO) label indicates that small farmers have long term agreements on the supply of soy and the producers receive a guaranteed minimum price that covers both social costs and the costs of protecting the environment. Priority issues in the soy sector such as forced labour and unhealthy and unsafe working conditions are addressed by fair trade certification. Since 2008 FLO has approved a standard for soybean and pulses, including specific trade standards. This ensures greater transparency in the system and guarantees sustained trading relationships.
Rainforest Alliance - Another certification label applicable to soy is Rainforest Alliance, which aims to maintain biodiversity in the production areas while at the same time striving for sustainable living conditions for farmers, plantation workers and the local population. New, additional criteria for soy, palm oil, sugarcane, peanuts and sunflower farms were developed in 2008 in response to the increased demand for biofuels. The criteria can be applied to farms cultivating biofuel crops but also to soy, sugarcane, and palm oil for food production.
Organic – Organic farming standards are based on protecting the environment, nature and landscape and the welfare of animals. Animals are kept under the most natural circumstances, also regarding their feeding. Organically certified soy guarantees that the whole production chain is free from genetically modified organisms. Only a small part of the ecological soy is used for the animal feed industry to produce meat, eggs and diary. The reason for this is that prices for ecological soy are higher, so alternative local animal feed is often used. Ecological soy is used mostly for the production of soymilk and meat replacements.
Multi-stakeholder initiatives
Sustainable family soy farming project in Parana (Brazil)
In this multi-stakeholder project which started in 2009, several NGOs, producer groups and other organisations are working together on a certification standard. The standard, which consists of environmental and social criteria, is initially developed for farmers of the cooperation COOPAFI in Paraná in the South of Brazil. The Dutch organization of quality butchers ‘Keurslagers’ support farmers of COOPAFI in meeting these requirements for an amount of soy that corresponds to the amount used in producing the pork they sell under the Milieukeur (environmental label) seal. Due to this system in which the whole chain is involved, small producers receive a premium and are supported to improve sustainability of soy production.
RTRS - The Round Table of Responsible Soy (RTRS) was initiated in 2004 to address the social and environmental impacts of soy production. This RTRS was established for the mainstream production and sourcing of soy, including genetically modified soy. The first achievement of the RTRS was the adoption of principles and criteria in May 2009. Although the verification system is not yet in place, the principles and criteria are currently being tested. The benefits of the initiative are still unclear, therefore there is no RTRS certified soy currently available on the market.
SOYPSI - The Soy Producer Support Initiative (SOYPSI) is a 4-year support program which started in 2009. It was initiated by Solidaridad, WWF and the RTRS and targets 25,000 small farmers in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and India. The overall goal is to support these small-scale farmers and farm workers in the soy sector and prepare them for certification. Most SOYPSI projects are also RTRS field trials and so they must comply with RTRS criteria, but they may also include additional criteria such as non-GM, organic or are exclusively derived from family farms. These additional qualities serve to provide added value to family farms that cannot compete in scale or volume with large, mechanized farms.
Agreement against slavery
In Brazil, an agreement against slavery was signed in 2005. This agreement was developed by the sustainability institute Ethos, research organisation Reporter Brazil and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It was signed by many soy companies in South America, thereby obliging them to buy resources/products that do not involve slavery. Despite its good intentions to prevent forced labour and other exploitation, there are still cases of traders that buy their soy from companies which are on the black list, i.e. not ‘slavery free’. In spite of this, the agreement on anti-slavery is one step in the right direction.
Amazone Moratorium
The Amazone Moratorium is an initiative developed to counter the clearing of rainforest for soy production in the Amazon region. In July 2006, member companies of ABIOVE (Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association) and ANEC (Brazilian Grain Exporters Association) undertook the commitment not to trade soy that originated in areas of the Amazon Biome in Brazil that were deforested after this date. This commitment was renewed in 2008. The Moratorium came into existence because Greenpeace established an alliance with food producers and supermarket chains. Together they demanded responsible soy from the large soy companies like Cargill, Bunge, ADM and Amaggi.
These data are derived from the ‘Fairfood sector report Soy 2008’ and the ‘Fairfood soy solution overview report 2009’
