In collaboration with the USAID Feed the Future Learning Community for Supply Chain Resilience—a consortium comprised of climate scientists from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT); and the agricultural lender Root Capital—The Sustainable Food Lab and Root Capital have produced An…
This paper presents an aligned yet customizable framework of indicators for measuring farm-level sustainability in smallholder agricultural supply chains. These indicators are proposed primarily in the context of performance measurement, but can also be useful for more in-depth impact evaluation studies. The proposal is not for one single common set of indicators, but rather for…
Small-‐scale farmers—whose output supports a population of roughly 2.2 billion people worldwide—manage roughly 85% of the world’s farms. And every day, companies trade with these farmers in a wide variety of products. As companies seeks more transparency through complex supply chains and invest together with development and financial organizations, there is more and more interest…
In 2012-2013, Food Lab company members of the Values Based Sourcing group supported a study on smallholder sugar in Paraguay to to pilot a performance measurement methodology while collecting data to assess the sustainability of smallholder sugarcane production there. This study was supported by Annie’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, The Body Shop and the Ford…
Dear colleagues, Any of us with sustainability in our job descriptions can look back with pride or look forward with some trepidation. The launch of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals and the climate agreement in Paris remind us all of the critical role of agriculture in global sustainability solutions. As CEOs make new commitments…
Much of the work to improve the performance of commodity sectors with large numbers of smallholders like coffee, tea and cocoa has been anchored in specific supply chains with voluntary standards. Meanwhile, the performance of the sector as a whole – measured in global reputation for quality, farmer share of end value, or capacity to withstand shocks…
The shocking statistic that 33 percent of food is lost or wasted—one out of every three calories—begs the question, what can food and beverage companies do about food loss and waste in their supply chains? There is a long list of urgent and compelling issues that food and beverage companies are already grappling with in…
Meghan Quinlan from Fair Trade USA and Whitney Gantt from Grameen Foundation discussed how we ground sustainable supply chain programs in a better understanding of farm level conditions, what the core elements of sustainable agriculture and value chains are, and how to affordably measure progress. They also touched on how performance measurement can bring value to…