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Casey, Donal --- "Structuring private food safety governance: GLOBALGAP and the legitimating role of the state and rule intermediaries" [2017] ELECD 631; in Verbruggen, Paul; Havinga, Tetty (eds), "Hybridization of Food Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 31

Book Title: Hybridization of Food Governance

Editor(s): Verbruggen, Paul; Havinga, Tetty

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785361692

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Structuring private food safety governance: GLOBALGAP and the legitimating role of the state and rule intermediaries

Author(s): Casey, Donal

Number of pages: 23

Abstract/Description:

In November 1996, quality managers and fresh produce buyers from a number of European retailers met informally in London. The group met once again in Berlin, two months later, on a more formal footing. In July 1997, the representatives from 13 European retailers agreed to name the group the Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group (EUREP). Over the next 15 years, EUREP would become EUREPGAP, and EUREPGAP would eventually be renamed GLOBALGAP. Since its inception, GLOBALGAP has developed into the ‘most widely implemented farm certification scheme worldwide’. In this period, we see the transformation of what was an informal grouping of retailers, into a highly elaborate regulatory organization consisting of formal governance structures, standardsetting procedures, and monitoring and enforcement systems. What can explain this transformation? In order to understand the development of GLOBALGAP, it is helpful to look beyond functional and market-based explanations such as protecting against reputational and legal liability, responding to changing consumer concerns and preferences, and the need to rationalize globalized supply chains. Such rationales are clearly significant drivers for new regulatory systems, and provide important context to their goals and objectives. Despite this, examining GLOBALGAP’s legitimation dynamics further contributes to our understanding of the organization’s transformation, and in particular, why certain organizational forms, structures, practices and processes emerge and develop. As Suchman contends, legitimacy and legitimation have a significant influence on ‘how the organization is built, how it is run, and simultaneously, how it is understood and evaluated’.