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As one of the world's most traded agricultural commodities, coffee constitutes a significant part of the overall economy and a major source of foreign revenue for many developing countries. Coffee also touches a large portion of the world's population in the South, where it is mainly produced, and in the North, where it is primarily consumed. As a product frequently purchased by a significant share of worldwide consumers on a daily basis in social occasions, the coffee industry has earned a high profile that also attracts the interest of non-governmental organizations, governments, multilateral organizations and development specialists and has been an early adopter of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). Responding to the trend of increased interest on sustainability, it is therefore not surprising that coffee continues to be at the forefront of sustainability initiatives that transcend into other agricultural industries. Based on literature and authors' experiences, this article reflects on the VSS evolution and considers a sustainability model that specifically incorporates producers' local realities and deals with the complex scenario of sustainability challenges in producing regions. Agreeing on a joint sustainability approach with farmers' effective involvement is necessary so that the industry as a whole (up and downstream value chain actors) can legitimately communicate its own sustainability priorities. This top-down/bottom-up approach could also lead to origin-based, actionable and focused sustainability key performance indicators, relevant for producers and consistent with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative also aims to provide a sustainability platform for single origin coffees and Geographical Indications (GIs) in accordance with growers' own realities and regions, providing the credibility that consumers now expect from sustainability initiatives, additional differentiation options for origin coffees and economic upgrade opportunities for farmers.

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Protected designations of origin (PDO) and Protected geographical indications (PGI) in the European Union have been recognized through a sound legal framework for more than three decades. We are recently witnessing an increased number of amendments to the product specifications of registered PDO/PGI. This paper aims to understand how PDO/PGI for the fruit and vegetables product class have evolved. Until 31 December 2018, there were 379 PDO/PGI registered under the fruit and vegetables product class and 81 amendments approved. We designed a coding guideline to: (i) analyze all the amendments to the product specifications; (ii) identify the type of rules that were modified; (iii) find out whether the amendments resulted in more flexible or more restrictive rules, and (iv) the respective justifications given by producers. We designed a database to manage all the information. Overall, amendments brought more flexible rules (particularly in Italy and Spain), while France showed a more diversified situation. Concerning the justifications stated by producers for amending the product specification, market changes, available new technology, and strengthening product quality were the most important, while environmental concerns were less relevant. Then, we in-depth analyzed the amendments that were explicitly justified with environmental reasons. The analysis showed only a light movement towards more environment-friendly rules, although environmental justifications were often used “indirectly”, as a means to achieve better marketing competitiveness, meeting new market demand and reducing production costs. These results seem consistent with previous studies, which indicated market forces as a primary motivation to amend product specifications.

In conventional food systems, there are often large social and geographical distances between production and consumption. Alternative food networks (AFNs) like relationship coffee models aim to shorten these distances through direct contacts, communication, trust, transparency or commitment to improve farmers' livelihoods. These relationship coffee models appear in diverse shapes with various implications for producers. Therefore, we deductively develop a framework to conceptualise proximity in four dimensions (organisational, institutional, cognitive and social) with subdimensions and three transversal dimensions ((temporary) geographical proximity, power, and communication). The analytic framework is complemented by an illustrative case to empirically test it, showing high geographical, organisational, institutional and cognitive proximity but low social proximity between coffee producer and restaurant owner. For future research, the framework can help to conceptualise proximity or to distinguish different types of relationship coffee models and to unpack conditions under which relationship coffees can increase proximity between coffee producers and buyers, often located far apart.

Origin labels, more specifically Geographical Indications (GIs), allow organised producers to define quality standards and defend their food products' reputation while highlighting their geographical origin and value to consumers. Café de Colombia was the first non-European food product registered as Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) under EU legislation (510/2006, followed by 1151/2012). This paper aims to identify the dynamics of collective efforts and the rules of the game developed by coffee growers to protect the collective intellectual property right. Our guiding research questions are: i) to what extent can the Ostrom's design principles explain effective collective action for GI registration and implementation? and ii) can collective action for GIs reshape relations between supply chain actors and support producers in gaining control over origin products? We collected data using semi-structured interviews and document analysis, which we then processed in a qualitative text analysis. Results show that the principles are very helpful for understanding the internal collective action of coffee growers, and also clearly show the challenges in the Can origin labels re-shape relationships along international supply chains? 417 interaction with industrial coffee processors (e.g. international roasters, brand owners). A pure focus on the producers' collective action for establishing and managing the origin protection does not give a full picture, since green coffee beans are roasted and commercialised abroad. The GI has already re-shaped the relationships along the supply chains, as international roasters sign the producers' rules governing the PGI use. The commercial GI impact however will depend on consumers' willingness to appreciate and pay extra for high-quality origin coffee as well as the readiness of roasters or brand owners to emphasise on origin coffee, in addition to their brands of blended coffee.

The registration of Geographical Indications (GIs) under the European Union (EU) legislation requires collective action and considerable efforts borne by multiple actors such as producers, processors, public authorities and research centers. We analyze their efforts, risks and benefits by comparing two EU GI registration processes in Italy and Austria, namely the Sorana bean Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and the Perry from Mostviertel PGI. Results from the institutional and transaction costs analysis suggest that intensive interaction for solving conflicting interests, negotiating quality standards and defining common rules might pay off in indirect benefits and reduced risks. In particular, an inclusion of diverse and heterogeneous interest groups and a high degree of direct enterprise participation along the GI application process (as observed in the Italian case) generate benefits such as trust and social cohesion, which then support the actual use of the GI label and a better implementation of associated quality standards. A supportive legal framework with assistance from public authorities can back up the community of producers not only in technical aspects, but also as mediators when conflicts seem to be difficult to solve. As there seems to be a positive relationship between the intensity and effectiveness of collective action and the likelihood of achieving broadly accepted standards and social cohesion needed for successful GI implementation, the question for future research would not be how to avoid collective efforts but how to effectively organize the interaction among heterogeneous producer groups.

Food producers can define collective quality standards and legally protect the origin, characteristics, traditions and the reputation of a place-based product through geographical indications (GIs). Producers, processors and other relevant actors in the GI production system codify and adapt their production rules via the GI Product Specification and possible amendments. Based on the Management and Transition Framework (Pahl-Wostl et al. 2010), we developed a framework to analyze the role of social learning in food quality governance and adaptation. We analyzed as case studies two cheeses protected by a Protected Designation of Origin, Laguiole (France) and Bitto (Italy). They were selected according to diverse institutional contexts, existing amendments of the Product Specification, and access to documents and interviewees willing and capable to recall the amendment processes. A comparative case study approach served to analyze the amendment processes embedded in different arenas for social learning. Actors amended their Product Specification due to both system-internal (e.g., locally generated knowledge, negotiation processes) and external (e.g., market evolution, new breeds/varieties) pressures. In the two cases, there have been social learning processes among local producers, with diverging outcomes. The results shed light on the dynamic interactions of the drivers for amendments, knowledge generation and integration processes, social learning and negotiation, learning outcomes as well as re-evaluation and re-negotiation. The design of multi-level social learning arenas can help protecting the product identity of evolving social-ecological systems and may contribute to a consistent and long-term strategy going beyond short-term local pressures.