GlobalGAP (previously EurepGAP) is a voluntary business-to-business standard for food audit that has recently achieved the greatest acceptance worldwide (Campbell, Lawrence & Smith 2006) boasting implementation numbers of over 80,000 farms in 80 countries. Compliance with the standard is verified by means of the third party certification (TPC) audit, and is designed to (GlobalGAP 2008) assure European retailers that exporting producers have met their criteria for safe and sustainable agriculture (GlobalGAP 2007b). In 2004, cherry growers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia became the first GlobalGAP certified producers in Canada. This novelty afforded a unique opportunity to observe the introduction of the standard in an industrialized country with well-established regulations and where the capacity of producers to undertake the process was relatively high. A qualitative methodology was used in case studies of two communities to inductively study the implementation of ‘safe and sustainable agriculture’ certification and generate relevant research questions for deeper examination. Sensitizing concepts emerging from observations of the TPC audits (n = 20) evolved into two primary research objectives; 1) to understand the practical application and diffusion of a TPC standard and 2) to explore the efficacy of the TPC standard as a mechanism to promote sustainable agriculture within certain pre-existing contexts. Forty-four follow up interviews were conducted with growers that chose to certify (n = 24), those that did not (n = 14), and other key actors (n = 3). This thesis examines the research objectives over three chapters. The introduction provides the local and global context along with a review of GlobalGAP, agri-food governance and the role of private certification and retailer power. Chapter two presents the technological and sociological factors that influenced the stages of the diffusion of GlobalGAP TPC and compares these factors and outcomes to the technological and sociological components of sustainable agriculture. In the conclusion, policy strategies are offered to maximize the potential for this tool to promote sustainable agriculture along with suggestions for future research on the topic.

GlobalGAP (previously EurepGAP) is a voluntary business-to-business standard for food audit that has recently achieved the greatest acceptance worldwide (Campbell, Lawrence & Smith 2006) boasting implementation numbers of over 80,000 farms in 80 countries. Compliance with the standard is verified by means of the third party certification (TPC) audit, and is designed to (GlobalGAP 2008) assure European retailers that exporting producers have met their criteria for safe and sustainable agriculture (GlobalGAP 2007b). In 2004, cherry growers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia became the first GlobalGAP certified producers in Canada. This novelty afforded a unique opportunity to observe the introduction of the standard in an industrialized country with well-established regulations and where the capacity of producers to undertake the process was relatively high. A qualitative methodology was used in case studies of two communities to inductively study the implementation of ‘safe and sustainable agriculture’ certification and generate relevant research questions for deeper examination. Sensitizing concepts emerging from observations of the TPC audits (n = 20) evolved into two primary research objectives; 1) to understand the practical application and diffusion of a TPC standard and 2) to explore the efficacy of the TPC standard as a mechanism to promote sustainable agriculture within certain pre-existing contexts. Forty-four follow up interviews were conducted with growers that chose to certify (n = 24), those that did not (n = 14), and other key actors (n = 3). This thesis examines the research objectives over three chapters. The introduction provides the local and global context along with a review of GlobalGAP, agri-food governance and the role of private certification and retailer power. Chapter two presents the technological and sociological factors that influenced the stages of the diffusion of GlobalGAP TPC and compares these factors and outcomes to the technological and sociological components of sustainable agriculture. In the conclusion, policy strategies are offered to maximize the potential for this tool to promote sustainable agriculture along with suggestions for future research on the topic.

GlobalGAP (previously EurepGAP) is a voluntary business-to-business standard for food audit that has recently achieved the greatest acceptance worldwide (Campbell, Lawrence & Smith 2006) boasting implementation numbers of over 80,000 farms in 80 countries. Compliance with the standard is verified by means of the third party certification (TPC) audit, and is designed to (GlobalGAP 2008) assure European retailers that exporting producers have met their criteria for safe and sustainable agriculture (GlobalGAP 2007b). In 2004, cherry growers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia became the first GlobalGAP certified producers in Canada. This novelty afforded a unique opportunity to observe the introduction of the standard in an industrialized country with well-established regulations and where the capacity of producers to undertake the process was relatively high. A qualitative methodology was used in case studies of two communities to inductively study the implementation of ‘safe and sustainable agriculture’ certification and generate relevant research questions for deeper examination. Sensitizing concepts emerging from observations of the TPC audits (n = 20) evolved into two primary research objectives; 1) to understand the practical application and diffusion of a TPC standard and 2) to explore the efficacy of the TPC standard as a mechanism to promote sustainable agriculture within certain pre-existing contexts. Forty-four follow up interviews were conducted with growers that chose to certify (n = 24), those that did not (n = 14), and other key actors (n = 3). This thesis examines the research objectives over three chapters. The introduction provides the local and global context along with a review of GlobalGAP, agri-food governance and the role of private certification and retailer power. Chapter two presents the technological and sociological factors that influenced the stages of the diffusion of GlobalGAP TPC and compares these factors and outcomes to the technological and sociological components of sustainable agriculture. In the conclusion, policy strategies are offered to maximize the potential for this tool to promote sustainable agriculture along with suggestions for future research on the topic. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

The Swedish Food Agency is responsible for giving guidelines and recommendations for businesses producing, importing, selling, and serving agricultural products in Sweden. The general discourse of these guidelines and recommendations are based on the notion of safeguarding the consumer from potential risks and harms. The discourse is further based on the European Union legislation of good governance which dictates the terms and conditions for businesses operating withing the EU market. In this explorative feminist decolonial discourse analysis I am analyzing the guidelines and recommendations for businesses dealing with agricultural products in Sweden communicated on the Swedish Food Agency’s website. The analysis is investigating the colonial epistemic and ontological assumptions underpinning the discourse. The analysis concludes that the discourse is based on modern/colonial assumptions about whom is to be kept safe and from what, and which products, countries, and territories are not safe to consume from. The discourse assumes humans as a homogenous group separate from animals and plants, and assumes that modern-scientific knowledge production will safekeep all humans and animals, and that food, supplements, and medicines should be understood as separate categories of foods. It is within and through these assumptions that the coloniality is being produced and reproduced in the discourse of the Swedish Food Agency. The discourse allows little to no room for other ontological and epistemic ways of relation to production, distribution and consumption of agricultural products. The discourse is limiting Swedish businesses in their ability to explore decolonial and unconventional business practices through border thinking, being, and doing at the colonial difference by engaging with other ways of relating to the world and the production, distribution, and consumption of food of the land.

Nourrir les territoires des sociétés urbaines ?Fait alimentaire et fait urbain sont aujourd’hui au cœur d’un faisceau de tensions et de contradictions. Paradoxalement, ils n’étaient plus appréhendés et gérés conjointement. Cette thèse vise à saisir la façon dont l’alimentation peut constituer un prisme au travers duquel le territoire, pris dans le processus de métropolisation, peut être lu mais aussi pensé et géré.Une première partie s’intéresse à l’état des liens entre fait alimentaire et fait urbain dans les territoires et aux potentiels intérêts d’un croisement entre les deux systèmes qui y sont liés à l’heure d’un processus de reterritorialisation du fait alimentaire et de métropolisation du fait urbain. A travers une analyse de la rythmique des croisements successifs entre ces deux systèmes et de leurs évolutions, nous montrons comment le processus de reterritorialisation du fait alimentaire est et peut-être le support d’un monde métropolitain et d’une pensée revisitant conjointement problématiques du système alimentaire et territorial.Une deuxième partie s’attache à l’analyse du traitement des liens entre fait alimentaire et fait urbain à partir du constat d’un défaut d’appréhension du caractère vital et d’approche globale du fait alimentaire. Celui-ci n’est pas saisi comme un champ d’action en soi et est formulé partiellement et de façon éclatée. L’appréhension du fait alimentaire comme problématique publique transversale par les territoires est néanmoins en cours. En France, le prisme dominant d’appréhension est celui de l’action agricole qui évolue vers l’agri-alimentaire. A Lyon, l’arrivée du programme Urbact a permis d’engager les prémices d’une ambition stratégique métropolitaine maillant problématiques alimentaires (accessibilité, qualité, durabilité) et territoriales (gestion de l’agriculture urbaine et périurbaine, logistique territoriale, renouvellement urbain, tissu commercial, action sociale, gestion des espaces publics, développement touristique, développement économique, etc.). Le saisissement et la structuration d’une réflexion ou d’une action territoriale autour de l’alimentation sont caractérisés par une transaction territoriale. Un champ d’action territorial hybride émerge de la constitution d’un fil rouge et de la mise en place d’interactions entre acteurs, thématiques, échelles d’action et espaces autour du fait alimentaire.Ces éléments dégagent des perspectives pour penser la production et l’organisation des régions urbaines en devenir en révélant l’opportunité du fait alimentaire pour une approche transversale des problématiques d’aménagement, de développement, de gouvernance et éventuellement de construction métropolitaine. / Feeding the territories of urban societies?Food and cities are two subjects today at the heart of a bundle relations, tensions and contradictions. Paradoxically, they were not apprehended and managed jointly any longer. This thesis aims to understand how food can be a prism through which the territory as considered in the metropolisation process, can be read but also designed and managed.The first part considers the state of the links between food and the urbanisation process as well as the potential interests of a crossover between the two systems that are related thereto in a time of a reterritorialisation of the food supply and metropolisation of the urban phenomenon. Through an analysis of the rhythm of successive crossovers between these two systems and their evolution, we show how the food in a reterritorialisation process perhaps underpins a thought revisiting jointly the issues of the food and planning system.The second part focuses on the analysis of the treatment of the links between food and the urban system based on the fact that food is not recognised as vital and lacks a comprehensive approach. It is not seen as a field of action in itself. It is formulated partially and in a fragmented manner. The apprehension of food as a public transversal issue by the territories is nevertheless ongoing. In France, the dominant prism of apprehension is that of agricultural action that evolves towards agri-food. In Lyon, the arrival of the Urbact “Sustainable food in urban communities” program helped initiate the beginnings of a metropolitan strategic ambition combining food (accessibility, quality and sustainability) and planning (management of urban agriculture, planning logistics, urban renewal, commercial system, social action, management of public spaces, tourism development, economic development, etc.) issues. The rising awareness and structuring of a reflection or a territorial action around food are characterised by a territorial transaction. A hybrid territorial field of action is emerging from the creation of a red thread and the development of interactions between actors, themes, scales of action and spaces around food.These elements highlight perspectives to consider the production and organisation of urban areas in the making, outlining the importance of the food for a transversal approach to metropolitan planning, governance and possibly construction issues.

Land subsidence due to overexploitation of aquifers is often attributed to incoherent public policies. Taking the case of the Mahyar valley in Iran as an example, and based on a mixed-method research design, this study analyses the effects of policy incoherence on well use for agricultural irrigation and the resulting groundwater levels. Results show how an accumulation of policy incoherence over time results in an increased construction of wells, ultimately leading to a groundwater table drawdown, with a significant decrease of 7.61 m in the last 16 years.