I think that as private standards become increasingly pervasive means of regulating the global food system, we'll be seeing development funds increasingly devoted to subsidizing the training and certification programs that enable export-oriented farmers in the Global South to access these markets.

There's a story in the Middle East Times about one such scheme funded by the Dutch government to train some of the 800 farmers in the Gaza Strip in the Eurepgap protocols (100% Dutch supermarkets sell 100% EurepGAP-certified produce). The program is run by Israel/Palestinian Center for Research and Information (IPCRI).

Sadly, one of the 40 farmers in the first graduating class was killed last Sunday, May 7, as he tended to his watermelon crop, by an Israeli shell supposedly aimed at militants who fire homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel. It makes me wonder a couple things: 1) if growing food under military occupation and state-sponsored terror can be considered "Good Agriculture Practice", with all the extra market value for European consumers.

I just came across this 2004 article by Wendy Johnson about the standards for cherry production in British Colombia.

What is surprising to me is not only that industrialized fruit farms in the South are adapting more quickly to new standards than their Canadian counterparts, but also that on some of the farms in Chile and Argentina each field "grows for a specified country and follows its particular maximum residue levels designations".

The conclusion?

It is hard to argue with a system that puts the quality of food first, but there is the nagging suspicion this will spell the end of some family farms. This industry-changing event is just a sign of things to come.