ProTerra ProTerra has stricter sustainability criteria than the RTRS, prohibiting conversion of natural vegetation and HCV areas after 2008, excluding GMO crops and providing a system of identity preservation (IP) – that is, traceability of an individual certified producer’s soya throughout the supply chain. However, producer certification applies only to the farms a producer chooses to have certified, rather than to all of a producer’s or company’s farms. This means companies can be involved in deforestation or violations of economic, social and cultural rights on non-certified farms and can pick and choose which farms to have certified. Thus, buyers who choose to support ProTerra certified operations might be filling the coffers of parent companies engaging in destructive practices elsewhere. Also problematic is the lack of transparency: detailed production or trade data at the company level is not available, producer audits are not made public and details of complaints are not released, so it is difficult to verify the effectiveness of the standard’s implementation. Governance and decision making
Standards
• The ProTerra standard was established
• The ProTerra standard is based on the Basel
in 2006 by FoodChain ID (previously Cert ID). The ProTerra Foundation became independent in 2012. Standard revisions are developed through a multi-stakeholder process with input from internal and external actors.1
• The Board of Directors is the main decision-
making body, comprising four directors. Two of the current directors are also connected to FoodChain ID, which carries out the ProTerra audits.2 The Stakeholder Council has a strategic advisory role; it is composed of between three and nine members, with the current composition representing one soy producer, three feed companies, one food manufacturer and one food retailer.3 There are no NGOs represented on the board or stakeholder council.
• ProTerra is not currently a member of the ISEAL Alliance.4
1
ProTerra Foundation (2019e)
2 ProTerra Foundation, About us [Website] 3 ProTerra Foundation, About us [Website], ProTerra Foundation (2019d) 4 ISEAL Alliance, ISEAL community members [Website]
Criteria on Responsible Soy, published in 2004 by WWF and Coop Switzerland,5 but applies to a broad range of agricultural commodities (not just soya). These criteria exclude GMO crops and require identity preservation – that is, traceability of an individual certified producer’s output throughout the supply chain.6
• The cut-off date for the conversion of native vegetation and HCV areas is 2008.7
• For ProTerra the unit of certification
includes the entire farm.8 However, producer certification applies only to the farms a producer chooses to have certified, rather than to all of a producer’s or company’s farms. This means companies can be involved in deforestation in noncertified farms and can pick and choose which farms to have certified (as CRR reports in the case of SLC Agrícola; see box ‘RTRS & ProTerra implementation failure – Alleged greenwashing of soya from SLC Agrícola, Brazil, for Lidl’ on page 44).
5 ProForest (2004) 6 ProTerra Foundation (2019c) pp.32-35 7 ProTerra Foundation (2019c) p.29 8 ProTerra Foundation (2019c) p.8
Greenpeace International - Destruction: Certified
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