Ethical Traceability in Practice

In order to explore how consumers react to the notion of ethical traceability in prac-tice a sociological survey was set up. The idea was to analyse how people would react to an increase in information on the production history of certain articles available inside the supermarket (Coff et al. 2005). For the purpose information material on the production histories of selected articles was compiled and placed in six supermarkets, using three methods of communication:

• Computers with a homepage of pictures and print were installed in every supermarket.

• Folders using pictures and print were readily available.

• Demonstrators were present who were versed in the production history of the articles and able to inform customers about them.

This means that there were two shops with computers, two with folders and two with demonstrators. The two products used in the survey were rye bread and liver paté – two Danish staples with a large turnover in supermarkets. From the producers information on the following issues was requested:

• Geographical origin

• Product quality: Description of manufacturing methods and their effect on the quality of the product (for instance post-harvest treatments and processing techniques).

• Production and environment: Description of environmental initiatives and possi-ble certifications of the product.

• Production and animal welfare:How are animals treated?

• Production and working conditions: Has anything been done in particular to ensure good working conditions?

• Production and society:Description of farms and businesses that are involved.

• Economic transparency: Who earns what? Economic fairness as an ethical parameter.

• Guarantees and certifications:Who is responsible for ensuring that the informa-tion on the article is correct?

However, some producers were unwilling to provide us with the required infor-mation; one of these, Danish Crown, has since been the subject of media attention for allegedly employing underpaid Polish workers in its German factories.

It also appeared that some of the actual questions were problematic. The con-cepts of economic transparency and fairness had to be dropped completely, since there were far too many factors at work. For example in the case of liver paté, the question of who earns what is highly relevant, since many customers suspect the major producers of squeezing out the small ones. It is easy to calculate the super-markets’ and the producers’ economic share, but what about the farmer? Farmers do not sell liver; they sell whole animals from which the liver is extracted at the slaughterhouses and sold separately to liver paté producers. The slaughterhouses pay the farmers for whole animals and not separate parts, so nobody could reason-ably calculate what the farmer earns for the liver. Moreover incomes must be seen in relation to the expenses of the individual parts. Large incomes in themselves are not at issue when accompanied by large expenses. Economic fairness must thus be developed in a quite different way if we are to make sense of production history.

For those businesses that wished to join the survey there were major differences in the information they possessed. In general, producers of organic products pro-vided the most information, which is not surprising since they are subject to a voluntary market arrangement, which demands a certain degree of documentation.

But a number of businesses found it impossible to answer the questions; they could only state that current legislation on animal welfare, the environment and working conditions were being observed. So a problem appeared: the letter of the law is hardly the best message to mediate. It seemed that the businesses barely had a story to tell about their products, as these were so anonymous. And in the case of the most

industrialised products consumers could learn nothing about the origin or growth of the animals, nor about working conditions at the farms or the manufacturers, nor about their environmental concerns.

A third problem turned out to be the widespread market dominance by a few businesses. Three different brands of rye-bread were represented in our survey, all of which turned out to be based on flour from the same miller, Cerealia Mills. The market for flour in Denmark is dominated by three large businesses, Cerealia being the biggest. This presented two problems for the survey. Firstly, the flour could not be traced further back than to the mill where all the grain was mixed – from seven different European countries. Nor was it possible to trace the farm in ques-tion, the region, or the country of origin. This was a pity, since geographical origin is important for many people, who link a given foodstuff to a particular geograph-ical region, landscape or culture. Secondly, this made the production histories very similar. What appeared to customers to be three different brands of rye bread were in fact very much alike. Indeed, in one of the supermarket chains the 10–12 different brands all stemmed from the same bread producer thereby partly defeating our pur-pose: if there is no difference in production history, only price and taste remain as delineators and ethics are irrelevant. Since businesses are not geared to distinguish-ing and recorddistinguish-ing production histories, they cannot provide relevant information. As a consequence our own material was not as detailed as desired. Figure 3.2 shows an example of how the production history of bread was mediated via the internet.

The production histories presented were brief in order not to burden customers more than necessary. Below is the history of Hedebagerens Rugbrød (Heathbaker’s Rye Bread) from the internet page presented in Fig. 3.2.

The farm: The rye is cultivated by ecological growers in Denmark and abroad.

This means that no synthetic pesticides or fertilisers have been used, only mechan-ical weeding, seed changes to avoid plant diseases and animal and “green”

manure.

The farmers deliver direct to the miller (Cerealia Mills), who can trace the grain to the individual farm. However, once the ryes are mixed and ground they can no longer be traced back to the individual farms, so there is no information about working conditions on the farms. The farmers sign contracts with Cerealia Mills for delivery of the rye, which is traded at market price.

The mill: The rye is ground at Drabæksmølle (Drabaeks Mill) in Lunderskov in south-central Jutland. The rye is a 100% ground full-grain product.

Cerealia Mills is ISO 14001 certified. It identifies all environmental effects and implements measures to improve conditions by: (1) making correct environmental choices and processing changes; (2) minimising discharge by reducing the use of water; (3) minimising and removing waste in the most environmentally friendly way. Cerealia Mills aims to create a high level of job satisfaction among its staff. It is the responsibility of both the business and the staff to develop skills and knowledge.

The bakery: Hedebagerens Rye Bread is made by the bakery Le Blé d’Or (The Corn of Gold) in Amager, Copenhagen. This is a wholesale concern.

The bread is a traditional Jutland rye bread containing organic rye flour and ker-nels, water, leaven (sourdough), salt, and rye bread crumbs. The bread rises for at

Fig. 3.2 Example of the internet communication of the production history of Heathbaker’s Rye Bread. In Danish (Coff et al. 2005)

least 6 hours and is baked for 1 hour and 45 minutes. The long bread-rise improves the taste and nourishment levels of the raw materials, producing a healthy, durable bread without additives. By law no special certification is required as regards the environment or working conditions in the bakery.

The text shows how difficult it is to place a specifically ethical angle on the history of the productions. This is because only a few of the businesses involved had an explicit attitude to the ethical question.