Changing Mechanisms for Agri-Environmental Governance in Australia: Environmental Management Systems (EMS) On Australian Farms - A Pilot Study
In a global environment characterised by increasing consumer concern over food safety and quality, and growing political and social interest in sustainability, agricultural producers have experienced increasing pressures to adopt improved natural resource management practices while at the same time striving to ensure the economic viability of their farms. Means of reconciling these competing demands have been sought in a variety of market-based mechanisms to encourage voluntary adoption of improved production processes. Among the most promising of these mechanisms are Environmental Management Systems (EMS) that specify the types of procedures and processes required to achieve specified standards of environmental management. In the food and agriculture sector, EMS and associated accreditation schemes are used increasingly to provide a formal process for assuring consumers that food production meets certain 'quality' and environmental standards. Producers are thus assisted to achieve or maintain market access both domestically and, increasingly, in international markets. These potential benefits have recently been recognised by the Federal government through the development of a national framework for environmental management systems in agriculture and funding for pilot projects under the Federal 'Pathways to Industry Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Programme'.
The recent establishment of these pilot projects provides a unique opportunity to explore how EMS processes are being applied in practice, and particularly the ways in which they shape notions of food 'quality' and influence on-farm environmental management. This MRAP research project, which commenced in January 2005, aims to examine one Federally-funded EMS program, operating in the Gippsland region of Victoria - 'Gippsland EMS'. Utilising the analytical frameworks of real regulation and governmentality, the project seeks to both draw upon and add to recent academic work in Europe on 'multifunctionality', in which food chains are increasingly embedded in notions of 'quality' and 'nature'.
Chief investigator
- Dr Vaughan Higgins
Co-investigators
- Dr Jacqui Dibden and Professor Chris Cocklin
Further information about the project may be obtained from:
Dr
Vaughan Higgins (Monash University, Gippsland Campus)
Phone: 9902 6327
Email:
Vaughan.Higgins@arts.monash.edu.au
Dr Jacqui Dibden (Monash Regional
Australia Project)
Phone:
9905 2162; mobile 0429 864 684;
Email:
Jacqui.Dibden@arts.monash.edu.au