Geographical Indications and Local Development Series Continues
22 October 2018, Washington, DC - FAO North America and the World Food Law Institute co-hosted the first of three special Geographical Indications Roundtables for the 2018-19 year at the Cosmos Club. The discussion focused on the relation between Geographical Indications and Sustainability, and highlighted FAO’s research on measuring sustainability related to GI products.
The roundtable discussion follows the 2017-18 series that concentrated on legal and economic aspects of GIs with the assistance and participation of experts from FAO headquarters in Rome, specialists from World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization, along with representatives from the diplomatic corps and the private sector. The last series concluded with the World Food Law Institute Symposium in May 2018, which featured a presentation of the FAO/EBRD study about the economic impact of GIs (FAO 2018).
The October roundtable featured welcoming remarks from Professor Marsha Echols, who described the sequence and significance of last year’s GI programs and plans for 2018-19. Followed by Vimlendra Sharan, Director of FAO North America, who explained FAO’s work and interest in the topic.
The formal presentations began with detailed remarks by Florence Tartanac and Emilie Vandecandelaere, two experts in the Market Linkages and Value Chains Group at FAO Headquarters in Rome, who described FAO’s ongoing research with a detailed presentation, entitled “GI potential for boosting sustainability.” As explained by Tartanac and Vandecandelaere, GIs have a potential for boosting sustainability, but there is a need for greater awareness and for steps to strengthen sustainability efforts while recognizing global challenges to GI sustainability, such as loss of biodiversity and threats to traditional food systems.
International food policy scholar, Professor Fabio Parasecoli from the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University, joined the panel and shared his experience and current global work from Eastern Europe to Africa, Asia and Latin America. He emphasized that local efforts and public-private partnerships are key in developing sustainable GIs, including in developing products that meet the demands of visiting tourists who can be informal messengers of GI specialties when they return home.
FAO is working to make stronger linkages between people, places, and products in a “virtuous origin-linked quality circle.” An example includes FAO’s collaboration with the international network of GI producers, OriGIn, to support the definition and implementation of their GI sustainability strategy to help producers follow a pathway of sustainability for a GI. Among its features are a territorial approach and an inclusive value chain that should include and recognize the roles of local producers, smallholders, and women. OriGIn also created the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA), a framework to assess GI sustainability with practical evaluation tools for producers and local practitioners planned after field-testing these tools in several GI systems. FAO will publish guidance for GI producers, practitioners, and policymakers in order to help them assess the sustainability of a GI system and identify pathways for improving it. GIs are currently being tested in Honduras (Mavala coffee DOP), Senegal (Saba Senegalensis) and Costa Rica (chayote del Valles de Ujarras) in collaboration with the University of Florence.
The roundtable concluded with brief comments from Professor Echols and an invitation to the next roundtable that will take place in Junuary 19.