Living in a Prosumer World

By: Sarah Malenich, Senior Manager, Sales & Marketing for the Safe Quality Food Institute

We live in a “prosumer” world. Today's proactive consumers utilize their stake in the market to advocate for safer, higher quality products and demand how those products are made. Scandals connected to forced labor, child labor, pollution, and lack of corporate transparency directly impact the choices consumers make, which create a ripple effect throughout the supply chain. The Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI) Ethical Sourcing Standard (ESS) effectively reduces these negative risks by addressing each of the above issues.

Last Friday at the Viva Fresh Expo in Austin, Texas, I had the chance to speak on the Social Responsibility panel to address issues of sourcing responsibility throughout the supply chain, and how earning SQFI’s ESS is hard evidence that demonstrates commitment to upholding ethical and transparent practices in food production.  Our ESS is a voluntary supplement for companies who are committed to ensuring socially and environmentally responsible practices in food production. The Ethical Sourcing Standard is a system which combines growing and processing food with environmental and social stewardship. This system embraces ethical and transparent practices, with care taken in the treatment of those who grow, harvest and manufacture food across the supply chain, and with respect given to the health of consumers.

Juan Jose Ley, General Manager for Del Campo Y Asocidos and Marion Tabard, Marketing Director at Turbana joined me on the panel to discuss best practices of their corporate social responsibility program and how they communicate and market these best practices to the consumers and buyers.  The session, which was moderated by Jeff Oberman, Vice President of Trade Relations for United Fresh Produce Association generated enthusiastic discussion as more and more supply chain stakeholders look for ethical sourcing solutions.