Animal Welfare Governance: GLOBALGAP and the Search for External Legitimacy

The private collective Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) Livestock Standard of Global Good Agricultural Practice (GLOBALG.A.P.) poses regulatory challenges and opportunities. The article explores the positive prospects of this standard seeking the legitimacy to govern animal welfare from interested, and affected stakeholders external to the organisation. It presents proposals to strengthen deliberative democracy and output-oriented legitimacy through participation and mutually reinforcing dialogue with stakeholders outside the business regime, notably the consumer and the State, so as to introduce a 'values' element into the standard based upon, yet going beyond, a science base. The legitimacy gained through such deliberative discourse, would bolster GLOBALG.AP.'s Livestock Standard with the potential further to enhance animal welfare in the global market for agricultural produce. Building upon accrued legitimacy, the introduction of a business to consumer (B2C) animal welfare label and the provision of information are proposed. The public promotion of the legitimised private collective standard in a soft-law hybrid memorandum of understanding is also advocated.