Thank you! I’m not aware of any US certifiers using CCTV, though I know several use unannounced audits to follow up on farms with bad prior audits or allegations of abuse. My sense is that most European certifiers are similar, though I may be wrong.
Sadly both audits and CCTV footage are almost always kept private. My sense is that there’s not yet a big enough carrot (i.e. price premium on certified products) or stick (i.e. reputational harm from refusing public CCTV) to push certified farms to agree to this. My guess is it would require a retailer to say “we’ll only sell your products if you install CCTV and share the footage.” I hope they’ll eventually get there.
I don’t want to take up any more of your valuable time but I have to admit that I’m very keen on filling this gap in the US market (maybe by working with trusted food vendors).
Just wanted to put that out there and invite DMs from any other forumites that might be interested in collaborating on more public audits .
Thank you! I’m not aware of any US certifiers using CCTV, though I know several use unannounced audits to follow up on farms with bad prior audits or allegations of abuse. My sense is that most European certifiers are similar, though I may be wrong.
Sadly both audits and CCTV footage are almost always kept private. My sense is that there’s not yet a big enough carrot (i.e. price premium on certified products) or stick (i.e. reputational harm from refusing public CCTV) to push certified farms to agree to this. My guess is it would require a retailer to say “we’ll only sell your products if you install CCTV and share the footage.” I hope they’ll eventually get there.
Thank you so much for your comment!
I don’t want to take up any more of your valuable time but I have to admit that I’m very keen on filling this gap in the US market (maybe by working with trusted food vendors).
Just wanted to put that out there and invite DMs from any other forumites that might be interested in collaborating on more public audits .