Sustainability Standards in Agri‐Food Value Chains: Impacts and Trade‐Offs for Smallholder Farmers
构建概念框架分析自愿性可持续性标准（VSS）对经济繁荣、健康生态系统、性别平等和粮食安全等多维度的交互影响，并基于加纳、卢旺达和秘鲁的案例揭示权衡与协同关系，为政策制定者平衡可持续目标提供参考。
ABSTRACT The global agri‐food system faces major challenges in meeting the growing demand for food in an equitable way while mitigating environmental impacts such as deforestation, soil degradation, and climate change. Over the past few decades, voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) have proliferated as a potential instrument to promote more sustainable global value chains and sourcing practices. Although the body of impact evaluations on VSS has grown, most studies focus on single outcome dimensions, leaving interactions between dimensions underexplored. In this study, we use a conceptual framework to assess the relationships between VSS interventions and key sustainable food system outcomes across multiple dimensions. Our study focuses on economic prosperity, healthy ecosystems, gender equality, and food security, with a particular emphasis on identifying potential trade‐offs and synergies between these dimensions. To illustrate the interactions identified in our framework, we present empirical data from three case studies in Ghana, Rwanda, and Peru. Our findings underscore the importance of balancing trade‐offs and fostering synergies to advance sustainability across multiple dimensions. This study contributes to ongoing discussions on the effectiveness of VSS in promoting sustainability by highlighting their potential impacts, as well as the trade‐offs that must be managed, to achieve more sustainable food systems.