Garrett publishes on global supply chains

Rachael Garrett, Associate Director of the Land Use and Livelihoods Initiative (LULI) at the GDP Center and Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University, recently published the article “Transparency and sustainability in the global commodity supply chains” in the multidisciplinary journal World Development.

Text from the article:

Despite an explosion of interest and investment in new modes of supply chain sustainability governance (Newton, Agrawal, & Wollenberg, 2013), and a proliferation of supply chain transparency initiatives (Grimard, Lake, Mardas, Godar, & Gardner, 2017), there has been very little critical appraisal of the contribution made by different transparency initiatives and how they can (and cannot) influence new governance arrangements. Moreover, despite the high expectations placed on transparency, there is a lack of clarity as to how improvements in transparency can be designed and implemented to act as a catalyst for positive – and potentially transformative – change.

The aim of this paper is to address these knowledge gaps through four questions that are used to structure the following sections: (1) What is meant by supply chain transparency? (2) What is the relevance of supply chain transparency to supply chain sustainability governance? (3) What is the current status of supply chain transparency, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of existing initiatives? and (4) Based on experiences to date and the current literature, what propositions can be advanced for how transparency can have a positive, transformative effect on the governance interventions that seek to strengthen sustainability outcomes?

In addressing these questions we seek to strengthen the theoretical underpinning of research and action on supply chain transparency, and in particular to advance the notion of transformative transparency as a device to help assess the impacts of new and existing transparency initiatives. 

Dr. Garrett’s research examines interactions between agriculture, ecosystem services, and economic development at multiple spatial and temporal scales to better define what sustainable food systems look like and how to achieve them. Most of Dr. Garrett’s research is centered on commercial oilseed and cattle production, particularly in South America. Dr. Garrett’s research utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods and designs, including case studies, modeling, and statistical analysis to assess the complex feedbacks between local land use decisions and global food system processes.