Organic Monitor’s third Sustainable Food Summit kicks off today in San Francisco, with ecolabel proliferation set to be a key topic of discussion.

Organic Monitor will present the results of a research project it announced on January 8 with a press release explaining that the mushrooming number of eco-labels could have adverse implications for the over $75 billion eco-labeled food and drink marke.

According to Organic Monitor the lack of harmonisation is leading to multiple certifications and logos. The old chestnut of the ‘one ecolabel to rule them all’ also makes a showing.

Industry buzz we are hearing is that ecolabels are working together more and more, with an emphasis on preserving identity and specialization while collaborating on common infrastructure. This network of networks approach certainly works well in the online world – it will be interesting to see if eco-labels, many of which pre-date the web, adopt this ‘network-based’ approach to scaling up.

Tags: ecolabels, organic monitor, sustainable food summit