Reviving Community Ownership in Food Quality Schemes: Beyond PDOs

Malta’s experience with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) schemes reveals how tightly controlled, top-down approaches can alienate small producers and fail to build local ownership. We’re looking to collaborate on Horizon projects exploring new governance models for food quality, heritage, and geographic indication systems that better reflect community values.

MaYA contributes grounded insight into local dynamics, civic engagement, and food identity in micro-regions. We offer an ideal testbed to pilot participatory certification, producer-led standards, and community-inclusive value chains, drawing from our role in agri-food education and rural stakeholder mobilisation.