There is growing interest in the sustainability of agricultural commodities such as sugar, soy, palm oil, cotton, cocoa and coffee. This is reflected in the development in recent years of a number of commodity-specific initiatives such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, the Better Sugar Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation. Cocoa aside, commonly, the initial impetus behind these has been the rising concern at the environmental impacts of contemporary global agriculture – heightened by the recent explosion of interest in the use of palm oil and sugar as raw material for biofuels – rather than labour issues.

The ILO has approved a new 'landmark declaration' which it claims 'marks the most important renewal of the Organisation since the adoption of the historic "Declaration of Philadelphia" in 1944'. The Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation represents a wholesale restatement of the ILO's fundamental principles and its ways of working.

Eleven years on from its first incarnation in 1997, Social Accountability International (SAI) has produced SA8000:2008. While there are several other widely applied codes of labour practice in the field (such as the ETI Base Code), SA8000 has a relatively long history and high level of international recognition. Any changes to it may be seen as a barometer of the evolution of private labour standards, their methods of monitoring and implementation.