ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence of the green economy and how this discursive regime is contributing to the popular rise of roundtables industry-led governing tools that are increasingly relied upon to manage and control the production of environmental resources. The chapter also analyzes the power relations within these fora, the actual principles and criteria and their effects. Finally, it argues that through roundtable governance initiatives, commercial actors appear to have become more accountable, transparent, and inclusive in their governing actions, but much of this appears to be symbolic and in many cases roundtable governance often reinforces power inequalities and unsustainable practices inherent to related capitalist industries. The Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef launched in 2012, it took shape after a 2010 meeting initiated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and other global actors in the global beef industry who gathered with the goal of formulating ways to reduce the social, environmental, and economic impacts of beef production.
