The paper says companies such as Britain's Marks & Spencers and WalMart in the United States are setting the standards for sustainable products.
KPMG's New Zealand head of agribusiness, Ian Proudfoot, says farmers and other food manufacturers will have no choice but to follow them or risk missing out.
Mr Proudfoot says farmers can rightly feel aggrieved when standards are based on what will play well with consumers, rather than on sound scientific research - as in the food miles debate.
He says New Zealand should invest in science and in limiting its carbon footprint so it backs its clean green brand with real action, as it did by implementing an emissions trading scheme.
