Agricultural systems can be seen as nested social-ecological systems. European Union (EU) Member States vary considerably in terms of their agricultural, socio-economic and environmental circumstances. Yet, as participants in the common agricultural market, they are subject to a uniform Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). An important question is whether there is enough room for flexibility to sustain diverse agricultural systems and facilitate national targeting of sustainability-promoting measures. This article analyses the institutional arrangements concerning cross-scale interactions and interdependencies at national and regional (EU) levels, focusing on how Poland and Sweden implement CAP funds in relation to sustainable agriculture, in particular the agri-environmental schemes, for the period 2007-2013. What room is there in practice for accommodating national differences and sustainability priorities offered by the EU agricultural policy, and how are the existing opportunities used by the two countries? It is shown that agri-environmental funds are too small to prevent transition towards large-scale farming in new Member States and CAP does not effectively promote transformation towards sustainable practices in the EU.

International organizations, both public and private, promote trade and market development based on rules and standards created primarily by developed countries in the West. This reflects historical legacies associated with the construction of the post-war order, the historical dominance of western economic powers, as well as specific conceptualizations of the role of states, markets and modes of regulation. Indeed, these manifest forms of regulation, conceptions of safety and risk and reflect specific socio-political contexts defined predominantly by western attitudes and social norms. Equally, private sector organizations have also transmitted regulatory norms, standards and risk perceptions into emerging market contexts, in part reflecting the end-consumer markets in which they operate and thus the need to instil within their value chains compliance standards in order to continue to operate within a specific regulatory context. In emerging regions such as Asia, however, different forms of political organization and socio-economic contexts experience predominantly western forms of regulation in manifestly different ways. In areas such as food safety and risk regulation, for example, the transmission of regulatory norms and standards across borders from developed to emerging economy contexts can have far-reaching and sometimes adverse consequences. Specifically, the transmission of western private regulatory norms have implications for Asian food producers, market access, the organization of food value chains, the costs imposed on food producers and farmers and the sustainability of farming practices. As this article seeks to demonstrate, the imposition of such regulatory norms and standards on Asian food producers may lead to the gradual 'disembedding' of Asian food markets and cause problems for compliance, distributional justice and social well-being.