Agricultural Governance

Agricultural Governance
Author: Vaughan Higgins
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2007-05-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134262817

Food security and sustainability are arguably the most important issues facing the agri-food sector at the beginning of a new millennium. In an era of globalization, where nation states appear to have a diminishing role in governing these matters, the existing and emerging power relations underpinning agri-food regulation demand renewed scholarly attention. Drawing upon the expertise of some of the most prominent writers in rural sociology, geography and anthropology, this book shows how globalization processes open up a new regulatory politics in which ‘non-political’ forms of governing play an increasingly influential role in shaping agricultural production and consumption. The first of its kind to critically and comprehensively examine new forms of governing and regulation, this important text explores the relationship between globalization and new sites, spaces and agents of agricultural regulation, using detailed case studies in developed nations to illustrate points made. Demonstrating the political significance of regulatory mechanisms extending beyond the state, the book also discusses the consequences for the governing of the agri-food sector.

The New Regulation and Governance of Food

The New Regulation and Governance of Food
Author: Terry Marsden
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2009-09-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135910022

This book examines the development of food policy and regulation following the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis and traces the changing relationships between three key sets of actors: private interests, such as the corporate retailers; public regulators, such as the EU directorates and UK agencies; and consumer groups.

Hybridization of Food Governance

Hybridization of Food Governance
Author: Paul Verbruggen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-04-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1785361708

Modern food governance is increasingly hybrid, involving not only government, but also industry and civil society actors. This book analyzes the unfolding interplay between public and private actors in global and local food governance. How are responsibilities and risks allocated in hybrid governance arrangements, how is legitimacy ensured, and what effects do these arrangements have on industry or government practices? The expert contributors draw on law, economics, political science and sociology to discuss these questions through rich empirical cases.

Food Systems Governance

Food Systems Governance
Author: Amanda Kennedy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2016-04-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 131738072X

Sustainability and food production represent a major challenge to society, with both consumption and supply sides posing practical and ethical dilemmas. This book shows that food governance issues can occur in many ways and at many points along the food chain. The risks and impacts, particularly with the increasing globalisation of food systems, are often distributed in unequal ways. It is the role of law to form the pivot around which these issues are addressed in society in the form of food governance mechanisms. The chapters in this book address a range of issues in food governance revolving around questions of justice, fairness, equality and human rights. They identify different issues regarding inequality in access and control over food governance. Some address generic governance and institutional issues across a range of international contexts, while others present case studies, including from Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, UK and West Africa. The book offers directions for reform of the law and legal institutions to mitigate the dangers of inequality and promote greater fairness in food governance.

Ensuring Safe Food

Ensuring Safe Food
Author: Institute of Medicine and National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1998-08-19
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309173973

How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as: What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States? Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.

Import Safety

Import Safety
Author: Cary Coglianese
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2011-09-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 081220591X

On World Food Day in October 2008, former president Bill Clinton finally accepted decade-old criticism directed at his administration's pursuit of free-trade deals with little regard for food safety, child labor, or workers' rights. "We all blew it, including me when I was president. We blew it. We were wrong to believe that food was like some other product in international trade." Clinton's public admission came at a time when consumers in the United States were hearing unsettling stories about contaminated food, toys, and medical products from China, and the first real calls were being made for more regulation of imported products. Import Safety comes at a moment when public interest is engaged with the subject and the government is receptive to the idea of consumer protections that were not instituted when many of the Clinton era's free-trade pacts were drafted. Written by leading scholars and analysts, the chapters in Import Safety provide background and policy guidance on improving consumer safety in imported food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and toys and other products aimed at children. Together, they consider whether policymakers should approach import safety issues through better funding of traditional interventions—such as regulatory oversight and product liability—or whether this problem poses a different kind of governance challenge, requiring wholly new methods.

What's the Beef?

What's the Beef?
Author: Christopher Ansell
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2006
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0262012251

Examines European food safety regulation at the national, European, and international levels as a case of "contested governance," illustrating issues of institutional trust and legitimacy.

Reorganizing Government

Reorganizing Government
Author: Alejandro Camacho
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2019-08-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1479829676

A pioneering model for constructing and assessing government authority and achieving policy goals more effectively Regulation is frequently less successful than it could be, largely because the allocation of authority to regulatory institutions, and the relationships between them, are misunderstood. As a result, attempts to create new regulatory programs or mend under-performing ones are often poorly designed. Reorganizing Government explains how past approaches have failed to appreciate the full diversity of alternative approaches to organizing governmental authority. The authors illustrate the often neglected dimensional and functional aspects of inter-jurisdictional relations through in-depth explorations of several diverse case studies involving securities and banking regulation, food safety, pollution control, resource conservation, and terrorism prevention. This volume advances an analytical framework of governmental authority structured along three dimensions—centralization, overlap, and coordination. Camacho and Glicksman demonstrate how differentiating among these dimensions better illuminates the policy tradeoffs of organizational alternatives, and reduces the risk of regulatory failure. The book also explains how differentiating allocations of authority based on governmental function can lead to more effective regulation and governance. The authors illustrate the practical value of this framework for future reorganization efforts through the lens of climate change, an emerging and vital global policy challenge, and propose an “adaptive governance” infrastructure that could allow policy makers to embed the creation, evaluation, and adjustment of the organization of regulatory institutions into the democratic process itself.

Seafood Supply Chains

Seafood Supply Chains
Author: Miriam Greenwood
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2019-01-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351664719

This book provides a historical and analytical account of changes in the seafood supply chain in Britain from the mid-twentieth century to the present, looking at the impact of various types of governance. The governance of marine fisheries has been a contested issue for decades with increasing anxieties about overfishing. In tandem, the rise of aquaculture, fish and shellfish farming, has driven another set of environmental concerns. In the food system, there have been scandals about safety failures and about fraud. At the same time, governments issue advice urging people to eat fish for its health benefits. In the context of these problems and contradictions, how have governments, the food industry and ordinary consumers responded? The author shows how different types of governance and regulation have been used to seek seafood sustainability and food safety and to communicate nutritional messages to the public and with what effects. The book also presents a new model for understanding food chains which combines governance and power approaches with an emphasis on understanding the interests served and the resulting balance of public and private benefits. This shows that the role of state regulation should have greater emphasis in governance and agri-food analysis and that theories about supply chain functioning, including the part played by major retailers and civil society, should be modified by a more nuanced understanding of the role of standards and certification systems. Although much of the focus is on the UK and Europe, this book provides key lessons internationally for the governance of seafood and other agri-food supply chains. The book will be of interest to students of food policy and those working in the seafood industry or studying for connected qualifications, and more widely to readers with an interest in seafood issues and problems.

Global Governance of Food Production and Consumption

Global Governance of Food Production and Consumption
Author: Peter Oosterveer
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781782543893

The provision of food is undergoing radical transformations throughout the global community. Peter Oosterveer argues that, as a consequence, conventional national governmental regulations can no longer adequately respond to existing and emerging food risks and to environmental concerns. This book examines these challenges.