1st Edition

The New Regulation and Governance of Food Beyond the Food Crisis?

    364 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    382 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Major questions surround who, how, and by what means should the interests of government, the private sector, or consumers hold authority and powers over decisions concerning the production and consumption of foods. This book examines the development of food policy and regulation following the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis of the late 1990s, 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 at EU and national levels. The authors explore how these interests deal with the conundrum of continuing to stimulate a corporately organised and increasingly globalised food system at the same time as creating a public and consumer-based legitimate framework for it. The analysis develops a new model and synthesis of food policy and regulation which reassesses these public/private sector responsibilities with new evidence and theoretical insights.

     

    Introduction: The BRASS approach: interdisciplinary studies of food regulation, governance and accountability

    Section 1 Crisis, what Crisis?

    1. The anatomy of the food crisis

    2. Components of the crisis : Handling Biosecurity Risk: The Case of the Foot and Mouth Epidemic 2001

    3. Components of the crisis: State failures and failures of the state

    4. Components of the crisis: Consumer Sovereignty and the Regulatory History of the European Market for Genetically Modified Foods

    Section 2 A new Regulatory Terrain: dimensions of contested accountability and regulation

    5. Contested regulation and accountability: the emerging model in Europe

    6. Contested regulation and accountability : the emerging model in the UK

    7. The new institutional fabric: the public management and communication of food risks

    8. Key Conceptual dimensions: Food Risk and Precaution: the precautionary principle in practice.

    9. Key Conceptual dimensions: The quest of Ecological Modernisation: respacing rural development and agri-food studies

    10. Conclusions: new conceptual and empirical challenges

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Terry Marsden, Robert Lee, Andrew Flynn and Samarthia Thankappan are all affiliated with the ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society at Cardiff University.