Responding to Consumer Concerns about Food, Health and Safety

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Responding to Consumer Concerns about Food,
Health and Safety

• Helen H. Jensen
• Iowa State University

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Research Priorities

• Users Views 1993-94 (top 16)
• How households make decisions on health and
  convenience in food
• Economic impacts of science-based approach to
  food safety (HACCP)
• Benefits and costs of government regulation of
  agriculture on consumers

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Research Priorities (cont.)

• Survey of Agricultural Economists 1996 shows
  relatively lower priority to
• Household decisions about health and convenience
  of food
• Impact of HACCP food safety
• How best to move an economy from command to
  market-based
• Key questions Why the mismatch, and have the
  last few years changed the priorities?

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Priorities

• Never before has the linkage between agriculture
  and public health been more apparent, vital, or
  promising. The new research agenda will need to
  expand its role and resources to take advantage
  of this unprecedented opportunity.
• NRC, Frontiers in Agricultural Research, 2003

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Overview

• Changing consumer environment
• Challenges of a consumer-driven agriculture
• Consumer choice and information
• Setting priorities for health, nutrition and food
  safety policies and programs

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Changing Consumer Environment

• Demographics
• Income
• The New Food Economy
• Scientific advances and new technologies
• Growing importance of food quality
• Safety of foods and bio-security threats

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Current Topics

• ERS projects increased food consumption,
  especially
• fruits, fish, vegetables and food away from home
• food quality and convenience
• Nutrition and health obesity problems
• Foods and fads changing identity of food
• Consumer information (,-) has a key role in food
  choice
• Bio-security of the food system

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Challenges of a consumer-driven agriculture

• Information is critical
• From and to consumer
• Food systems approach important
• Type of linkages determine consequences
• Agriculture has a new role in processing
  pharmaceuticals and functional foods
• Importance of multi-disciplinary approaches
• Technical and behavioral changes

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Table 1 Taxonomy of systemic risks in food
production
Table 1 Taxonomy of systemic risks in food
production
Table 1. Taxonomy of systemic risks in food production Table 1. Taxonomy of systemic risks in food production
Causes of Systemic Risk Consequences
A. System topology -Losses spread through much of the system
B. Mistrust in communication -Uninformed consumers -Private branding -Consumer panic, market disruption
C. Asymmetric information leading to coordination failure and distorted incentives -Under-provision of care to protect food quality -Under-provision of information
D. Failure to develop state- conditioned technologies -System performance deteriorates when the platform cannot adapt -System performance varies as deterministic states change
 
 
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Example Food Safety

• Increased food safety risks
• Variety of foods and food sources
• Foods prepared/consumed away from home markets,
  food system
• Ethnic diversity - demographics
• Decreased food safety risks
• Vertical integration of supply systems
• Contracting in supply networks
• Trace-back systems

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Setting Priorities

• Increased multi-disciplinary focus on complex
  consumer decision processes and valuation of
  quality attributes applied economics
• Methods of valuation
• Costs and benefits of health, nutrition and food
  safety policies and programs
• Systems approaches
• Data needs (e.g., NHANES, scanner)
• Broadening the set of public collaborators for
  research funding