Introduction

The models used in the previous chapters in this book were all static in nature. However, in many cases regulation and standards are introduced when preferences change (e.g., evolving social norms), environmental conditions change (e.g., climate change), or when new technologies become available (e.g., nuclear energy, genetic modification). These changes induce new policy questions to either allow new technologies or not or to try to change behavior in response of environmental and social concerns, or not. Some of these questions may be satisfactorily addressed by static models: comparing the impact of two sets of preferences may relate to differences between countries or differences at different points in time. However, the dynamics of the changes may imply issues that cannot be (easily) captured by a static model. What if some of these changes are temporary: Will they result in changes in standards? And, if so, will these standards be temporary as well, or will they last?

As an illustration, it is often argued that a series of food safety crises at the end of the 1990s in Western Europe had a major impact on food standards and value chain regulations – as, for example, reflected in the 2002 General Food Law of the European Union. The crises triggered widespread media coverage, strong consumer reactions, and rapid responses from politicians and regulators. It is claimed that the impact of these public reactions, part of which were temporary, had a major influence on a series of standards that affect European food systems and value chains today, including the regulation of genetically modified (GM) food (McCluskey and Swinnen, 2011; Swinnen et al., 2010). Another, but related, example is the use of the “precautionary principle” in policymaking. As David Vogel (2003) explains, this principle guided much of U.S. regulatory policy in the 1960s and 1970s, itself induced by widely publicized regulatory failures such as the 1962 thalidomide scandal, while the principle was not used in Europe. However, after the food safety crises of the 1990s in Europe and political changes in the United States, the situation is reversed. The precautionary principle is now guiding EU policymaking much more than that of the United States.