Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:49:44.913Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Food Safety: The Consumer Side of the Environmental Issue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

Carol S. Kramer*
Affiliation:
National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC

Extract

A key player in the current policy debate over chemical use in food production is the consumer. In the last few years we have witnessed that consumer activism has been able to force policy change in a number of areas important to the agricultural and food industries. Consumers' perceptions and concerns about pesticide and animal drug residues in foods can translate, in sometimes volatile and unpredictable ways, into market behavior. In addition to affecting the consumer's own satisfaction and welfare, the consumer's market behavior is obviously of major interest to agricultural producers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and food retailers. Policymakers and regulators are feeling heightened pressure to understand and respond better to consumer (and voter) concerns over pesticides and other chemicals commonly used in agriculture.

Type
Invited Papers and Discussions
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archibald, , Sandra, O., and Winter, Carl K.. “Pesticide Residues and Cancer Risks.California Agriculture, 3(1989):69.Google Scholar
Food Marketing Institute. Trends: 1989 Consumer Attitudes and the Supermarket. Opinion Research Corporation for the Food Marketing Institute, Washington, DC, 1989.Google Scholar
Institute of Food Technologists. “Assessing the Optimal System for Ensuring Food Safety: A Scientific Consensus.” Report of a workshop, Chicago, IL, April, 1989.Google Scholar
Institute of Food Technologists. “The Risk/Benefit Concept as Applied to Food.” A Scientific Status Summary by the Expert Panel on Food Safety and Nutrition, Chicago, IL, 1989.Google Scholar
Jolly, , Desmond, A, and Johal, Jagjit. “Consumer Perceptions of the Quality and Safety of Conventional and Organic Foods.Papers of the Western Region Home Management Family Economics Educators, 3(1988).Google Scholar
Kramer, , Carol, S. “An Economic Analysis of Food Safety Regulation: The Case of Sulfa and the Swine Subsector.” East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, unpublished doctoral dissertation, 1982.Google Scholar
Kramer, , Carol, S. “Food Safety and Public Policy: What Can Economists Contribute?” Washington, DC: National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, Resources for the Future, 1990.Google Scholar
Kramer, , Carol, S., and van Ravenswaay, Eileen O.. “Proposition 65 and the Economics of Food Safety.” Am. J. Agr. Econ., 71(1989):12931299.Google Scholar
Lowrance, , William, W. Of Acceptable Risk: Science and the Determination of Safety. Los Altos, CA: William Kaufman, 1976.Google Scholar
National Research Council. Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk, Executive Summary. Committee on Diet and Health, Food and Nutrition Board, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Natural Resources Defense Council. Intolerable Risks: Pesticides in Our Children's Food. New York, NY, 1989.Google Scholar
Ott, , Stephen, L., and Haligaya, Arlyn. “An Analysis of Consumer Attitudes Toward Pesticide Use and the Potential Market for Pesticide Residue-Free Fresh Produce.” Selected paper presented at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, Nashville, TN., February 5-8, 1989.Google Scholar
Palmer, , Sushma, . Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition of the Committee of Agriculture of the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, June 21, 1989.Google Scholar
Penner, , Karen, P., Kramer, Carol S., and Frantz, Gary L.. Consumer Food Safety Perceptions. Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, Cooperative Extension Service, August, 1985.Google Scholar
Roberts, , Tanya, . “Human Illness Costs of Foodborne Bacteria.Am. J. Agr. Econ., 71(1989):468474.Google Scholar
Roberts, , Tanya, , and van Ravenswaay, Eileen O.. “The Economics of Food Safety.” National Food Review 12(1989):18.Google Scholar
Sachs, , Carolyn, , Blair, Dorothy, and Richter, Carolyn. “Consumer Pesticide Concerns: A 1965 and 1984 Comparison.J. Con. Affairs, 21(1)(1987):96107.Google Scholar
Smith, , Mark, E., van Ravenswaay, Eileen O., and Thompson, Stanley R.. “Sales Loss Determination in Food Contamination Incidents: An Application to Milk Bans in Hawaii.Am. J. Agr. Econ., 70(1988):513520.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Pesticide Residues in Foods: Technologies for Detection. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health. Public Health Service. DHHS(PHS) Publication No. 88-50211. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988.Google Scholar
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Unfinished Business: A Comparative Assessment of Environmental Problems. Overview Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, February, 1987.Google Scholar
Viscusi, , Kip, W., and Magat, Wesley A.. Learning About Risk: Consumer and Worker Responses to Hazard Information. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Zellner, , James, A., and Degner, Robert L.. “Consumer Willingness to Pay for Food Safety.” Paper presented at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar