IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isu/genstf/200302010800001322.html

Systemic failure in the provision of safe food

Author

Listed:
  • Hennessy, David A.
  • Roosen, Jutta
  • Jensen, Helen H.

Abstract

Many deficiencies in the capacity of a food system to deliver safe products are systemic in nature. We suggest a taxonomy of four general ways in which a systemic failure might occur. One relates to the connectedness, or topology, of the system. Another arises from mistrust on the part of downstream parties concerning signals on product attributes, production processes, and the performance of regulatory mechanisms. A third arises when asymmetric information leads to low incentives for preserving food quality. Finally, inflexibilities in adapting to different states of nature may leave the system vulnerable to failures. Innovations in information technology and institutional design may ameliorate many problems, while appropriate trade, industrial organization, science, and public infrastructure policies may also fortify the system.

Suggested Citation

  • Hennessy, David A. & Roosen, Jutta & Jensen, Helen H., 2003. "Systemic failure in the provision of safe food," ISU General Staff Papers 200302010800001322, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:isu:genstf:200302010800001322
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/317aeb51-5496-4a13-b3a0-6f9a1c7aeaa0/content
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zwoll, Stefan & Hirschauer, Norbert, 2006. "Reduction of Behavioural Food Risks: An Analysis of Economic Incentives and Social Context Factors in the German Poultry Chains," 99th Seminar, February 8-10, 2006, Bonn, Germany 7730, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Miguel Carriquiry & Bruce A. Babcock, 2007. "Reputations, Market Structure, and the Choice of Quality Assurance Systems in the Food Industry," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(1), pages 12-23.
    3. E. Rouvière & K. Latouche, 2014. "Impact of liability rules on modes of coordination for food safety in supply chains," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 111-130, February.
    4. Jones, Kevin Edson & Davidson, Debra J., 2014. "Adapting to food safety crises: Interpreting success and failure in the Canadian response to BSE," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 250-258.
    5. Page, Elina Tselepidakis, 2018. "Trends in Food Recalls: 2004-13," Economic Information Bulletin 276244, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Xiu, Changbai & Klein, K.K., 2010. "Melamine in milk products in China: Examining the factors that led to deliberate use of the contaminant," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 463-470, October.
    7. Vanloqueren, Gaëtan & Baret, Philippe V., 2008. "Why are ecological, low-input, multi-resistant wheat cultivars slow to develop commercially? A Belgian agricultural 'lock-in' case study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 436-446, June.
    8. Norbert Hirschauer & Stefan Zwoll, 2008. "Understanding and managing behavioural risks: the case of malpractice in poultry production," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 27-60, August.
    9. Liang, Jing & Jensen, Helen H., 2008. "Marketing Agreement, Food Safety and Contract Design," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6434, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Hirschauer, Norbert & Musshoff, Oliver, 2007. "A game-theoretic approach to behavioral food risks: The case of grain producers," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 246-265, April.
    11. Goldsmith, Peter D. & Turan, Nesve A. & Gow, Hamish R., 2004. "Firms, Incentives, And The Supply Of Food Safety: A Formal Model Of Government Enforcement," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20343, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    12. Sara McPhee-Knowles, 2015. "Growing Food Safety from the Bottom Up: An Agent-Based Model of Food Safety Inspections," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(2), pages 1-9.
    13. Marian Garcia Martinez & Nigel Poole & Claire Skinner & Csaba Illes & József Lehota, 2006. "Food safety performance in European union accession countries: Benchmarking the fresh produce import sector in Hungary," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 69-89.
    14. Yayan Xie & Yang Su & Feng Li, 2022. "The Evolutionary Game Analysis of Low Carbon Production Behaviour of Farmers, Government and Consumers in Food Safety Source Governance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-16, September.
    15. Liu, Chia-Yi & Chou, Tzu-Min, 2021. "A Systems Approach to Institutional Diffusion in Taiwan’s Food Traceability System," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 12(02), June.
    16. Hirschauer, Norbert & Zwoll, Stefan, 2006. "Understanding and Managing Behavioural Risks -The Case of Food Risks Caused by Malpractice in Poultry Production," Working Paper Series 10287, Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    17. Jaffee, Steve & Masakure, Oliver, 2005. "Strategic use of private standards to enhance international competitiveness: Vegetable exports from Kenya and elsewhere," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 316-333, June.
    18. Carbone, Anna & Gaito, Marco & Senni, Saverio, 2007. "Consumers’ Buying Groups in the Short Food Chains: Alternatives for Trust," 2007 1st Forum, February 15-17, 2007, Innsbruck, Austria 6594, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    19. Jensen, Jørgen Dejgård & Lawson, Lartey Godwin & Lund, Mogens, 2015. "Systemic cost-effectiveness analysis of food hazard reduction – Campylobacter in Danish broiler supply," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 273-282.
    20. Fares, M'hand & Rouviere, Elodie, 2010. "The implementation mechanisms of voluntary food safety systems," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 412-418, October.
    21. Bodo E. Steiner, 2017. "A phenomenon-driven approach to the study of value creation and organizational design issues in agri-business value chains," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 19(1), pages 89-118.
    22. Charlier, Christophe & Valceschini, Egizio, 2006. "Traceability, Trust and Coordination in a Food Chain," 99th Seminar, February 8-10, 2006, Bonn, Germany 7718, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    23. Christophe Charlier & Egizio Valceschini, 2008. "Coordination for traceability in the food chain. A critical appraisal of European regulation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-15, February.
    24. Rouvière, Elodie & Royer, Annie, 2017. "Public Private Partnerships in food industries: A road to success?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 135-144.
    25. Hirschauer, Norbert & Musshoff, Oliver, 2006. "Trust and the Profitability of Rule-Breaking in Grain Production," 99th Seminar, February 8-10, 2006, Bonn, Germany 7754, European Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:isu:genstf:200302010800001322. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Curtis Balmer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deiasus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.