Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry : Catastrophe or Opportunity?

During the past, there have been many changes in food availability, production and selection around the world. These changes, such as genetically modified foods, raise questions about their long-range implications. How will they affect the worldwide economics and management of agriculture? food legislation? the environment? the determination of food safety and quality? nutrition and health? Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? describes the major changes and answers the questions concerning them. It presents information that decision-makers in the field can utilize on such topics as:Consumers and consumerismMarketing and the marketplaceRetailingNutrition and healthImpact of new technologiesFood, Consumers, and the Food Industry encourages you to set aside the "truth" of science to consider how political, economic, social, and cultural institutions can work to avoid a possible crisis. Table of Contents 2326-fm 1 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 1 Preface 5 The Author 7 Table of Contents 8 Dedication 10 2326-CH01 11 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 11 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 1. The Present Status 11 Introduction 11 A Prelude 12 The Pressure and Power of Food in Society 13 A Perspective on Events Leading to the Present 16 The Past 1000 Years 16 Political and Historical Developments and Voyages of Exploration 28 Developments in Science and Technology 29 Developments in the Agricultural, Food, and Nutritional Sciences 32 What Did the Common People Eat? 36 The Present Status 41 Population Growth 42 Food Consumption: New Dimensions and New Problems 44 2326-CH02 48 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 48 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 2. Customers, Consumers, and Consumerism 48 An Introduction to Change 48 Some Problems for All 49 Getting to Know the Protagonists 51 A Clarification 51 The Customer 52 The Consumers 54 The Hybrid: The Customer/Consumer 55 The Impact of Change During the Past 1000 Years 56 A Power Shift 57 The Cult of the Consumer: Consumerism 60 Techniques for Understanding Customers and Consumers 62 Measurements for Consumer Research 64 Getting into the Mind of the Customer/Consumer 68 Issues Confounding Knowledge of the Customer/ Consumer 71 The Fallacy of the Average Consumer or Customer 71 A Recapitulation 74 2326-CH03 77 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 77 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 3. Marketing and Markets 77 What’s in a Name? 77 Some Definitions 79 Marketing 79 Sales and Selling 81 Markets 82 Marketplaces 84 The Technology of Marketing 84 Some Imponderables to Marketing’s Technologies 85 Marketing and the Global Village 86 What Impact from a Global Village? 87 Natural and Unnatural Barriers to the Global Markets 88 Regional Foods — Yes; Global Foods — No 89 Local Manufacturing Requirements 91 The Global Village Marketplace 92 2326-CH04 94 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 94 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 4. The Selling Fields: The Marketing Arenas 94 Setting the Stage 94 The Many Selling Arenas 95 The Elements in a Simple Marketing Arena 96 The Varied Marketplaces 99 The Traditional Outlets 100 Placing Outlets: Improving the Odds of Success 102 Innovations in the Traditional Retailing Outlets 105 The Computer, The Internet, and The Marketplace 106 Further Views on E-Commerce 109 Enter the Electronic Food Marketplace 111 Changes to be Wrought by E-Commerce 113 Point, Click, and Shop Selling 114 Influence of E-commerce on Products, Suppliers, and Customers/ Consumers 115 Security in the Electronic Marketplace 119 A Recapitulation 120 2326-CH05 123 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 123 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 5. Nutrition and Health 123 A Growing Concern 123 The Nutritional Sciences 125 The Macronutrients 126 Dietary Fats 126 Obesity and Disease 127 Proteins and Carbohydrates 131 The Micronutrients: Biologically Active Non-Nutrients 132 Functional Foods: Prebiotics and Probiotics 133 Prebiotics 135 Probiotics 137 Functional Foods: The Nutraceuticals 138 Challenges for the New Nutrition 140 Problems Presented by Functional Foods for Manufacturers 140 Problems for Food Legislators 142 Genetics and Nutrition 145 Medical Foods 148 The Quest for A Long and Healthy Life 150 Exploiting the Consumer’s Quest 152 Dietary Advice: Educating the Public 152 Who is Responsible for “Responsible” Nutrition Education? 155 2326-CH06 156 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 156 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 6. The Challenge of Ever Newer Technologies 156 An Accelerating Pace of Technological Change 156 The New Science 158 The General Impact of Science and Applied Technologies 159 Food Applications: The Tortoise Meets the Hare 160 Old Technologies; New Hazards 165 New and Improved Health Hazards 165 Old Abuses: New or Old Hazards? 167 New Technologies: What Hazards? 168 Technological Issues Speci.c to the Food Industry 169 Agriculture and Biotechnology 170 Genetically Modi.ed Foods 170 Reactions to Genetically Modi.ed Foods 171 Confusion for Legislators 172 New Processes for Food Preservation 173 Food Production and Processing Con.icting with the Environment 175 Clean Water, Clean Solids, and Clean Air 176 Welcome to the War Room 177 Benchmarking 179 It’s a War Out There: Industrial Espionage or Intelligence Gathering? 179 Summary 182 2326-CH07 184 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 184 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 7. Food Safety, Risk, and Quality 184 “ All I Ask of Food is that It Doesn’t Harm Me 184 Major Issues Causing Concern for Food Safety 185 Risk: Its Assessment and Communication 187 Extraordinary Food Risks 194 What Methodologies for What Hazards? 196 From Professional to Amateur Food Handlers: Growth of Risk Factors 199 The Disastrous Loss of Safety and Quality from Store to Home 200 Food Safety in the Home 202 An Erosion of a Belief in the God of Science and Its Apostles 206 Faulty Delivery of Science to the Public 208 Scientific Differences of Opinion 209 Possible Reasons for a Distrust of Scientists and Expert Opinion 209 Fraudulent, Unethical, or Questionable? 211 The Role of the Media 218 Summary 220 2326-CH08 224 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 224 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 8. Legislative Dilemmas in the New Millennium 224 “Here Lay the Dilemma 224 How the Dilemma for Food Legislators Arose 225 How Food Legislation is Developed and In.uenced 227 Where Food Legislation Reaches: The Long Arm of the Law 234 The Quest for A Safe and Wholesome Food Supply 234 Quality 237 Self-Regulation 238 The Power of Food Legislation as a Weapon in International Trade 239 Consumer Legislation 243 Environmental Legislation 244 The Dubious Result 245 Food Legislation: A Summary 246 2326-CH09 248 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 248 Table of Contents -1 Chapter 9. So Now What? The Issues, The Problems, Maybe Some Solutions 248 Into the Maelstrom of the Third Millennium 248 An Age of Technology 249 An Inevitable Con.ict? 250 The Legacy from the Second Millennium 252 Feeding the World 253 “Food, Glorious Food” (from the musical 257 More Food through Increased Crop Yields 258 More Food through Intensive Animal Husbandry 259 Fighting the Current: Forces in the Marketplace 262 Who’s Top Dog? 263 The Primary Producer 263 The Manufacturer’s Power Base 264 The Emergence of the Retailer 265 E-commerce and Food E-Tailing 267 Education: Whose Responsibility? 270 Education and Training in the Food Service, Manufacturing, and Retailing Industries 272 The New Nutrition: Blessing or Curse? 274 Food: On Being an Environmentally Responsible Corporate Citizen 275 Safer Food 276 The Challenges: A Summary of Confusing Issues 279 2326-Refs 281 Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: Catastrophe or Opportunity? 281 Table of Contents -1 References 281 "Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry encourages you to consider how political, economic, social, and cultural institutions can work to avoid a possible food crisis. Drawing information from the public media, scientific magazines, and peer-reviewed journals, the author tackles issues related to food and its continued availability presently facing the world. He discusses the possible insufficiency of quality food, population growth, diminishing world resources, and long-term safety of genetically modified food. He also covers the invasion of privacy of consumers as retailers attempt to profile them, the power of larger retailers to manipulate consumers, and the growing disbelief on the part of the public for scientific and expert opinion regarding food."--Jacket Changes that have occurred in food availability, production and selection around the world raise questions about the food supply. How will they affect the worldwide economics and management of agriculture? food legislation? the environment? the determination of food safety and quality? nutrition and health? Food, Consumers, and the Food Industry: C