Food, Risk and Politics : Scare, Scandal and Crisis - Insights Into the Risk Politics of Food Safety

This is a book about the risk politics of food safety. Food-related risks regularly grab the headlines in ways that threaten reasoned debate and obstruct sensible policy making. This book explains why this is the case, and goes on to make the case for a properly informed and fully open public debate about food safety issues. It argues that this is the true antidote to the politics of scare, scandal, and crisis. The book weaves together the many different threads of food safety and risk politics. This is a book about the risk politics of food safety. Food-related risks regularly grab the headlines in ways that threaten reasoned debate and obstruct sensible policy making. In this book, Ed Randall explains why this is the case. He goes on to make the case for a properly informed and fully open public debate about food safety issues. He argues that this is the true antidote to the politics of scare, scandal and crisis. The book skilfully weaves together the many different threads of food safety and risk politics and offers a particularly rewarding read for academics and students in the fields of politics and media studies. It will also appeal to scholars from other disciplines, particularly social psychology and the food sciences. The book is a lively and exceptionally readable account of food safety and risk politics that will engage policy makers and the general reader. It promises to help us all manage food safety issues more intelligently and successfully. Front matter Contents Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Salmonella and media intrusion: food safety policy and politics upset An inspector calls: Pennington, E. coli and disaster science BSE and vCJD – still crazy after all these years GMOs and food – is anyone listening? Dioxin – scares without borders Foot-and-mouth disease – who’s panicking now? Conclusion Bibliography Index This book is about the risk politics of food safety. It offers a lively and exceptionally readable account of food safety and risk that examines media treatment of the issue and makes the case for a fully open public debate. -- .