Abstract:ABSTRACT. The many well-publicized food scandals in recent years have resulted in a general state of vulnerable trust. As a result, building consumer trust has become an important goal in agri-food policy. In their efforts to protect trust in the agricultural and food sector, governments and industries have tended to consider the problem of trust as merely a matter of informing consumers on risks. In this article, we argue that the food sector better addresses the problem of trust from the perspective of the t… Show more
“…As Meijboom et al (2006) point out, trust cannot be forced, but trustworthiness-a precondition for trust-can be enhanced. For the agri-food sector this means acting reliably, but also explicating the norms and values they act upon.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…After all, trust is a matter of normative expectations. Also, trustworthiness means to be responsive to public concerns and engage in a critical discussion about those norms and values (Meijboom et al 2006, see also Brom 2000.…”
Persistent public distrust of food additives is often explained in terms of safety and health issues. The broad variety of ethical, aesthetic, and cultural concerns tends to be structurally ignored by food engineers and occasionally even by consumers themselves. The public controversy of food additives-commonly known as ''E-numbers''-in the Netherlands is a case in point. Two discursive mechanisms prevent these concerns from becoming legitimate public issues: irrationalization and privatization. But these consumer concerns may not be as unreasonable as they seem, and they may even turn out to be not that private. As long as ethical, aesthetic and cultural concerns are not recognized by food engineers as legitimate issues, the controversy of food additives is not likely to find closure. Moreover, this lack of recognition blocks the opportunity for meaningful dialogue and trust building between food technology developers, policy makers, citizens and consumers.
“…As Meijboom et al (2006) point out, trust cannot be forced, but trustworthiness-a precondition for trust-can be enhanced. For the agri-food sector this means acting reliably, but also explicating the norms and values they act upon.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…After all, trust is a matter of normative expectations. Also, trustworthiness means to be responsive to public concerns and engage in a critical discussion about those norms and values (Meijboom et al 2006, see also Brom 2000.…”
Persistent public distrust of food additives is often explained in terms of safety and health issues. The broad variety of ethical, aesthetic, and cultural concerns tends to be structurally ignored by food engineers and occasionally even by consumers themselves. The public controversy of food additives-commonly known as ''E-numbers''-in the Netherlands is a case in point. Two discursive mechanisms prevent these concerns from becoming legitimate public issues: irrationalization and privatization. But these consumer concerns may not be as unreasonable as they seem, and they may even turn out to be not that private. As long as ethical, aesthetic and cultural concerns are not recognized by food engineers as legitimate issues, the controversy of food additives is not likely to find closure. Moreover, this lack of recognition blocks the opportunity for meaningful dialogue and trust building between food technology developers, policy makers, citizens and consumers.
“…trustworthiness (cf. Meijboom et al 2006). The transition to a full blown bio-economy calls for investment in the trustworthiness of actors involved.…”
Section: Challenges To a Sustainable Bio-economymentioning
The approach of responsible research and innovation (RRI) has been proposed to support the introduction of technologies that touch upon socially sensitive issues. RRI is intended to help designers and manufacturers of new technologies identify and accommodate public concerns when developing a new technology by engaging with a wide range of relevant actors in an interactive, transparent process. However what this approach amounts to exactly remains elusive as of yet, i.e. it is unclear what its contribution to the societal embedding of new technologies should consists of exactly. The transition to a sustainable bio-economy that uses biomass as its main resource is a complicated trajectory involving many actors and touching upon societally sensitive issues such as the use of genetic modification. In this paper we pose the question in what way RRI can stimulate the development and diffusion of a sustainable bio-economy in The Netherlands and Europe. We claim that for the further development and diffusion of the bio-economy, trust among actors in the relevant value-chain is a prerequisite. RRI can play a pivotal part in the bio-economy by providing conditions for trustworthiness of actors and by enhancing trusting relationships. This can be achieved through
“…Therefore, the problems should better be addressed as problems of trustworthiness (Meijboom et al 2006; as opposed to problem of trust. Consequently, the aim is not just to build trust in novel food and dietary products, but to show oneself to be a trustworthy actor.…”
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