Ethical Traceability and Communicating Food

by Coff, Christian; Barling, David; Korthals, Michiel; Nielsen, Thorkild

• ISBN13: 9781402085239
• ISBN10: 1402085230
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-30
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

Traceability ' the ability to track a product from farm to plate ' is now widely used in the food sector for a range of purposes: it allows companies to improve efficiency, facilitates product recall, and helps producers flag the specific characteristics of their goods. But traceability systems are mainly designed and used by the people directly involved in the food chain. The people at the end of the food chain ' food consumers ' have little say in which attributes are traced, and can rarely access the information stored in traceability systems.This book draws on philosophical discourses (like ethics, political philosophy and philosophy of law) around food ethics and empirical research in three important food chains (UK bread, Danish bacon and Greek olive oil) to argue that ethical traceability systems could be used to communicate food information to consumers, allowing them not only to make food choices consistent with their own values, but also to play a more informed role in the way food is produced and distributed. It will appeal to academics, students and policy makers with an interest in traceability, food ethics and food policy.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations
List of Tables
List of Figures
Ethical Traceability and Informed Food Choice	p. 1
Regulation, Governance and Narrative Strategies of Food Traceability
The European Union and the Regulation of Food Traceability: From Risk Management to Informed Choice?	p. 23
Governing and Governance in the Agri-Food Sector and Traceability	p. 43
Narrative Strategies in Food Advertising	p. 63
Ethical Traceability in Three Food Supply Chains: Case Studies of Danish Bacon, UK Wheat-Bread and Greek Olive Oil
Ethical Traceability in the Bacon Supply Chain	p. 83
Ethical Traceability in the UK Wheat-Flour-Bread Chain	p. 125
Traceability and Ethical Traceability in the Greek Olive Oil Chain	p. 167
Ethical Traceability and its Philosophical Implications for Civil Society, Market, State and Democracy
Challenges of Ethical Traceability to the Public-Private Divide	p. 195
Traceability of Animal Welfare: Market or State, Good or Right?	p. 217
Consumer Rights to Food Ethical Traceability	p. 235
Ethical Traceability and Ethical Room for Manoeuvre	p. 251
Interpreting Traceability: Improving the Democratic Quality of Traceability	p. 267
Conclusions and Outlook
Communicating Ethical Traceability	p. 277
Conclusions and Policy Options	p. 293
Two Political Speeches: Consumers' Informed Choice and Ethical Traceability
Consumers' Informed Choice	p. 305
'Just Deserts': Ethics, Quality and Traceability in EU Agricultural and Food Policy	p. 309
Index	p. 315
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.