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Contradictions, consequences and the human toll of food safety culture

Author

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  • Patrick Baur

    (University of California, Berkeley)

  • Christy Getz

    (University of California, Berkeley)

  • Jennifer Sowerwine

    (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

In an intensifying climate of scrutiny over food safety, the food industry is turning to “food safety culture” as a one-size-fits-all solution to protect both consumers and companies. This strategy focuses on changing employee behavior from farm to fork to fit a universal model of bureaucratic control; the goal is system-wide cultural transformation in the name of combatting foodborne illness. Through grounded fieldwork centered on the case of a regional wholesale produce market in California, we examine the consequences of this bureaucratization of food safety power on the everyday routines and lived experiences of people working to grow, pack, and deliver fresh produce. We find that despite rhetoric promising a rational and universal answer to food safety, fear and frustration over pervasive uncertainty and legal threats can produce cynicism, distrust, and fragmentation among agrifood actors. Furthermore, under the cover of its public health mission to prevent foodborne illness, food safety culture exerts a new moral economy that sorts companies and employees into categories of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ according to an abstracted calculation of ‘riskiness’ along a scale from safe to dangerous. We raise the concern that ‘safety’ is usurping other deeply held values and excluding cultural forms and experiential knowledges associated with long-standing food-ways. The long-term danger, we conclude, is that this uniform and myopic response to real risks of foodborne illness will not lead to a holistically healthy or sustainable agrifood system, but rather perpetuate a spiraling cycle of crisis and reform that carries a very real human toll.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Baur & Christy Getz & Jennifer Sowerwine, 2017. "Contradictions, consequences and the human toll of food safety culture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 713-728, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:34:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-017-9772-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-017-9772-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Gumataw Kifle Abebe, 2020. "Effects of institutional pressures on the governance of food safety in emerging food supply chains: a case of Lebanese food processors," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1125-1138, December.
    2. Lucie Severová & Roman Svoboda & Karel Šrédl & Marie Prášilová & Alexandr Soukup & Lenka Kopecká & Marek Dvořák, 2021. "Food Safety and Quality in Connection with the Change of Consumer Choice in Czechia (a Case Study)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Patrick Baur, 2020. "When farmers are pulled in too many directions: comparing institutional drivers of food safety and environmental sustainability in California agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1175-1194, December.

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