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![Page 1: Societal challenges in the agrifood sector. Why a multidisciplinary approach is needed. Professor Lynn J. Frewer Food and Society Newcastle University.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062315/5697bfe41a28abf838cb5b76/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Societal challenges in the agrifood sector. Why a multidisciplinary approach is needed.
Professor Lynn J. Frewer
Food and Society
Newcastle University
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Exmaple. Emerging themes in food security
Food security has been defined as the situation “when all people, at all-time have physical and economic access to sufficient and safe
nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active healthy life” (FAO,1996).
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What factors influence the food chain, and hence food security?
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The grand challenge of food (in)security
• Can only be addressed through
multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary
research
• Research activities need to be
integrated across the natural and
social sciences
• Simultaneously address food safety,
adequate nutrition and
sustainable production.
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Drivers of Food (In)security
• Consumer preferences, priorities and perceptions– Increased demand for animal proteins
• Demographic change, (such as urban migration)• Changing human and animal nutritional requirements at different
phases of the lifecycle• Economic drivers related to supply and demand or domestic food
provisioning • Income trends• Climate change• The introduction of new technologies or agri-food practice
……..and their potential interactions
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Food Safety
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What existing and emerging food safety concerns can be identified globally? And how do these differ
regionally?
– Various Delphi studies have included food safety and agenda setting
– Delphi originates in foresight (1950s)– Various forms , including the Policy Delphi
• Map policy issues and options• Focuses on mapping existing and future resource and policy
needs• No longer used only for forecasting, in particular in a
research mapping or policy context.
Frewer, L. J., Fischer, A. R. H., Wentholt, M. T. A., Marvin, H. J. P., Ooms, B. W., Coles, D., & Rowe, G. (2011). The use of Delphi methodology in agrifood policy development: some lessons learned. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 78(9), 1514-1525.
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The Delphi Method
Delphi can be defined as a procedure to:
“obtain the most reliable consensus of opinion of a group of experts … by a series of intensive questionnaires interspersed with controlled opinion feedback”
Dalkey & Helmer (1963, p458)
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Examples of Policy Delphi funded by the commission
• EMIDA (emerging infectious animal diseases) Wentholt, M. T. A., Cardoen, S., Imberechts, H., Van Huffel, X., Ooms, B. W., & Frewer, L. J. (2012). Defining European preparedness and research needs regarding emerging infectious animal diseases: Results from a Delphi expert consultation. Preventive veterinary medicine, 103(2), 81-92.
• Connect4Action (integrating consumer research into innovative product design)
Frewer et al, in preparation. The use of Delphi methodology in identifying effective interdisciplinary collaboration in food research.
• GoGlobal (Emerging food risk and associated policy). Wentholt, M. T., Fischer, A. R., Rowe, G., Marvin, H. J., & Frewer, L. J. (2010). Effective identification and management of emerging food risks: Results of an international Delphi survey. Food Control, 21(12), 1731-1738.
• GMO Presto (GMO risk assessment and European research needs- ERANET-in progress)
• PROHEALTH (European policy and antibiotic resistance in animals-in progress)
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Driver of food safety risk
Example
Demographic change Population growth, ageing, migration
Economic driving forces
Globalisation of the food web, food prices
Environmental driving forces
Response to and mitigation of climate change, resource scarcity and use efficiency
Technological advances
Use of genetic modification, nanotechnology or synthetic biology in food production
Geopolitical driving forces
Governance, (“hard” versus “soft”), regulatory measures
Societal values animal welfare, fair trade, environmental protection, corporate social responsibility
Malevolent activities Fraud and introduction of counterfeit products, bioterrorism
Increased complexity and size of the supply chain
Inclusion of banned ingredients in different supply chains, through lack of international harmonisation of activities
Resource shortages Energy, land
Food risk representation in the media
Increasing or decreasing societal concern about specific food risks)
Water security Drought, pollution, flooding
Political will Not allocating resources or policy agendas to food safety issues)
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GoGlobal
• Most frequently identified global threats
– Microbiological– Chemical– Globalisation – Control and regulation– Mycotoxins– Crime and fraud– Technology (e,g. Nanoparticles)
• Technology is also seen as a solution to mitigate food safety problems…
• Food allergy is infrequently identified as an important food safety issue.
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Emerging food risks - Drivers x Hazard?
• World-wide recession– Increase in food fraud? – Domestic storage (foods used longer)– Conflicts between sustainable use and safe use?– Emerging technologies
• Reduce food prices
• Conflict between societal concerns and technical assessments?
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Driver- food fraud
Emerging research needs– Understanding the motivations of fraud and identification of vulnerable links in the
food chain • Temporal variation• Regulatory variation• Geographical variation• Variation in Economic motivation (is it worth it..)
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Food risk management and food risk communication
• What constitutes best food risk management from a consumer perspective?– Does this differ from expert perceptions?
• Who do consumers trust to inform and manage food risks? • Are there cross-cultural and individual differences in perceptions,
attitudes, and information needs?• What is the optimal strategy to communicate uncertainty and population
level variability?• How should communication of risk and benefit in different impact areas be
conducted e.g. health and environment?
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SAFE FOODS Risk Analysis Framework
• Should stakeholders be involved?• Which stakeholders?• Involvement in what way?
• Include health impacts of both
risks and benefits?• Assess as well, economic, social,
environmental, ethical impacts?• Transform risk communication,
to focus on needs and wishes of
the public and thereby improve
transparency?
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Nutrigenomics and individualised dietary advice Will consumers accept personalised nutrition?
……….the study of how different foods affect someone's health by the way they react with that person's genes, for example by making them more or less likely to get heart disease or other illnesses.
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Nutrigenomics
• The study of – How different foods may interact with specific genes to increase
the risk of common chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stroke and certain cancers
– How common chemicals in the diet affect health by altering the expression of genes and the structure of an individual's genome.
– Assumes that the influence of diet on health depends on an individual's genetic makeup.
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Innovations (and implementation possibilities)
• DNA testing and food profiling • Personalised ICT based “coaching” to get people to eat specific
foods…• Specific food products for people with specific gene types
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Survey study-perceived risks, benefits attitudes associated with personalised nutrition, and intention to adopt it
• 9381 participants from different EU member states were surveyed regarding their attitudes towards, and intention to adopt, personalised nutrition.
– Germany– Greece– Ireland– Poland – Portugal– Spain – the Netherlands, – the UK – Norway
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Items used
• The Health Locus of Control Scale
– Internal health locus of control– Health commitment
• Risk and benefit perception “benefit”
• The Nutrition Self-efficacy Scale
• Perceived efficacy of control and regulation
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SEM – adoption of intention to adopt Personalised nutrition
Health commitment
Perceived efficacy control and regulation
Internal health locus of control
Benefit perception
Attitude towards PN
Risk perception
Self efficacy
+0.252*0.648*
-0.097*+0.095*
+0.065
+0.043*
+0.123*
+0.111*
Intention to adopt PN
Poinhos, van der Lans, Rankin, Fischer, Bunting, Kuznesof, Stewart-Knox and Frewer, in preparation
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Key results and next steps
• Benefit perception is the most important determinant of both attitude towards, and adoption of, personalised nutrition.
• Perceived self-efficacy (i.e. Is Personalised nutrition achievable?) also predicts attitude and adoption of personalised nutrition
• Proof of principal study– Participants recruited into personalised nutrition trials I the same countries (N=
approximately 700)– Compare attitudes of the general population with those engaged in personalised
nutrition trial
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Sustainable agrifood production
• The Browse project– The EU sets rules for the sustainable use of pesticides to reduce the risks and
impacts of pesticide use on people's health and the environment – Includes understanding exposure in different stakeholder groups in order to fine
tune communication – Operators’, Workers’, Residents’ and Bystanders’ risk perceptions, knowledge
and attitudes associated with passive and occupational exposure to pesticides
– Data collected in Greece, Italy and the UK
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Preliminary findings
• Risk perceptions are found to significantly influence the likelihood of adopting PPE for operators and workers
• Residents and bystanders do not adopt protective measures• The likelihood of residents and bystanders engaging in self-protective
behaviour is not significantly influenced by perceptions that personal health is being affected by pesticides
• Current analysis..assess the association between risk perceptions and pesticide exposure data (obtained through modelling)
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Barriers to transdisciplinary research (1)the “jargon of authenticity”
• Unnecessary use of technical terminology inhibits clarity and communication
• Recognised problem communicating science to policy makers
• Also makes communication problematic between disciplines– e.g. influence diagram, logic map, conceptual model, systematic map – often
used interchangeably and may refer to the same thing or not depending on usage
• Solutions: plain language summaries, definitions, development of generic norms
Sutherland et al. (2013) Nature 503; 335-337.
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Disciplinary norms
• Methodologies and approaches can be radically different and not understood by “subject experts” in different disciplines
– E.g. The use of small sample sizes in qualitative research (social science focus groups or ethnographic studies) is questioned by natural scientists.
• Solutions– Communication through Workshops– Discipline hopping fellowships– Development of empirical interdisciplinary evidence-base to support
methodologies
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Barriers to transdiciplinarity- discipliary siloes
• Transdisciplinary research often fails because the links between the different disciplines remain conceptual and implicit rather than explicit
– between qualitative and quantitative disciplines – Between experimental and non-experimental evidence within disciplines
• They may also lack explicit linkage to the policy decision problems
Solution: Bayesian networks have been proposed to facilitate coherent linkage between elements of complex decision problems
Stewart et al. (2013) Research Synthesis Methods. DOI: 10.1002/jrsm.1087
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Other barriers to transdisciplinary research
• Impact factors of journals which publish results are low• Lack of career structure for academics who engage in interdisciplinary
research• Reserch funding may be difficult to obtain (particularly from prestigious,
monodisciplinary research councils)
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Conclusions
• Addressing global societal challenges requires trans disciplinary research – e,g, interactions between socio-economic and biophysical drivers in relation to
food security
• Experience of research synthesis in different disciplines (notably medicine, social sciences and ecology) indicates that there are some real challenges to integration between the natural and social sciences
• Changes to academic career structure and reserch funding is needed
Overcoming these challenges should be an urgent priority for applied scientists, methodologists and the policy community.
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Thank youAny questions or
comments?