Food Law & Policy eJournal最新文献

{"title":"Beyond Threats to Health: May Consumers’ Interests in Safety Trump Fundamental Freedoms in Information on Foodstuffs? Reflections on Karl Berger v Freistaat Bayern","authors":"K. Purnhagen","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2276899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2276899","url":null,"abstract":"In this case the ECJ emphasizes that public authorities may issue warnings about foodstuffs that are no risk to consumers’ health, but are unsafe as they are unfit for human consumption. The Court backs up its reasoning by the wording of Art. 17 (2) of Regulation No 178/2002, which allows Member States to issue public communication on food safety. As Art. 14 (2) (b) in conjunction with Art. 14 (5) Foodcode defines food such as the one in casu as unsafe and Art. 5 (1) Foodcode stipulates the “protection of consumers’ interest” as a main goal of the Foodcode, public authorities may issue warnings in case a court does not comply with the “food safety requirements because it is unfit for human consumption”. In light of the clear facts of the case and the likewise clear wording of the Foodcode it is hard to imagine how the Court could have come to any other conclusion in the case at hand. It is hence quite comprehensible that the case in the eyes of the Court seems to raise “no new point of law”, as it has been determined without a submission from the Advocate-General. What makes this case interesting and worth an annotation, however, is the impact the case may have beyond the mere black-letter-analysis of the reasoning. First, as the Court refrained from determining whether the activities of the Member State were “appropriate to the circumstances” and recurred to the protection of the consumers’ interest in Art. 5 (2) Foodcode only, one may conclude that the Court relies only on the protection of the consumers’ interest in safety, thereby always trumping the producers’ right to the free marketing of food in Art. 5 (2) Foodcode. Such a reading would bring the case in dangerous alignment with the Court’s reasoning in Affish, meaning that the protection of the consumers’ interest in food safety always takes precedence over economic considerations. Furthermore, such a reading brings back forgotten memories from the old days when EU product safety regulation failed because of a lack of a proper balancing between fundamental freedoms and fundamental rights. Second, the findings of the case have to be aligned with the conflicting outcome of the Court’s earlier case AGM.Cos.Met, where the ECJ held a Finnish authority liable for informing the public about the lack of safety of a car lift.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116652893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Public-Private Regime Interactions in Global Food Safety Governance","authors":"Ching-Fu Lin","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2273320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2273320","url":null,"abstract":"In response to an apparent decline in global food safety, numerous public and private regulatory initiatives have emerged to restore public confidence. This trend has been particularly marked by the growing influence of private regulators such as multinational food companies, supermarket chains and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), who employ private standards, certification protocols, third-party auditing, and transnational contracting practices. This paper explores how the structure and processes of private food safety governance interact with traditional public governance regimes, focusing on Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) as a primary example of the former. Due to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of public regulation in the face of global problems, private governance in food safety has gradually replaced states’ command-and-control regulation with more flexible, market-oriented mechanisms. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of constructive regime interaction instead of institutional boundary building to global food safety governance. Public and private ordering must each play a role as integral parts of a larger, dynamic and evolving governance complex.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126493409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Freedom from Food: On the Need to Restore FDR’s Vision of Economic Rights in America, and How It Can Be Done","authors":"E. Krasnov","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2223638","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2223638","url":null,"abstract":"Within the U.S. policy discourse, it has long been taken for granted that the body of human rights law does not — and should not — include economic rights, which include the right to adequate food, shelter, and health care. This is an irony of history, since the origins of modern-day economic rights law lie in the policies advocated by the U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This article argues that (1) the common justifications for neglecting economic rights are not sound; (2) there is a pressing need to recognize economic rights in the United States; and (3) the best way to do so is to ratify and implement the International Covenant for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, or ICESCR. This article illustrates how this can be successfully accomplished through a blueprint for enforcing one right from the Covenant — the right to adequate food — in the United States. By restoring Roosevelt’s vision through the ICESCR, the U.S. government will strengthen its moral stance on the world stage and help secure the integrity of Americans’ human rights.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130307264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transitions in Food Governance in Europe: From National Towards EU and Global Regulation and from Public Towards Hybrid and Private Forms of Governance","authors":"T. Havinga","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2189478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2189478","url":null,"abstract":"In my paper I discuss two important transitions in food governance in Europe. First, the increased role of private actors in global food safety regulation and the development of retail driven private food safety regulation from the 1990s onwards. Second, the increased role of the European Union. In response to food crisis such as BSE and dioxin, the European Union strengthened its food safety legislation and established the European Food Safety Authority.At the national level, several European countries have established new regulatory agencies or reformed existing agencies to oversee the national food control activities. Both transitions resulted in very complex regulatory arrangements with multiple partners at multiple levels. Governmental organizations have to deal with the new circumstances and new core values such as transparency and independence. How do governmental agencies react to private standard setting?","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"84 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127743990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"World Food Prices and Human Development: Policy Simulations for Archetype Low-Income Countries","authors":"H. Lofgren","doi":"10.1596/1813-9450-6033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-6033","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, world food prices have increased and fluctuated widely. This paper explores the impact of international food prices and domestic policies on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and macro indicators for two archetype low-income countries, a net food exporter and a net food importer, using Maquette for MDG Simulations (MAMS), a Computable General Equilibrium model. The simulations, which cover the period 2011-2025, indicate that the size of positive (negative) effects on macro and MDG indicators of a food export (import) price increase depend on the initial gross domestic product share for food exports (imports), leaving countries that are heavily involved in international food trade more exposed to international shocks. Given relatively low elasticity estimates, the impact of changes in food prices on undernourishment are relatively marginal. Flexible responses (in terms of production shares, whether output is exported or sold at home, and whether domestic demanders buy imports or domestic output) enable countries to benefit from or be less hurt by price changes. The case for policy responses to higher import prices is stronger for the net food importer. An untargeted food subsidy, financed by taxes or spending cuts, reduces undernourishment at the cost of a slight deterioration for most other indicators. By contrast, aid-financed food subsidies neutralize the negative impact of higher import prices whereas financing via domestic borrowing is counterproductive, leading to a deterioration across all indicators. If administered at moderate costs, tax-financed targeted transfers more effectively reduce headcount poverty and inequality with macroeconomic repercussions similar to those of tax-financed subsidies.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124159365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research Investments and Market Structure in the Food Processing, Agricultural Input, and Biofuel Industries Worldwide","authors":"K. Fuglie, P. Heisey, J. King, Kelly A. Day-Rubenstein, D. Schimmelpfennig, Sun Ling Wang, C. Pray, Rupa Karmarkar-Deshmukh","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2027051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2027051","url":null,"abstract":"Meeting growing global demand for food, fiber, and biofuel requires robust investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) from both public and private sectors. This study examines global R&D spending by private industry in seven agricultural input sectors, food manufacturing, and biofuel and describes the changing structure of these industries. In 2007 (the latest year for which comprehensive estimates are available), the private sector spent $19.7 billion on food and agricultural research (56 percent in food manufacturing and 44 percent in agricultural input sectors) and accounted for about half of total public and private spending on food and agricultural R&D in high-income countries. In R&D related to biofuel, annual private-sector investments are estimated to have reached $1.47 billion worldwide by 2009. Incentives to invest in R&D are influenced by market structure and other factors. Agricultural input industries have undergone significant structural change over the past two decades, with industry concentration on the rise. A relatively small number of large, multinational firms with global R&D and marketing networks account for most R&D in each input industry. Rising market concentration has not generally been associated with increased R&D investment as a percentage of industry sales.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123614615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Price Volatility in the Food Markets","authors":"H. Till","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2609092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2609092","url":null,"abstract":"Food price volatility has spiked to levels last seen in the 1970s. For low-income countries, food price hikes, such as have occurred recently, tend to significantly increase the incidence of intra-state conflicts, according to IMF research. The 2007-2008 food crisis, and the resumption of more recent food price spikes, clearly have a number of causes. That said, in reviewing over a century of commodity price volatility, there are episodes of low volatility and high volatility, which would indicate that this may be a pattern of recurrent phenomena. As a result, it may be wise to focus on how to manage price volatility rather than believe that this phenomenon can be eradicated.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126732976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Livestock and the Environment","authors":"T. Maitra","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1620866","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1620866","url":null,"abstract":"The association between human beings and animals dates back to prehistoric times. Livestock keeping is a century old tradition for Indian rural households. Animal agriculture is one of the most important components of global agriculture and livestock is one of the main users of the natural resource. It provides livelihoods to about 1.3 billion people and contributes about 40 percent to global agricultural output. Despite of environmental balance and positive contribution of livestock, the massive appetite of the growing urban population for meat, milk and eggs often translates into environmental damage and disruption of traditional mixed farming. Apart from population and poverty, poor integration of livestock has added to the environmental degradation. In this changing economy it has become necessary to consider how to satisfy ever increasing demand for high value animal protein without destroying the environment caused by the massive pressure on animal production. With good management, livestock production can make a positive contribution to the natural resource base by enhancing soil quality, increasing plant and animal biodiversity and substituting for scarce, nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels. This article focuses on livestock production and processing, which often have been associated with negative environmental effects. The article also establish the fact that different policies are required to alleviate the negative and enhance the positive impact of livestock on the environment and thereby contribute to the sustainable use of the natural resource base. Thus the challenge is to identify policies and technologies which mitigate any negative environmental impact but which, at the same time, satisfy the considerable demand for livestock products.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131330752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Alcohol, No Ordinary Commodity: Tax Policy Implications for Thailand","authors":"Pongsak Hoontrakul, Bunchon Songsumphan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1485238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1485238","url":null,"abstract":"Alcohol is no ordinary commodity. Millions of people enjoy it safely if drinking in moderation. Alcoholic beverages are big business that creates substantial jobs, pay huge tax and contribute to our economy. But if consume excessively and regularly, alcohol is addictive substance that can cause brain disease beyond a reasonable doubt. Despite a chronic, potentially relapsing disorder and dependence bio-behavior, alcohol is widely distributed and consumed until Thailand has become the world’s fifth largest alcohol consumption per capita behind Russia and UK. Brewery, distilled and winery beverage industry or alike is in the business of delivering alcohol. Because alcohol is a practically drug-like chemical goods and its industry is natural oligopolistic, simple business concept and free market approach are not applicable for national policy making consideration. When this market fails to correct negative externality generating from alcohol, the government is justified to intervene, regulate and tax to redistribute for welfare enhancement. We examine how tax structure based on obsolete assumptions has de-merit incentive for Thai people to drink cheap beverage with high alcohol content that is addictive and chronically harmful to public health. Potential tax leakages with estimated over THB 30bn per annum were also discussed. To improve social welfare, we recommend on how to narrow fiscal gap - with little or no tax rate hike. To amend specific or alcoholic tax rate ceiling is the first best solution, while synthetic volume tax rate is presented as second best with only ministerial directive. A more equitable and more simplified tax regime is needed. Public health concern, social cost, fiscal budget rational and political economic perspectives are among fine issues that need to be addressed comprehensively. Other administrative tax based measures using information technology should be utilized for differential measures - to effectively increase social welfare as well.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"C-26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126480972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Patterns and Determinants of International Trade Costs in the Food Industry","authors":"A. Olper, V. Raimondi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1106106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1106106","url":null,"abstract":"This paper documents patterns in international trade costs in processed foods for a large cross-section of developing and developed countries, during the 1976-2000 period. A trade costs index is inferred from a micro-founded gravity equation that incorporates bilateral `iceberg?trade costs. For 2000, the weighted average tariff equivalent of trade costs ranges from 73% for the North to 134% for the South countries. The time patterns show an average reduction of about -13% in the observed period, that rises to -26% for the Emerging countries. However, the same does not apply for South countries. On ranking the trade costs determinants we find that, on average, geographical and historical factors seem to dominate those of infrastructure and institutions. However, trade policy emerges as an important determinant of the North-Emerging trade costs. Finally we find strong evidence that demand-side considerations also matter to explain trade costs.","PeriodicalId":175783,"journal":{"name":"Food Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127654127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}