Journal
AGRICULTURE AND HUMAN VALUES
Volume 39, Issue 1, Pages 233-248Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10460-021-10243-9
Keywords
Food safety; Governance; Food policy; Foodborne disease outbreaks; United States; Germany
Funding
- University of California, Davis
- P.E.O. International
Ask authors/readers for more resources
By comparing E. coli outbreaks in the United States and Germany, this paper highlights the differences in national responses to foodborne disease outbreaks and how they are influenced by the understanding and response strategies of risk managers. The qualitative analysis of stakeholder interviews and archival documents reveals how social constructions of the E. coli risk interact with organizational dynamics to produce divergent policy outcomes, ultimately exposing modern societies to systemic vulnerabilities.
This paper explores differences in national responses to foodborne disease outbreaks, addressing both the sources of policy divergence and their implications for public health and coordinated emergency response. It presents findings from a comparative study of two multi-state E. coli outbreaks, one in the United States (2006) and one in Germany (2011), demonstrating important differences in how risk managers understood and responded to each nation's first major outbreak associated with fresh produce. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 36 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and hundreds of archival documents, this paper traces how social constructions of the E. coli risk interacted with organizational dynamics among state and industry actors to produce divergent policy outcomes: the U.S. outbreak was understood primarily as an agricultural problem that led to an industry-led agricultural solution, whereas the German outbreak was understood as a human disease problem that did not result in a substantial policy response once the acute health crisis passed. The paper concludes by discussing how these policy processes generate partial solutions to foodborne contamination that expose modern societies to systemic vulnerabilities.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available