Welfare of Food

The critical role of food in contemporary policy, in the UK, Europe and internationally, is explored in a comprehensive and readable account of current issues, including food rights, patenting, safety, aid, choice and poverty.

• This landmark collection explores the critical role of food in contemporary national and international policy.
• The contributors represent different professional and academic perspectives.
• The contributions challenge state, institutional and agency structures and responses to food as a social policy issue.
• Most of the contributors write from an empirical research base.

Preface vii

1 Joined-up Food Policy? The Trials of Governance, Public Policy and the Food System 1
David Barling, Tim Lang and Martin Caraher

2 Patenting Our Food Failure: Intellectual Property rights and the Global Food System 20
Geoff Tansey

3 The Evolution of Food Safety Policy-making Institutions in the UK, EU and Codex Alimentarius 38
Erik Millstone and Patrick van Zwanenberg

4 Food Safety and Consumers: Constructions of Choice and Risk 54
Alizon Draper and Judith Green

5 Food Security: Rights, Livelihoods and the World Food Summit-Five Years Later 70
Karim Hussein

6 Food Banks and Food Security: Welfare Reform, Human Rights and Social Policy. Lessons from Canada? 91
Graham Riches

7 Food aid in Complex Emergencies: Lessons from Sudan 106
Elizabeth Ojaba, Anne Itto Leonardo and Margaret Itto Leonardo

8 School Meals Policy: The Problem with Governing Children 127
Ulla Gustafsson

9 Food and Poverty in Britain: Rights and Responsibilities 140
Elizabeth Dowler

Index 160

Elizabeth Dowler is a registered Public Health Nutritionist and a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Food in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick.

Catherine Jones Finer is the Series Editor for Broadening Perspectives on Social Policy and one of the editors of Social Policy and Administration.

Everyone needs reliable access to safe, appropriate and healthy food; yet despite regular public pronouncements and apparent commitments by states and institutions, the reality is very different for many consumers in both rich and poor countries. This book explains why, looking at the role of food in contemporary policy, in the UK, Europe and internationally. The contributions challenge (or provide a challenge to) state, institutional and agency structures and responses to this critical issue. The book opens up new areas in social policy, providing a comprehensive and readable account of key current issues: food rights, patenting, safety, aid, choice and poverty.

Food concerns are easily relegated to the private, domestic arena. This volume shows where the real powers lie, and provides some means for redressing the balance.