A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System
A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-06-17

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 030930783X

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How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.

U.S. Health in International Perspective
U.S. Health in International Perspective

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-04-12

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0309264146

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The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

Management of Health Risks from Environment and Food
Management of Health Risks from Environment and Food

Author: Hajime Sato

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-10-30

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 904813028X

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This book examines the policy and politics of two health risks, which have recently become prominent social issues in many countries. One is the issue of asbestos as an environmental risk to humans, and another is that of bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE), or mad cow disease as an animal disease, and of its variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) as a human food risk. Employing a set of analytical frameworks in political science, each case study explores how the issues emerged, agendas got set, alternatives were chosen, and policies were implemented. Through the analysis, it is examined how safety and public reassurance were pursued in the countries studied (Japan, the UK, France the USA, and Korea). Exploration of the successes and failures in their efforts discloses the key elements to successful health risk management.

Management of Emerging Public Health Issues and Risks
Management of Emerging Public Health Issues and Risks

Author: Benoit Roig

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2018-11-13

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0128132914

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Management of Emerging Public Health Issues and Risks: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Changing Environment addresses the threats facing the rapidly changing world and provides guidance on how to manage risks to population health. Unlike conventional and recognized risks (major, industrial, and natural), emerging risks are characterized by low or non-existent scientific knowledge, high levels of uncertainty, and different levels of acceptability by the relevant authorities and exposed populations. Emerging risk must be analyzed through multiple and crossed approaches identifying the phenomenon linked to the emergence of risk but also by combining scientific, policy and social data in order to provide more enlightened decision making. Management of Emerging Public Health Issues and Risks: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Changing Environment provides examples of transdisciplinary approaches used to characterize, analyze, and manage emerging risks. This book will be useful for public health researchers, policy makers, and students as well as those working in emergency management, risk management, security, environmental health, nanomaterials, and food science. - Presents emerging risks from the technological, environmental, health, and energy sectors, as well as their social impacts - Contextualizes emerging risks as new threats, existing threats in new locations, and known issues, which are newly recognized as risks due to increased scientific knowledge - Includes case studies from around the world to reinforce concepts

Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach
Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-09-10

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0309259363

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Globalization of the food supply has created conditions favorable for the emergence, reemergence, and spread of food-borne pathogens-compounding the challenge of anticipating, detecting, and effectively responding to food-borne threats to health. In the United States, food-borne agents affect 1 out of 6 individuals and cause approximately 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year. This figure likely represents just the tip of the iceberg, because it fails to account for the broad array of food-borne illnesses or for their wide-ranging repercussions for consumers, government, and the food industry-both domestically and internationally. A One Health approach to food safety may hold the promise of harnessing and integrating the expertise and resources from across the spectrum of multiple health domains including the human and veterinary medical and plant pathology communities with those of the wildlife and aquatic health and ecology communities. The IOM's Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop on December 13 and 14, 2011 that examined issues critical to the protection of the nation's food supply. The workshop explored existing knowledge and unanswered questions on the nature and extent of food-borne threats to health. Participants discussed the globalization of the U.S. food supply and the burden of illness associated with foodborne threats to health; considered the spectrum of food-borne threats as well as illustrative case studies; reviewed existing research, policies, and practices to prevent and mitigate foodborne threats; and, identified opportunities to reduce future threats to the nation's food supply through the use of a "One Health" approach to food safety. Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach: Workshop Summary covers the events of the workshop and explains the recommendations for future related workshops.

Waste Incineration and Public Health
Waste Incineration and Public Health

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2000-10-21

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 030906371X

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Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.

Ensuring Safe Food
Ensuring Safe Food

Author: Institute of Medicine and National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1998-08-19

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0309173973

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How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as: What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States? Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.

Risk on the Table
Risk on the Table

Author: Angela N. H. Creager

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2021-01-15

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 1805399128

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Over the last century, the industrialization of agriculture and processing technologies have made food abundant and relatively inexpensive for much of the world’s population. Simultaneously, pesticides, nitrates, and other technological innovations intended to improve the food supply’s productivity and safety have generated new, often poorly understood risks for consumers and the environment. From the proliferation of synthetic additives to the threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the chapters in Risk on the Table zero in on key historical cases in North America and Europe that illuminate the history of food safety, highlighting the powerful tensions that exists among scientific understandings of risk, policymakers’ decisions, and cultural notions of “pure” food.

International Food Law
International Food Law

Author: Cinzia Caporale

Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.

Published: 2021-05-21

Total Pages: 511

ISBN-13: 940351812X

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estation, habitat destruction and zoonoses; food naming and labelling; and food risk management. Throughout there is reference to an abundance of legislation, treaties, conventions, and case law at domestic, regional, and international levels, with particular attention to European, US, and World Trade Organization law and the work of the FAO. The book clearly demonstrates the necessity for reform of the global system of food production in the direction of a more sustainable and environment-friendly model. In its authoritative discussion of the relations among fields of law that are rarely discussed together – food law and the environment, food law and human rights, food law and animal welfare – this collection of chapters will prove a valuable resource both for officials working in food governance and security and for lawyers and scholars concerned with environmental management, sustainable development, and human rights around the world.