for SSCP KAN's Workshop in Annapolis, 2017

1. GERMANFEDERALINSTITUTE
FORRISKASSESSMENT
Policy Reflections from the
field of Food Governance
Leonie Dendler
Unit Crisis Prevention and Coordination
Department for Risk Communication

2. Overview
• Challenges
• Current Reponses
• Opportunities for Change
page 2Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

3. Environmental Challenges
• Increasing competition at the
food/water/energy nexus
• Addditional pressure through pollution, climate
change etc.
• Example China
• Cropland accounts for 10% of Chinas total area.
• China supports 22% of the worlds population with 8% of the worlds
water (Edmonds 2008).
• All major basins experience annual floods and droughts.
• "China has one of the most serious soil erosion problems in the
world“ (Edmonds 2008).
• China is the world’s largest consumer of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides (Xiaomin 2011).
• About 3.33 million hectares of China’s farmland is too polluted to
grow crops (Reuters 2013).
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 3

4. • Environmental impacts on production (e.g.
production losses, new supply routes, collapse of
critical infrastructure)
• Need for new products and processes
• Globally connected supply chains
 Traceability and control increasingly difficult
Economic Challenges
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 4

5. FoodChain-Lab
Interaktive Visualisierung – Geographische Analyse
 Calls for Integration, Harmonisation and Standardisation
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 5

6. Technological Challenges
• Digitalisation
• Artificial Intelligence
• Bio- and nanotechnology (gentechnology and genome
editing, synthetic biology, etc.)
 Rapid rate of product (e.g. new packaging, novel
foods, new pesticides & veterinary drugs) and process
development (e.g. digital supply chain management)
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 6

7. Social Challenges
• New health risks
• “Deepening social and cultural
polarization” (World Economic Forum 2017).
• Unemployment
• Migration
• Changing consumption patterns especially in
emerging and develoing countries
• Examples from China:
• 200 Mio. farm households with an average farm size less than 1
hectare.
• 221.4 Mio. people as not living in their registered location (National Bureau
of Statistics of China, 2010).
• China prospected to become the largest dairy market in the world
(Euromonitor International 2013).
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 7

8. Conclusion for Challenges
page 8
Systemic challenges that call for transdisciplinary solutions!
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

9. Current Policy Responses
page 9Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

10. Current Policy Responses:
Food Governance
page 10
“A food business operator is best placed to devise a safe system for supplying
food and ensuring that the food it supplies is safe; thus, it should have primary legal
responsibility for ensuring food safety” (European Regulation No 178/2002 on the general principles
and requirements of food law, Art. 6).
“Food producers and traders shall take responsibilities for food produced and traded”
(Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China).
"The safety and confidence of consumers within the Community, and in third
countries, are of paramount importance" (European Regulation No 178/2002 on the general
principles and requirements of food law, Art. 6).
“Consumer associations or other consumer organizations are the social powers that
oversight activities that violate this Law and harm the consumers’ lawful rights” (Food
Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China).
"In order to achieve the general objective of a high level of protection of human
health and life, food law shall be based on risk analysis except where this is not
appropriate to the circumstances or the nature of the measure” (European Regulation No
178/2002 on the general principles and requirements of food law, Art. 6).
China establishes the food safety risk assessment mechanism; by adopting science
based methods and referring to food safety risk surveillance” (Food Safety Law of the
People’s Republic of China).
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
§
§
§

11. Dominant Risk Analysis Model
Source: Millstone 2010
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 11

12. Organisational Implementation
Analytics &
Diagnostics
Risk Assessment &
Communication
Risk
Management
FAO & WHO
Expert Committee
Codex Alimentarius
Commission &
Member States
Risk
Assessment
G
L
O
B
A
L
E
U
Risk Management
(Legislation)
Risk Management
(Enforcement)
Risk Management Risk Management
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 12

13. RKI
Health
UBA
Environ-
ment
Nature
JKI MRIFLI
Ministry
for Health
Ministry
for the
Environment
BfN
Risk Assessment &
Communication
Ministry for Food
and Agriculture
Federal Institute
for
Risk Assessment
Federal Office
Consumer Protection
& Food Safety
G
E
R
M
A
N
Y
NutritionAnimal Plant
Risk Management
Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Science
(CAAS)
Center of
Disease Prevention
& Control (CDC)
Ministry of
Agriculture
State Administration
for Industry &
Commerce
(SAIC)
Risk AssessmentRisk Management
& Oversight
National Health &
Family Planning
Commission (NHFPC)
National Center
for Food Safety
Risk Assessment
(CFSA)
Food &
Drug Administration
(CFDA)
C
H
I
N
A
Nutrition & Micro
Oversight
Risk Assessment &
Management
before Sale
Risk
Management &
Oversight
Supply Chain
Risk Management
& Oversight
exports and
imports
plus local police units
GA of Quality, Super-
vision, Inspection &
& Quarantine (AQSIQ)
Chinese Academy
of Inspection &
Quarantine (CAIQ)
Market & Quality
Supervision Administration
Local Oversight
Federal States
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center page 13
TI
Sust.
Agric.

14. Conclusions for Current Responses
• "Food safety governance in Europe to date has
largely focused on the reduction of risks to human
health [rather than] on improving human health and
quality of life“ (König et al. 2010).
• Current organisational responses to systemic
challenges often fragmented and siloed!
page 14Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

15. Opportunities for Change
page 15Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

16. Opportunities for Change: the role of
Crisis Events, Strategic Action and Power
page 16
Actors
propose
institutional
innovations
Institutional
work
Legitimacy
Mobilisation
of allies
Wider
institutional
work
Wider legitimacy
Settlement
around new
institutional
order
Resource
and Power
Structures
Institutional
crisis
Emergence of
new actors
based on Dendler (2013); Dendler and Dewick (forthcoming)
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

17. Examples from the field: Chinese
Melamine Scandal
page 17
Integrated and
standardised
production
Theorizing, disrupting, policing,
professionalization,
formalisation, advertising,
mimicking,…
Pragmatic
and moral
legitimacy
Governmental
allies
Defining, enabling, policing, vesting,
formalizing (new food safety
regulation & organisation) ,…
Cognitive
legitimacy
Shift in
production and
consumption
patterns
Resource
and Power
Structures
Melamine
Scandal
National
processors
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

18. Examples from the field: BSE crisis
page 18
Focus on risk
analysis,
integration and
transparency
Mimicking (US NRC
Red Book; FAO/WHO
report),
Professionalization, …
Legitimacy
EUO,
WHO,
FAO,...
Theorizing (traceability, scientisation,
integration, labelling)
Professionalization, Defining
(e.g. 2002 European Food Law)
Legitimacy
Institutional
shift
Resource
and Power
Structures
BSE
Corporations
consumers,
new science
organisations
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

19. Conclusions for Change
• Crisis and triggers for change constantly re-occuring!
• Important to understand
• Key actors
• Institutional strategies
• The role of resource access and power
page 19Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

20. GERMANFEDERALINSTITUTE
FORRISKASSESSMENT
Thank you for your attention
Leonie Dendler
German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment
Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10  10589 Berlin, Germany
Phone +49 30 - 184 12 - 2186  Fax +49 30 - 184 12 - 47 41
leonie.dendler@bfr.bund.de  www.bfr.bund.de/en

21. Acknowledgements
Gaby-Fleur Böl
Nicole Gollnick
Lea Herges
Torsten Herold
Wenn Xu
page 21Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

22. Literature
page 22
• Dendler, L ‘Sustainability Meta Labelling: Prospects for Institutionalisation.’ University
of Manchester. PhD thesis (2013).
• Dendler, L; Dewick, P ‘Institutionalising the organic labelling scheme in China: a
legitimacy perspective’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 134, 239-250 (2016).
• Dendler, L, Dewick, P ‘Powerful alliances and institutional change: Sustainable
consumption and production in China’s dairy industry’, in review.
• Edmonds, Richard Louis (2008): China's Environmental Problems. Robert E. Gamer
(Ed.): Understanding contemporary China. 271–298.
• Euromonitor International. (2013). Passport: Dairy Product in China: ISIC 152.
• Millstone, Erik (2010): The evolution of risk assessment paradigms: in theory and in
practice. Online verfügbar unter
http://pages.ucsd.edu/~aronatas/workshop/Millstone%20Paper%2026April%202010.
pdf, zuletzt geprüft am 19.04.17.
• National Bureau of Statistics of China (2010): Chinese Statistical Yearbook. Beijing.
• World Economic Forum (2017): The Global Risks Report 2017. Insight Report. 12.
Aufl.
• The European Parliament; The European Council (20.12.2013): Establishing Horizon
2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) and
repealing Decision No 1982/2006/EC. Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013. In: Official
Journal of the European Union, S. 104–347.
• Xiaomin, Guo (2011): Understanding Environmental Pollution in China. In J. and
Yisheng Z. Keeley (Ed.): Green China. Chinese insights on environment and
development. London: International Institute for Environment and Development
(IIED).

23. Problem formulation
Exposure Assessment
• levels of substance in food and diet
• amounts of food consumed
• intake in individuals (max/min,
regularly/occasionally)
• intake in special population groups
Hazard Identification
• identification of adverse health
effects
– human studies
– animal-based toxicology studies
– in vitro toxicology studies
– structure-activity considerations
Hazard Characterisation
• variability
• mode/mechanism of action
• dose-response for critical effect
• identification of starting point
• selection of critical data set, qualitative
/quantitative
Risk Characterisation
The Risk Assessment Process
page 23

24. page 24
??
??
????
??
??
Resource
and Power
Structures
Brexit,
American
Presidential
Elections, …
Social
Media
Organisations ??
And next??
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

25. Calls for Change
• „Open science is one of my main priorities as European
commissioner of science and innovation” (European Commissioner
for Research, Science and Innovation 29-30 September 2016).
• Participatory opening of EFSA, BfR and other (food
safety) organizations and regulations (including Chinese!).
• Various bottom up initiatives across the globe
(‘Community Supported Agriculture’, ‘Participatory
Guarantee Systems’, etc.).
• New dietary guidelines.
page 25Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

26. page 26
“I think the Chinese public does not have the awareness to be involved and give comments….I know
when USDA issued the draft they had more than 10,000 comments from producers and all
stakeholders. But for our standard, not so much” (interview academic in Dendler and Dewick, 2016).
“In order for there to be confidence in the scientific basis for food law, risk assessments should be
undertaken in an independent, objective and transparent manner, on the basis of the available
scientific information and data” (Regulation No 178/2002 on the general principles and requirements of food law).
„Stakeholders tend to follow their own interest. They do not seek to find the truth. So too much
stakeholder engagement could detriment scientific quality and independence (informal conversation with
BfR employee, freely translated).
“So I think we deliberately said: we have risk assessment, risk management and risk communication.
Industry has always strongly supported that“ (business association, translated).
„We believe, if the societal development is modern governance in the widest sense as in we get
everyone around the table so we get all the opinions and have the best outcome – we do not believe
that based on our experience. Because we have this inequality of weapons.“ (NGO, translated).
Conflict with current Institutions
Leonie Dendler, 03.05.17, Workshop National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center