U. S. Eu food and Agriculture Comparisons

Food safety
Food safety concerns, mostly concerns about contami-
nants and pathogens in food, are changing consumers’
purchasing behavior. Fear of the disease Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow
disease has drastically reduced beef consumption in
the EU, with total consumption for 2001 expected to
be 10 percent below the previous year (FAS, Market
Circular, 2001; Gracia and Albisu, 2001; Thompson,
2001). Other crises, like dioxin in chicken feed in
1999 or foot and mouth disease
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in the UK have led to
sudden changes in consumption patterns, as manufac-
turers pull some foods, or consumers reject them,
while consumers stock up on substitutes. Some food
scares have led to large fluctuations in the supply
and/or demand for various food products. In the
United States, food scares have been more isolated,
and have had smaller market impacts. More recently,
concerns about Starlink corn resulted in some corn
products being pulled from the shelves. 
Smaller effects in the United States might be related to
confidence in regulation of the food supply. In a 1995
survey of American consumers, 52.3 percent indicated
that they trusted food safety information from govern-
ment publications (Buzby and Ready, 1996). The
September 1999 Gallup poll indicated that 61 percent of
Americans place “a fair amount” and 15 percent place “a
great deal” of confidence in the Federal Government to
ensure the safety of the food supply. European results
are more mixed. Recent crises have reduced consumer
confidence (Gracia and Albisu, 2001). When asked what
factor that gave them certainty about a food’s safety, 66
percent of consumers reported “national controls”
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to be
a factor (Eurobarometer 49, 1998). More chose national
controls than any other determinant. However, when
asked whether various institutions tell the whole truth,