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Study in Food System and Asymmetry of Food Policy
－Empirical Analysis byNon-Parametric Test－
University of Agricultural Policy Taro Aso・Shinzo Fukuda
Institution of Agricultural Managemen Yoko Ono
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1.Concerns of Food Safety
Recently, food safety and security in multitudes of food productions and supplies have become consumer’s main area of concern. As a result, a traceability system and the HACCP were implemented to meet this concern. According to the monitor survey on national policy, although consumers’ trust in food safety has increased, their sense of security has not yet been completely ensured.
2.Framework of Analysis
1）Asymmetry of Research
Before introducing the analysis framework of this thesis, here are a few points from previous studies to consider. The asymmetric information in food safety will not assure food quality. This may lead to a supply of many inferior products, and then cause “reverse selection.” (Note1)
Figure1. Title of Bar chart
The estimated result indicates that the sense of security mainly consists of the handling security measures and the security of an item itself. Also, in the case of the total effect through the parameter, the sense of handling security raises relatively, which is a common significant factor in the whole FS (Figure 2).
2）Hypothesis of Communication Structure
A discussion on the channel of FS information as the analysis framework is important. The channel of information is defined as “the process of information flowing from the source, the sender, and finally to the receiver via channel(s) [1]. If we assume that the information is delivered in the logistics operations from the farmers to consumers in FC, the whole FC may be considered as one channel of information.
3.Data
- Outline of Survey
We collected the data by the mail-back survey implemented from November to December in 2005.
Our survey area is a major production area of vegetable in Kanto region or nearby prefectures, including Ibaraki, Gunma, Chiba, Saitama, and Nagano. We sent the questionnaires to 1,000 farmers who produce the fresh vegetables through the producer's group in each prefecture. Then for the distributive processors and restaurant industries, we selected and sent our inquires to 2,167 companies from not only the lists in the yearbook of domestic supermarkets and of JF, but also from the rolls of various fruits and vegetable wholesalers, importers and retailers associations. In addition, we collected from 1,060 consumers in the central areas of Tokyo. They were randomly selected from the Hello Page by NTT based on a population and gender ratio. The total survey sheets sent to the producers, distributors, and consumers were 4,227.
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Table1. Structure of the sense of safety
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- Producers
The path from the sense of handling safety to the sense of total safety was more effective than that from the sense of its own safety. It indicates that the sense of handling safety impacts strongly on the sense of total safety (Figure 1). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the positive feelings contributed to the sense its own safety towards the goal of total safety. Six independent variables in a set eight variables regarding producers, such as "compliance", were significant and had the same sign as expected. Also, "positive about imports" had a negative influence on them (Note2).
- Wholesalers and Importers
It was clarified that only the path from the sense of handling safety had a clear influence on final sense of total safety. It was also observed that the sense of handling safety contributed to the path from the sense of its own safety because of the positive feelings. Hence, we recognize that the sense of handling safety was also key for wholesalers and importers.
4.Conclusion
Finally, we describe about the implications as a summary in this paper. In the previous studies, the subject of risk assessment has been limited to "products" only at all times. In contrast, we revealed that the safety assessment of food consists of "the risk of product itself" and "the risk of handling the product". Its psychological process is elucidated. At the same time, in any agents in FS, it was clarified that the sense of handling safety contributes to dominate the sense of its own safety. It was indicated that the handling is important in safety assessment.
(Note 1) The disclosure of information refers to providing information in general. For consumers, it includes not only the label and direct display of products, the in-store display of products, but also ex-post fact confirmation of information such as traceability systems.
(Note 2) The overall effect through parameters is the sum of the effects from several independent variables on the target variable mediated through specific parameters. It has impacts on the psychological process with which they are involved.
Reference
[1]Johnson, B.B. “Further notes on public response to uncertainty in risks and science” Risk Analysis, 23, 2003, pp781-789.
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