Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
will be sensitive to controversial issues. Dialogue with the public would
bring consistency to the policy-making decisions.
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In the Netherlands, the Food and Consumer Product Safety author-
ity (VWA) was set up on July 10, 2002. Because of a number of food
safety crises and incidents, Parliament and civil society felt the need for a
strong organization to protect food and consumer product safety. Devel-
opments in the international sphere demanded one national authority,
responsible for supervision, risk assessment, and risk communication.
VWA's Office for Risk Assessment identifies early warning signs
of troubling aspects of innovations in GM agriculture, screens poten-
tial threats to human and animal health, evaluates public perceptions,
and commissions necessary research. This Office has become the “front
office” for GMO regulation but confines its duties to weighing the risks
and benefits of a particular GM crop and does not engage in policy enact-
ment, decision making, or food law enforcement. Thus, it has consider-
able independence and follows a sequence of steps intended to improve
governance of food safety.
A Participatory Framing Step
The Office staff consults with risk managers, scientists, and stakehold-
ers to define the objectives of a regulatory action on a GMO. This also
involves identifying decision-making options, evaluation criteria, and
major public concerns. In realizing a transparent and more participa-
tive approach we use therefore a modification of risk governance esca-
lator of Klinke and colleagues
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and Hollander and Hanemaaijer.
68
In
this way - from mundane via complex to uncertain and ambiguous GM-
related risks - a matrix can be created on which the various types of
66
A. E. M. de Hollander & A. H. Hanemaaijer eds., Coping Rationally with Risks, 52
(RIVM rapport 251701047, RIVM, Bilthoven, The Netherlands 2003).
67
Klinke, A., Dreyer, M., Renn, O., Sterling, A., Zwanenberg, P. van (2006) Precaution-
ary risk regulation in European governance,
Journal of Risk Research
, 4, (9), 373-392.
68
Hollander, A. E. M. de, Hanemaaijer, A. H. (eds.) (2003) Coping rationally with risks.
RIVM rapport 251701047, RIVM, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, 52 p in Dutch.
