Exploring consumers' attitude towards cultured meat in Italy.

Cultured meat may be a novel food that would overcome the limits of conventional meat production. This paper assesses the willingness to try, buy and pay for cultured meat among a sample of Italian consumers, unveiling the attitudes towards an engineered food on the part of a consumer oriented in favour of the Mediterranean diet. A survey was conducted by submitting a questionnaire to 525 Italian consumers. Consumers showed higher agreement with the statements concerning positive externalities than the intrinsic characteristics of cultured meat, and more than half of the respondents (54%) stated that they would be willing to try cultured meat. The profile for a potential consumer of cultured meat was young, highly educated, somewhat familiar with cultured meat, a meat consumer and willing to reduce meat consumption. However, the survey findings may be biased by the unavailability of the product on the market and the information provided to the respondents focused on the potential benefits of cultured meat.

Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: A systematic review.

Cultured meat grown in-vitro from animal cells is being developed as a way of addressing many of the ethical and environmental concerns associated with conventional meat production. As commercialisation of this technology appears increasingly feasible, there is growing interest in the research on consumer acceptance of cultured meat. We present a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature, and synthesize and analyse the findings of 14 empirical studies. We highlight demographic variations in consumer acceptance, factors influencing acceptance, common consumer objections, perceived benefits, and areas of uncertainty. We conclude by evaluating the most important objections and benefits to consumers, as well as highlighting areas for future research.

Risk, Uncertainty and Precaution in Science: The Threshold of the Toxicological Concern Approach in Food Toxicology.

Environmental risk assessment is often affected by severe uncertainty. The frequently invoked precautionary principle helps to guide risk assessment and decision-making in the face of scientific uncertainty. In many contexts, however, uncertainties play a role not only in the application of scientific models but also in their development. Building on recent literature in the philosophy of science, this paper argues that precaution should be exercised at the stage when tools for risk assessment are developed as well as when they are used to inform decision-making. The relevance and consequences of this claim are discussed in the context of the threshold of the toxicological concern approach in food toxicology. I conclude that the approach does not meet the standards of an epistemic version of the precautionary principle.

The food in our future: where will we find ethics? / El alimento en nuestro futuro: ¿dónde encontraremos la ética?

Food and agricultural systems are in large part driven by technology. Together with public policy, the kinds of technologies that are induced into, or chosen by actors in, food systems, dictates their structure and activities. The "Big Story" or ideology which underlies research, development and adoption of technologies provides the justification for choices we make about the future of the food system. A combination of productionism -more is better, and "feed the world"- is what governs, and seems to be what will govern Western food systems. Important ethical questions include whether more is better and whether we will feed the world with our technology and policy. But a parallel question is how will we include critical consideration of the continued legitimacy of our Big Story? This system, after all, has worked well for the past century

Los sistemas alimentarios y agrícolas son, en gran parte, impulsados por la tecnología. Junto con la política pública, las tipologías de tecnologías que están introducidas, o elegidas por los sujetos en los sistemas alimentarios, imponen sus estructuras y actividades. La «Gran Historia» o ideología que subyace a la investigación, al desarrollo y a la adopción de las tecnologías, proporciona la justificación de las decisiones que tomamos sobre el futuro del sistema alimentario. Una combinación de produccionismo -"more is better", y "feed the world"- es lo que gobierna, y parece ser lo que sostendrá, los sistemas alimentarios occidentales. Las preguntas éticas importantes incluyen si «más es mejor» y si vamos a «alimentar al mundo» con nuestra tecnología y política. Sin embargo, una cuestión paralela es, ¿cómo vamos a incluir la consideración crítica de la legitimidad continua de nuestra «Gran Historia»? Este sistema, después de todo, ha funcionado bien durante el siglo pasado

Science, safety, and trust: the case of transgenic food.

Genetically modified (GM) food is discussed as an example of the controversial relation between the intrinsic uncertainty of the scientific approach and the demand of citizen-consumers to use products of science innovation that are known to be safe. On the whole, peer-reviewed studies on GM food safety do not note significant health risks, with a few exceptions, like the most renowned "Pusztai affair" and the recent "Seralini case." These latter studies have been disregarded by the scientific community, based on incorrect experimental designs and statistic analysis. Such contradictory results show the complexity of risk evaluation, and raise concerns in the citizen-consumers against the GM food. A thoughtful consideration by scientific community and decision makers of the moral values that are present in risk evaluation and risk management should be the most trustable answer to citizen-consumers to their claim for clear and definitive answers concerning safety/un-safety of GM food.

Traceability information carriers. The technology backgrounds and consumers' perceptions of the technological solutions.

The implementation of traceability in the food supply chain has reinforced adoption of technologies with the ability to track forward and trace back product-related information. Based on the premise that these technologies can be used as a means to provide product-related information to consumers, this paper explores the perceived benefits and drawbacks of such technologies. The aim is to identify factors that influence consumers' perceptions of such technologies, and furthermore to advise the agri-food business on issues that they should consider prior to the implementation of such technologies in their production lines. For the purposes of the study, a focus group study was conducted across 12 European countries, while a set of four different technologies used as a means to provide traceability information to consumers was the focal point of the discussions in each focus group. Results show that the amount of and confidence in the information provided, perceived levels of convenience, impact on product quality and safety, impact on consumers' health and the environment, and potential consequences on ethical and privacy liberties constitute important factors influencing consumers' perceptions of technologies that provide traceability.

[Biopiracy: about its legal meanings]. / Biopiratería: Notas en torno a sus significados jurídicos.

This article explores the legal meanings of biopiracy concept, linked to subjects such as intellectual property rights on genetic resources, bioprospecting contracts, right to food, and food security. It overcomes the critical function of biopiracy concept related to world-wide extended tendencies: privatization and technification. Likewise, protectionism shows the opportunity that biopiracy concept represents for the enrichment of the legal interpretation related to the bioethical statue of biotech developments.

Food and agricultural biotechnology: a summary and analysis of ethical concerns.

The range of social and ethical concerns that have been raised in connection with food and agricultural biotechnology is exceedingly broad. Many of these deal with risks and possible outcomes that are not unique to crops or animals developed using recombinant DNA. Food safety, animal welfare, socio-economic and environmental impacts, as well as shifts in power relations or access to technology raise concerns that might be generalized to many technologies. These aspects of the controversy over biotechnology are analyzed below as elements of general technological ethics, and key norms or values pertinent to each of these categories are specified in some detail. However, a number of special concerns unique to the use of rDNA in manipulating plant and animal genomes have been raised, and these are reviewed as well. The chapter concludes by reviewing two broad policy strategies for responding to the issues, one involving labels and consumer consent, the other applying the precautionary principle.