Making provisions: anticipating food emergencies and assembling the food system

从动物疾病暴发，到意外污染，食源性疾病，以及对食品来源或成分的担忧，这样或那样的食品危机似乎是经常发生的。每次都会被问到的问题是‘难道我们没有预料到这一点吗？’该项目将探讨那些参与粮食生产、加工、零售、管理和治理的人如何预测未来的问题，并通过预防、准备和先发制人行动的形式制定避免或处理这些问题的计划。我们将探讨在粮食生产过程中产生的越来越多的信息，以及产生和管理这些信息的日益复杂的技术，如何帮助或阻碍对粮食紧急情况的预测和管理。我们还将研究那些参与食品生产、零售和监管各个方面的人如何形成社区和网络，以规划问题和建立更具弹性的食品体系，以及某些思维和行动方式--以及与之相关的机构--是否主导了避免未来问题的努力。我们将通过观察整个食品系统的预见性活动和技术来做到这一点，并采访那些试图制定应对不确定性方法的人，包括游说改变食品管理的团体、行业机构和政府官员以及那些直接处理食品的人。通过调查这些问题，我们将能够为建立一个更具弹性的粮食体系得出现实的教训。

From animal disease outbreaks, to accidental contamination, food-borne illnesses, and concerns over the provenance or ingredients of foodstuffs, food crises of one form or another are seemingly a regular occurrence. The question that gets asked each time is 'couldn't we have seen this coming?' This project will look at the ways in which those involved in the production, processing, retail, management and governance of food anticipate future problems and develop plans to avoid them or deal with them, through forms of precaution, preparedness and pre-emptive action. We will explore how the increasing amount of information generated about food during its production, and the increasingly sophisticated technologies for generating and managing that information, helps or hinders the anticipation and management of food emergencies. We will also look at how those involved in all aspects of food production, retail and regulation form communities and networks to plan for problems and build make a more resilient food system, and whether certain ways of thinking and acting - and the bodies associated with them - come to dominate efforts to stave off future problems. We will do this by observing anticipatory activities and technologies throughout the food system, and interviewing those who try to develop ways to deal with uncertainty including groups who lobby for changes to food governance, industry bodies and government officials as well as those directly handling foodstuffs. By investigating these issues we will be able to draw out realistic lessons for building a more resilient food system.