NR AWNY
AU Smart,J.; Smart,A.; Terstappen,V.; Arkell,L.
TI Consumer confidence and BSE in Canada
QU International Conference - Prion 2006: Strategies, advances and trends towards protection of society - 3.10.-6.10.2006, Torino, Italy, Lingotto Conference Centre - Poster sessions RA-13
PT Konferenz-Poster
AB BSE is a medical and animal health problem with wide ranging social and economic consequences. Using Canada as a case study, this paper tracks the surprisingly resilient consumer confidence in beef and beef products in the wake of the BSE case in Alberta on May 20, 2003. This strong and unwavering consumer confidence in Canada was not seen in other countries with BSE. Using qualitative data collected in Alberta in the summer of 2006, quantitative data on beef consumption compiled by Statistics Canada and Alberta Beef Producers, and archival data of media coverage on BSE and related issues since May 2003, this paper will show that the resilience of Canadian consumer confidence in beef and beef products in 2003 was driven by a multitude of factors that are outside the scientific-based framework of associating risk (to human) with prion/BSE (in the beef products). Some of these non-BSE factors are nationalism and regional identity, the concurrent outbreak of SARS, the regional and provincial politics of rural economy, and the lessons learned from past economic fallouts due to BSE in the U.K. The findings suggest that risk assessment in food safety and its subsequent translation into food consumption behaviour are not necessarily straightforward or easily predicted. The scientific information about BSE and prion and their links to human health is only one of many factors that consumers take into consideration in their own formulation of risk and consumption behaviour. This case study provides a concrete example of what happened in Canada in 2003 and it highlights how the specificity of local events, economic history, and political legacies can contributed to unexpected outcomes in the event of a crisis. The primary data for this paper are collected in multiple sites within the province of Alberta using the following methods: interviews, focus group discussions, document analysis. The major informants are institution personnel (government, beef industry, private businesses, universities, unions), beef producers, rural and urban consumers, retailers and other private citizens.
AD Department of Anthropology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4. E-mail: bse@ucalgary.ca
SP englisch
PO Italien