Food risks are easily globalized due to entanglements inherent in the global agri-food system. Despite their global scale food risks have different local impacts on consumption, policy, trade and safety due to national legislation, hygiene systems and risk communication and other factors.
The conference jointly organized by the Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) and the Graduate School of East Asian Studies will focus on food risks, food politics and consumer rights in contemporary Japan where several food safety problems have recently emerged. Radioactively contaminated food in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe is one of the challenges that needs to be addressed, as well as the safety of food imports, especially from China. Food safety standards and thresholds for genetically modified crops, pesticides and food additives in the context of the negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are also heatedly debated. In this conference, these and other issues will be addressed from regional and global perspectives with a special emphasis on East Asia.
The conference provides a forum for discussing food safety and consumer advocacy in East Asia from a Japanese perspective by merging cultural, political and economic analyses and including consumers’, retailers’ and producers’ perspectives to answer the question of how consumers’ right to safe food can be achieved in Japan and how this compares with the situation in Germany. By inviting scholars and practitioners from Asia, the US and Europe this question will be discussed from various angles.
For further information on the conference and organizational issues please visit the JDZB website at http://www.jdzb.de
You can also download the conference program here.
Please register by May 6th, 2015.
Time & Location
May 18, 2015 - May 19, 2015
Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum Berlin (JDZB)
Saargemünder Str. 2
14195 Berlin
JDZB Directions