Course on Food & Argicultural Standards

Agrifood Nanotechnology

Third Party Certification

 
What is IFAS?
Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards. IFAS is an interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis institute at Michigan State University It focuses on the social, economic, political and ethical aspects of grades and standards creation, enforcement and review. It is part of a small but growing international network of scholars and practitioners concerned with these issues.

Third International IFAS Workshop on Nanotechnology
Nano Workshop Group

The mission of IFAS

The IFAS mission is to raise fundamental issues with respect to equity, fairness and transparency of food and agricultural standards at the local, national and international levels.

IFAS Objectives

Grades and Standards (G&S) are often considered to be convenient, neutral and benign means for handling issues of technical compatibility. In contrast, IFAS considers G&S to be shaped by political, ethical and strategic, as well as technical considerations. As a result, IFAS will attempt to:

  • Understand the relationships which connect science and technology (S&T) to the creation, maintenance and modification of agricultural G&S
  • Identify and make explicit the ethical and value issues raised by G&S in domestic and international agricultural production and marketing
  • Identify the sociopolitical dynamics surrounding the development, maintenance and change of agricultural G&S
  • Explore policy implications such that the process of standards setting and enforcement may be made more accountable, transparent and democratic