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• Third Party Certification
• Agrifood Nanotechnology
• Partnerships for Food Industry Development - Fruits & Vegetables
• Societal Dimensions of Food and Agricultural Standards
• Study of the University of California at Berkeley Novartis Agreement
• Making the Grade: Science and Ethics in Agricultural Grades and Standards

The agreement between the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute (NADI, now part of Syngenta) has been the subject of considerable debate on campus, in the Bay Area, and nationally. Given its large size and scope, it poses issues of changing university-industry relations, already the subject of considerable discussion, in a contested and highly publicized manner. Yet, despite widespread media coverage and much debate, no comprehensive study of the impact of that relationship on UCB, the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, or major research universities has been undertaken. This study will attempt to eliminate that gap in our understanding of this type of universityindustry relationship. It will employ an interdisciplinary team of six persons, each with an interest in the subject matter, to (1) analyze the impact of the agreement on the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, (2) evaluate the agreement's significance for UCB as a whole, (3) assess the significance for research universities with special attention to Land-Grant institutions, and (4) formulate conclusions and guidelines for future agreements of this kind. The PIs will attempt to understand the issues from the perspectives of UCB faculty members, administrators, students, industry executives, California officials, members of the agricultural community in California, as well other key stakeholders. They will employ focused, semistructured, in-depth interviews as well as a review of printed documents and media accounts to obtain a thorough knowledge of the situation. They will set the project within the framework of academic literature on university-industry relations, and science and technology studies. Moreover, they will cooperate with another project with similar objectives, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, to provide comparative data across institutions. The PIs will produce a draft report by the end of year one and a final report six months later. The y will also pursue publication of results in both higher education news and scholarly publications in their respective fields.

To see final report, please click here (PDF file size: 378 KB)

The theme of this training grant is the ethical and value issues raised in the creation, maintenance and enforcement of food and agricultural standards (FAS) including quality, food safety, labor and environmental standards. FAS define the rules of the game that determines who benefits and who participates in the global exchange of agrifood commodities. But why study food and agricultural standards? The creation, modification, implementation and enforcement of FAS embody many of the important social and ethical issues currently being debated, including: What should be the relationship between states and markets? What can science tell us about risk and safety? How can democracy be (re)constructed? What is the proper role of global trade in socioeconomic development? What should be the scope of WTO jurisdiction? Can environmental values be reconciled with economic values? No existing US-based graduate program offers students the opportunities to explore the issues and develop the skills needed to deal with the complex normative and empirical issues relating to FAS. The approaches and types of skills needed overstep the province of any one discipline. They cut across and extend beyond traditional disciplinary graduate degree programs. This grant will help us build an internationally recognized graduate program that enhances state-of-the-art discipline-based training with specialized learning opportunities. It will allow students the opportunity to incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives and skills into their more discipline-based graduate programs. The program will also prepare students to grapple with normative issues in an increasingly global and differentiated food and agricultural system. Finally, it will help students to integrate normative issues into the theoretical frameworks and practices of their respective disciplines. FAS raise issues of scientific inquiry and policy that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries and bring together sociology, law, economics, ethics and policy analysis. These issues of scientific inquiry, ethical analysis and policy-making play themselves out in five dimensions: (1) standards formation, modification, implementation and enforcement, (2) access to markets for input factors and output products, (3) public and private roles with respect to standards, (4) risk, (5) consequences of standards for different groups in an industry and for society as a whole. These five dimensions of FAS form the basis of our research theme, and are the focus of our ongoing research program. Participants in this training grant will engage in research and training on one or more of these topics, each of which are central to our current research. In order to address these questions, we draw upon approaches and disciplinary skills in rural sociology, institutional economics, international and food law, ethics and philosophy, and institutional and policy analysis in political science. The training program will permit two graduate fellows and a postdoctoral fellow to engage in research and formal course work focused around the topics above, each of which incorporates key ethical and value issues. Over the course of the training program, fellows will interact and develop collaborative relationships with the variety of stakeholders in systems of FAS. They will also participate in a rigorous program of coursework, structured fieldwork, and research on themes currently under investigation by the PIs. The postdoctoral associate will develop a research program of her/his own, bring new skills to the research team, and help in team teaching the proseminar in FAS asa well as in managing the overall research program. As a result of their training, fellows will be well situated to integrate these normative issues in their training and research careers. They will also have the knowledge and skills to develop collaborations with stakeholder groups at the local, national and international level. They will be able to work with a full range of stakeholders so as to help create socially desirable and equitable FAS from which all parties can benefit.

Grades and Standards (G&S) are often considered to be convenient, neutral and benign means for handling issues of technical compatibility. In contrast, it is argued here that G&S are shaped by political and strategic considerations and are of ethical import. This project will attempt to: (1) understand the relationships which connect science and technology (S&T) to the creation, maintenance and modification of agricultural G&S, (2) identify and make explicit the ethical and value issues raised by G&S in domestic and international agricultural production and marketing, (3) identify the sociopolitical dynamics surrounding the development, maintenance and change of agricultural G&S, and (4) explore policy implications such that the process of standards setting and enforcement may be made more accountable, transparent and democratic. (Supported by the National Science Foundation.)