URL: http://www.foodrisk.org/IRAC/events/2007-11-16/prospectus.cfm
Risk Assessment, Economic Analysis, and Foodborne Illness Regulations - Conference Prospectus
IRAC-sponsored Public Conference
November 16, 2007
ERS, 1800 M St NW, Waugh Auditorium (enter 3rd floor, South tower), Washington DC
Risk Assessment, Economic Analysis, and Foodborne Illness Regulations
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Conference Prospectus
The accepted paradigm for risk analysis separates risk assessment from cost-benefit analysis, placing cost-benefit analysis under risk management. However, it has been argued that economics should be removed as part of risk management and interact more closely with risk assessment. This interaction would greatly facilitate and significantly improve decision-making.
In the United States, one in every four consumers are estimated to suffer a foodborne illness each year. Meade et al. (1999) estimate that 76 million human illnesses occur annually that cause 325,000 hospitalizations, 5,000 deaths, and an unknown number of chronic conditions. The risks posed by foodborne disease have prompted people to demand additional investment, both in the private and public sector, in processes and technologies that can reduce the risks of foodborne illness. Prioritizing such risk reduction strategies that maximize net benefits requires information on the monetary value people assign to safer food.
Economists have made great strides in estimating values for risks and product attributes not readily observable in the marketplace. Mortality risk in the job market and values for clean air are two of the most well-known. Valuation for food safety risks, however, has lagged and new results of well-designed consumer surveys are now available for the first time.
The objectives of this meeting, therefore, are:
- To introduce the concept of integrating risk assessment and cost benefit analysis.
- Using this integration, to look at recent advances in valuation for food risks.
- To examine economic incentives in the public and private sectors and how they contribute to safer food
- To hear what policymakers and risk analysts in the public and private sectors think about economic incentives and the new economic valuation methodologies
