World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 71
World Food Policy
Table 3. Characteristics of personal interactions versus expert systems as regards
food safety assurance
Basis
Personal interactions
Expert systems
Kinship, neighborhood, encounters
Verifiable procedures
Systems of penalties and
rewards
Mutuality
Enforceable commitments
Scope
−
+
Cost for farmers
−
+
Vulnerability
Limited sanctions against opportunism
Lack of skills and rigor
Rigidity
Complexity
Strength
Limited sources of opportunism
Replicability
Simplicity
Adaptability
Supplier
−
+
Role of public
Favoring farmer access to training (on
Favoring farmer access to
sector
production protocols) and market place
training (on production
substitutability
Inspecting farmers and retailers
practices and product safety
protocols, ICS, contracts)
Favoring retailer access to
marketing space
Inspecting traders’ ICS
Examples in SE
Vietnam: Direct sales in shops of SVs;
SE Asia: VietGAP,
Asia
direct home deliveries of organic
GlobalGAP, retailer
vegetables
certification schemes
Laos: Direct farmers’ markets
SE Asia: contractual arrangements between farmer groups and
consolidators with quality and inspection specifications
Vietnam: SV certification; ICS for SVs in Tien Le and organic
vegetables in ThanhXuan
Note: Based on framework set by Giddens (1990) and Daviron and Vagneron (2012)
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