Seed For Thought: Apathetic Ignorance

Question: What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy? Answer: I don’t know, and I don’t care. I was reminded of that joke the other day when a colleague shared an article from Food Safety News that stated the results of a survey designed to measure how people feel about the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

Like many people, I was under the impression that people care more about food safety today than ever before. And in fact, the survey, which was commissioned by Deloitte, showed that to be largely true.

For example, one question was: “Are you more concerned than you were five years ago about the food you eat?” Of the 1,050 consumers surveyed, 73% said “yes,” up from the 65% who answered affirmatively just one year ago. But while they may be concerned, it seems not too many consumers care enough to learn about what the government is doing about it. And when I say what the government is doing, I of course mean the regulatory aspect of the law. The actual steps necessary to make the food, or at least produce, safer, are taken — and paid for, naturally — by you growers. (We detailed the impact of FSMA on growers in the March issue, and you can access that coverage online here.

The most interesting response in the survey was that more than two-thirds of the respondents — fully 68% — said they had never heard of the Food Safety Modernization Act. This is a real problem, because while people say they’re concerned about food safety, and you growers institute costly procedures to ensure the safety of a lot of that food, they largely aren’t aware you are doing anything.

Ambivalence On Traceability

Other survey results were no more encouraging. For instance, five consumer concerns about food — healthiness, safety, processing, chemicals, and contracting a foodborne illness — were all up this year over 2010. Concern about contracting a foodborne illness was cited by 23% of consumers, up seven points from the year before.

With all the talk of traceability lately, the results on that issue were no more encouraging. Only 59% said they would pay more for an item that provided traceability information, while 41% said they would go with a lower-priced item that was not traceable. So while you may pay dearly to institute traceability, it’s going to be quite difficult to recoup that investment. By the way, country-of-origin labeling didn’t seem to fare all that much better. Asked if they avoid foods from certain countries, just 38% of those surveyed said “yes.”

The upshot? More consumer education is clearly necessary. Get involved in industry trade associations and lobby your government representatives to drive home the message that growers are making sure the foods they produce are safe. It’s not enough just to provide people safe food, they need to know that it’s safe. Food safety is one issue that most people may not know a lot about, but nearly all of them care.