Food after Fukushima: Risk and Scientific Citizenship in Japan

Citizen science is an umbrella term that describes a variety of ways in which members of the public can participate in science. The main characteristics of the approach are that: citizens are actively involved in research, in partnership or collaboration with scientists or professionals; and there is a genuine outcome, such as new scientific knowledge, conservation action or policy change. Citizen science involves communities participating in data collection or analysis, or other kinds of collaboration, like co-creating research questions and interpreting data. The approach, endorsed by the European Commission for Research, Science and Innovation, allows the communities we serve to be involved in building the evidence-base on which policy decisions are made, and offers wider benefits to participants (such as expanding scientific knowledge). Citizen science can open up engagement with communities who are underrepresented in research. The FSA’s programme of citizen science work builds on collaboration between UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the FSA and Food Standards Scotland, to develop a joined-up approach to tackle the challenges of maintaining safe food in the UK. Key recommendations of this collaboration were to invest in public engagement and citizen science (aligning with UKRI’s commitment to citizen science and participatory research, as outlined in its vision (2010 – 2022)), and to build and strengthen partnerships across the food safety research and innovation community. To inform these aims, the 2021 FSA review ‘Citizen Science and Food’ explored how citizen science methods have previously been applied to FSA research priorities. The review identified a growing body of research and recommended further investment in this area to build capacity and capability, and spread the use of these methods among the food science community. Subsequently, in 2022 the FSA and UKRI(footnote 1) launched the Citizen Science for Food Standards Challenges (Opens in a new window) funding call, for projects that would use citizen science methods to address the FSA’s areas of research interest (ARIs). The aims of the call were to: assess the utility of the citizen science approach in exploring food standards challenges. facilitate the use of citizen science methods, and build capability, in the food policy research community. expand the range of people from outside of academia involved in food policy research. provide learning opportunities to the members of the public involved as citizen scientists. Six projects were awarded funding, each addressing an ARI, exploring topics such as antimicrobial resistance, food hypersensitivity, consumer practices and food safety, and novel plant breeding methods. All projects used citizen science methods to help researchers gather rich information in certain settings or communities. Across the programme, the six projects facilitated collaboration between: 600 citizen scientists, nine universities, 12 partner organisations, four community or specialist advisors and two business representative bodies. These collaborations brought multiple benefits to researchers’, citizen scientists and to the partner organisations, advisors and stakeholders. This report details these, along with key findings from each project, and operational learnings from the programme to inform future work using citizen science methodology. This report outlines preliminary findings from each of the projects and considers the success of the programme overall. Detailed findings from each project will be published in the form of project reports on the FSA website, in sequence with publications in scientific journals.

Reviewed by: Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima by Aya Hirata Kimura Tsipy Ivry (bio) Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima. By Aya Hirata Kimura. Duke University Press, Durham NC, 2016. xiv, 210 pages. $89.95, cloth; $23.95, paper. This powerful and thought-provoking book is a sober account of the complicated relations between the Japanese government and its citizens in the aftermath of the nuclear accident of March 2011 and the role that scientism, gender, and neoliberalism play in them. These complicated relations were (and still are being) played out through negotiations over food safety in which people with little scientific education measure radioactivity, that is, engage in "citizen science." Aya Hirata Kimura provides a detailed picture of the individual and collective civil enterprises—mostly led by mothers—to detect and disseminate information about food contaminated with radioactive particles in the context of governmental insistence on food safety and public ostracism of expressions of radiation concerns. Science, both as a privileged authoritative idiom and as a set of practices to manufacture privileged knowledge, is used strategically by all parties, albeit with considerably different consequences for each. Gender stereotypes, divisions of reproductive responsibilities, and emotional labor are used strategically. The author ventures to decipher the sociopolitical implications of civilians taking measurements of radiation into their own hands. Kimura's thesis has many levels, but central to the book is her argument that citizen science is a form of "infra politics" in James C. Scott's idiom or "informal everyday life politics" in Tessa Morris-Suzuki's idiom—an inexplicit form of political activism.1 Disasters have long been identified in social science literature as "revealers" of inequalities lurking beneath social orders and the uneven distribution of vulnerability they produce.2 The nuclear accident at the Daiichi power plant in Fukushima was a striking reminder of the inequalities involved in exposing citizens in economically less privileged peripheral agricultural areas to the risks inherent in proximity to nuclear power plants that provide electricity for their faraway urban compatriots. However, people distant from the nuclear accident are not excused from dealing with radioactive contamination of air, soil, and food. Thus, beyond important observations [End Page 390] about the uneven distribution of vulnerability, the nuclear accident had the potential to reveal the futility of the myth of "safe" nuclear power with its consequences for all Japanese citizens in the particularly precarious circumstances of continuous seismic instability. Demonstrations before the Japanese Diet in 2012 caused the closure of 48 commercial nuclear power plants,3 yet the push for policy change advocated by antinuclear activists failed to materialize. Why, how, and by which mechanisms are civilian protests constrained? Why science and not politics? These questions resonate throughout the book. The author engaged closely following the disaster with citizen scientists: women (and a few men) who measured radiation to protect their families from contaminated food. Many extended their services to other concerned civilians and formed nonprofit organizations, which Kimura calls CRMOs (Citizen Radiation Measuring Organizations). Skillfully woven into the book are content analysis of blogs and Twitter communication as well as media articles and statements by government officials and radiation experts, creating a broad context for understanding the ordeals of citizen scientists. The first part of the book describes the food policing (rather than politics that would work to expose the power relations behind radioactive contamination) that developed after the triple disaster. Dominant in its rhetoric was the dubbing of radiation concerns as fūhyōhigai—baseless, harmful rumors. Underlying such conceptualization of anxieties as damage were economic concerns. Soon after the disasters, the government initiated a campaign that encouraged consumers to "eat to support" farmers and manufacturers in the affected areas. Fūhyōhigai targeted women and mothers in particular, capitalizing on their stereotypes as irrational and unscientifi c; it worked to suppress explicit resistance by ostracizing worried mothers as hōshanō mama—"mothers with radiation brains," hence the book's title. The same stereotypes of women as emotional and empathetic were put to work when women were enlisted in educational campaigns to enlighten others about proper ways to...

Camel milk contributes up to 30% of pastoral community annual caloric intake making it one of the main diets for the pastoral community. In addition, camel milk is a major source of income and serves significant cultural functions in pastoral communities. Despite these, camel milk production and marketing is faced with a number of challenges, especially poor handling practices that contribute to high post-harvest losses due to poor quality and safety. Poor handling practices have been reported to be associated with poor knowledge and practices of food hygiene and safety among the pastoral camel milk value chain actors. The study aimed at determining the level of food hygiene and safety knowledge and practices of camel milk value chain actors. A structured questionnaire, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to collect data on hygienic milk handling knowledge and practices along the camel milk value chain. Each point along the chain showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in knowledge in food safety and hygiene. The study established that herdsmen had significantly (p<0.05) lower knowledge than women retailing and collecting/ bulking milk at Isiolo town and its environs with a mean score of 49 ± 9%. The women retailing at Isiolo town scored 62 ± 9% of the food hygiene and safety questions correctly. The women at the collection/bulking centre had the highest knowledge level with a score of 69 ± 10%. The average score along Isiolo camel milk value chain was 60 ± 9%. The respondents showed low knowledge in answering questions regarding spoilage microorganisms and effective cleaning of containers. About 53% of women retailers used rejected/spoiled milk for household consumption. This could result in a high food safety risk. Therefore, training of actors along the camel milk value chain could be the best way to improving their knowledge on food safety and hygiene. Key words : Knowledge, food safety, food hygiene, milk handlers, container cleaning

Climate Change and the Future: Discounting for Time, Wealth, and Risk

Microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature and are central to human, animal, environmental, and planetary health. They play a particularly important role in the food chain and the production of high-quality, safe, and health-promoting foods, especially fermented foods. This important role is not always apparent to members of the public. Here, we describe Kefir4All, a citizen science project designed to provide the general public with an opportunity to expand their awareness, knowledge, and practical skills relating to microbiology, introduced through the medium of producing fermented food, i.e., milk kefir or water kefir. During the course of Kefir4All, 123 citizen scientists, from second-level school and non-school settings, participated in a study to track changes in the microbial composition of kefirs, by performing and recording details of milk kefir or water kefir fermentations they performed in their homes or schools over the 21-week project. At the start of the study, the citizen scientists were provided with milk or water kefir grains to initiate the fermentations. Both types of kefir grain are semi-solid, gelatinous-like substances, composed of exopolysaccharides and proteins, containing a symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast. The experimental component of the project was complemented by a number of education and outreach events, including career talks and a site visit to our research center (Kefir Day). At the end of the study, a report was provided to each citizen scientist, in which individualized results of their fermenting activities were detailed. A number of approaches were taken to obtain feedback and other insights from the citizen scientists. Evaluations took place before and after the Kefir4All project to gauge the citizen scientist's self-reported awareness, knowledge, and interest in microbiology and fermented foods. Further insights into the level of citizen science participation were gained through assessing the number of samples returned for analysis and the level of participation of the citizen scientists throughout the project. Notably, the survey results revealed a self-reported, increased interest in, and general knowledge of, science among the Kefir4All citizen scientists after undertaking the project and a willingness to take part in further citizen science projects. Ultimately, Kefir4All represents an example of the successful integration of citizen science into existing education and research systems.

The effects of the environment on health are well documented and prove to be a real public health problem. It is therefore essential to raise public awareness of these issues to induce preventive and protective behaviours. We focused on two methods: passive information transmission (top-down approach) and citizen science (bottom-up approach). The study aims to compare both approaches while raising awareness among Brussels citizens. We created two groups: a traditional awareness group, receiving infographics by email, and a citizen science group, carrying out immersive activities with researchers. All enrolled participants filled out a questionnaire before and after. The “top-down” group (n = 137) received 3 infographics. The citizen science participants deep-dived into the environmental health body of knowledge, carried out individual measurements of air quality and noise pollution along a city walk and analysed, together, the results in groups to design actions. The citizen science sessions were finalised by a focus group. All sessions enjoyed and developed knowledge and awareness of environmental health. Accompanying citizens in developing knowledge was beneficial and required for environmental health empowerment. It showed the added value of citizen science in raising curiosity, creativity, and capacity building. The participants showed different socioeconomic statuses and demonstrated an appetite for understanding the exposures measured during the walks. Our results integrate several SDGs among those SDG4 and SDG3, since by raising awareness of participants, we enabled them to improve their capacities in becoming actors in their health. The risk of developing health problems related to the environment is higher in lower socio-economic groups, due to a greater vulnerability and the inequitable environment distribution between neighbourhoods. Pro-environmental behaviour fosters reduced exposure for now and future generations.

Carbon taxation has been studied primarily in social planner or infinitely lived agent models, which trade off the welfare of future and current generations. Such frameworks obscure the potential for carbon taxation to produce a generational win-win. This paper develops a largescale, dynamic 55-period, OLG model to calculate the carbon tax policy delivering the highest uniform welfare gain to all generations. The OLG framework, with its selfish generations, seems far more natural for studying climate damage. Our model features coal, oil, and gas, each extracted subject to increasing costs, a clean energy sector, technical and demographic change, and Nordhaus (2017)’s temperature/damage functions. Our model’s optimal uniform welfare increasing (UWI) carbon tax starts at $30 tax, rises annually at 1.5 percent and raises the welfare of all current and future generations by 0.73 percent on a consumption-equivalent basis. Sharing efficiency gains evenly requires, however, taxing future generations by as much as 8.1 percent and subsidizing early generations by as much as 1.2 percent of lifetime consumption. Without such redistribution (the Nordhaus “optimum†), the carbon tax constitutes a win-lose policy with current generations experiencing an up to 0.84 percent welfare loss and future generations experiencing an up to 7.54 percent welfare gain. With a six-times larger damage function, the optimal UWI initial carbon tax is $70, again rising annually at 1.5 percent. This policy raises all generations’ welfare by almost 5 percent. However, doing so requires levying taxes on and giving transfers to future and current generations ranging up to 50.1 percent and 10.3 percent of their lifetime consumption. Delaying carbon policy, for 20 years, reduces efficiency gains roughly in half.

FCS-8850, a 2-page fact sheet by Brian Lapinski, Amy Simonne, and M.E. Swisher, is a bibliography listing online resources providing general information on produce safety, commodity-specific food safety guidelines, and consumer information. Published by the UF Department of Family Youth and Community Sciences, October 2007. FCS8850/FY971: Small Farm Food Safety, Fresh Produce—Part 6: Additional Resources for Participants Bringing Food Safety Concepts to Farms (ufl.edu) Ask IFAS: Small Farm Food Safety series (ufl.edu)

FCS8801, a 2-page fact sheet by Jennifer Hillan, offers a food safety quiz that readers can take to find out if their food safety practices "pass the test." Includes information on sanitation, storage, and preparation. Published by the UF Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, April 2007. FCS8801/FY926: Food Safety: Does Your Kitchen Pass the Test? (ufl.edu)

국가는 시원적 주권을 갖는 정치적 공동체로서, 국가의 지속가능성 차원에서 본다면 현재세대와 미래세대간 계약에 따라 성립된 일종의 세대간 공동체이다. 하지만 현대 민주주의에서의 정치적 결정구조는 선거를 통한 정당성 통치구조를 갖기 때문에, 현재 태어난 세대로서 선거권을 가질 정도의 일정 연령을 가진 자가 아니면 직접적인 정치참여가 어려워 미래세대는 정치적 고려에서 배제되는 경향이 강하다. 또한 엄격한 소송요건과 미래위험에 대한 명백성 입증이 어려워 소송을 통한 권리구제 역시 어려운 실정이다. 2018년 이후 환경권 영역에서 국가의 미래세대 책임을 명문화하는 헌법개정 개정 논의가 있었지만, 개헌에 성공하지 못했다. 따라서 현재 필요한 것은 현실에서 미래세대를 위한 조직과 절차 신설에 대한 대안과 그 제도화 시 입법적 쟁점들에 대한 논의를 보다 심도 깊게 진행하여 미래세대 보호를 위한 헌법이론적 논의를 뒷받침하는 것이 보다 실리적이라 판단된다. 이를 위해 주요국가에 입법화 되었던 사례를 유형별로 정리해 보면, 크게 다음 4가지 비교모델을 언급할 수 있다. 첫째, 아동·청소년과 같은 현존하는 미래세대의 직접적인 참여를 보장하기 위해, 네덜란드 또는 덴마크처럼 교육법상 학교운영위원회에 참여 및 교과과정에 의견제시할 수 있도록 의견표명권을 입법화 하는 방안이다. 둘째, 이스라엘이나 핀란드처럼 의회 내 미래세대위원회 또는 미래위원회를 설립하여, 미래세대에게 영향을 미치는 법안에 대한 심사가 가능한 구조를 마련하는 것이다. 셋째, 스웨덴 및 영국 웨일즈처럼 행정부 내 미래세대 옴부즈만을 임명하여 현재 국가 지속가능발전지표(K-SDGs)로 설정되어 있는 개별 정책과제들과 관련해 미래세대 관점에서 이행여부를 감시하고 정책적 제언을 할 수 있도록 법제화 하는 것이다. 넷째, 독일처럼 법안의 장기적 영향을 분석하는 지속가능성심사를 제도화 하여, 그 속에서 미래세대에게 미치는 법안의 사전적 영향을 분석하여 평가하도록 절차적 방안을 마련하는 것이다. 이 같은 지속가능섬심사 결과는 법률안 제출시 첨부되어, 미래세대위원회가 그 결과를 검토하도록 한다면 미래세대 보호를 위한 입법적 통제 역시 균형을 이룰 수 있을 것이다. 현재의 결정이 미래형성적 의미를 갖는 입법과정의 특성상, 이 같은 입법모델들의 수용과 세대간 합의의 합리성과 타당성을 부여하는 것은 결국 현 시대의 의사결정 주체가 되는 현재세대의 몫일 수밖에 없다. 따라서 세대간 보호와 연대를 위한 세대간 계약의 실현은 결국 미래세대를 위한 현재세대의 책임이 그 주요내용이 될 수밖에 없기에, 다음이 아닌 지금 우리들의 노력으로 미래세대를 위한 보호기반을 한시바삐 마련해야만 할 것이다.A state is a political organization with ultimate sovereignty. From the perspective of national sustainability, it is a kind of intergenerational community established under contracts between current and future generation. However, it is difficult for those who have not reached to the age for suffrage to directly participate in politics since the political decision-making structure in modern democracy has legitimate governance structure through elections, which tends to exclude future generation from political consideration. In addition, it is difficult to obtain legal remedy through litigations due to strict litigation requirements and the difficulty of proving future risks. Discussions on the revision of the Constitution in terms of the state’s responsibility for future generation in the area of environmental rights have been taken since 2018 without success. What needs to be done at the moment is to find ways to establish organizations and procedures for future generation and have in-depth discussion on legislative issues in institutionalizing such organizations and procedures. It would be more practical to develop constitutional rationale to protect future generation. To this end, this article categorizes the legislative models of major countries into four types for comparison. First type of legislative model is countries like Netherlands and Denmark which embed the right of express opinions into the education laws for the future generation co-living with the current generation to directly participate in school steering committees or to present opinions in curriculum. Second type is countries like Israel and Finland which established a future generation committee or a future committee within their parliaments so that the system of examining bills affecting future generation can be in place. Third type is the appointment of ombudsman of future generation within the executive branch like Sweden or Wales so that the implementation of individual policies set as K-SDGs can be overseen and policy recommendations can be provided for future generation. Fourth is to institutionalize the evaluation of sustainability which analyzes long-term effect of a bill like Germany so that the ex-ante evaluation of a bill as to its impact on future generation can be done systematically. The legislative balance in protecting future generation could be achieved when the evaluation result of K-SDGs is to be submitted together with a bill for the review by the future generation committee. The legislative process has a distinction that a decision making at the present implies the future influence. In this context, the acceptance of such legislative models and the rationales and legitimacy of the intergenerational contracts would fall to the current decision-makers, in other words the current generation. Therefore, the realization of the intergenerational contract for the intergenerational protection and solidarity would be achieved inevitably by the current generation and their responsibility for future generation. That is the reason why the foundation for the protection of future generation must be laid promptly through the efforts of the current generation now as opposed to later.

Background: Recognizing the complex health issues that school-going adolescents face due to ignorance of proper food handling techniques, which impact their general development and severely threaten the health of both the present and future generations in all developing nations. This interventional study aimed to compare food safety knowledge among school-going teenagers (13–15 years) before and after intervention, taking into account the significance of students' health importance in the early adolescent stages. Materials and Methods: The cluster sampling method was used to choose 400 students from four different schools. A food safety intervention education was given online using the Google Meet platform. The World Health Organization's food safety questionnaire was used to gauge participant knowledge of food safety before and after the intervention. A committee of subject matter experts evaluated the research tool's relevance for content validity. Results: Following the implementation of the intervention, significant increases in food safety knowledge were noticed among school-going adolescents in the post-test. A maximum of 81.5% of subjects gained a high-level knowledge regarding food safety after the food safety intervention. Statistics showed that the differences were substantial. After the intervention program, school-aged teenagers' overall understanding of food safety dramatically increased. Conclusion: In order to reduce the health problems caused by unsafe food among school-going teenagers, awareness of food safety must be greatly raised through a variety of food safety training programs in the early stages of adolescence.

Cornell Alliance for Science has launched an initiative in which “citizen scientists” are called upon to evaluate studies on health risks of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods. The purpose is to establish whether the consensus on GM food safety claimed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is supported by a review of the scientific literature. The Alliance’s citizen scientists are examining more than 12,000 publication abstracts to quantify how far the scientific literature supports the AAAS’s statement. We identify a number of fundamental weaknesses in the Alliance’s study design, including evaluation is based only on information provided in the publication abstract; there is a lack of clarity as to what material is included in the 12,000 study abstracts to be reviewed, since the number of appropriately designed investigations addressing GM food safety are few; there is uncertainty as to whether studies of toxic effects arising from GM crop-associated pesticides will be included; there is a lack of clarity regarding whether divergent yet equally valid interpretations of the same study will be taken into account; and there is no definition of the cutoff point for consensus or non-consensus on GM food safety. In addition, vital industry proprietary biosafety data on GM crops and associated pesticides are not publicly available and is thus cannot inform this project. Based on these weaknesses in the study design, we believe it is questionable as to whether any objective or meaningful conclusion can be drawn from the Alliance’s initiative.

The amalgamation of computer-like capabilities and portability of modern smartphones has fuelled their implementation as detectors and interfaces in emerging smartphone-based (bio)sensors (SbSs) for e.g. healthcare, point-of-need, food safety, environmental science, and forensics systems. SbSs intrinsically carry great potential for consumer diagnostics, and future ‘citizen science’ approaches, which have far-reaching implications for the technological, legal, and ethical aspects associated with the research, development, and deployment of SbSs. In this review (part 2 of a pair of review papers), we evaluated the pertinent literature on issues concerning the development and validation of SbSs, and we address their potential social impact. Finally, insights gleaned are combined in a set of recommendations to guide future ethical, sustainable, and efficient research, development, and deployment of SbSs.

Optimizing Oncology Nurses Knowledge on Neutropenic Diet and Food Safety Standards through Evaluation and Education

Food safety in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster is more than a topic for natural scientists; it has been addressed from myriad academic angles such as consumer trust, policy-making, risk com...