Attitude of a group of Belgian stakeholders towards proposed agricultural countermeasures after a racioactive contamination: synthesis of the discussions within the Belgian EC-FARMING group

In the case of radioactive contamination of the environment with an impact on the food chain, the remediation trategy will not only be based on scientific knowledge and technical experience, but will also be dictated by pecularities of the country. These characteristics include agro-industrial structure, the local and international economical contexts and the political configuration including the distribution of responsibilities and competencies. This paper identifies and illustrates the most relevant characteristics of the Belgian agricultural system and political environment; it also describes the past experience with food chain contamination, which is expected to influence the attitude of Belgian stakeholders, who would be involved in the setting up of countermeasures strategies for maintaining agricultural production and food safety. The picture drawn explains why several countermeasures aiming to reduce the contamination in food products, although scientifically sound and technically feasible, are hardly acceptable or even not acceptable at all, to the stakeholders.