Improved Emergency Preparedness For Management Of The Food chain Via Stakeholder Involvement: Belgian and European Experience paper TA--56

Initiatives involving stakeholder engagement have assumed increasing importance in sustainable decision making for many risk-related issues. This paper focuses on a Belgium experience set within a European context for aiding decisions in the event of radioactive contamination of the foodchain. The FARMING project had many achievements and there were lessons learned for Belgium: (i) Many stakeholders showed a real interest; (ii) The Belgian agricultural system is making many of the options envisaged difficult to implement; (iii) The applicability of options is limited by political and legal issues, operational constraints, societal and ethical aspects and economics; (iv) Greater attention is given in Belgium to the medium and long term management. The international dimension created by the FARMING network is of utmost important. The WISDOM workshop highlighted that there are plenty of differences between the various countries, both in their approach to the stakeholder process and in the management options finally considered as acceptable. The successful outcome of the FARMING project has enabled work involving stakeholder engagement to continue under the 6th Framework Programme integrated project EURANOS. Stakeholder panels were convened to develop a generic handbook for the management of food production systems in Europe, based on a UK handbook.