Novel food, new markets and trust regimes : responses to the erosion of consumers' confidence in Austria, Italy and the UK

The public debate around food conŽdence stimulated by food scares, the opening up of wider food markets and the introduction of GM foods provides an opportunity to analyse citizens' identiŽcation with their community sociologically, as it is reproduced through mundane practices. In order to do so, this article examines the GM food debate in Italy and the implications for food and agricultural policy of Austria's entry into the EU. Britain, with its highly industrialized agriculture and political commitment to open markets and new technologies, acts as a bench-mark. We distinguish between disembedded and embedded trust regimes; the former being predominant in freer markets and the latter a resource which can be mobilized in cases where remnants of 'traditional' agricultural production and supply can still be found (Italy and Austria). The increasing emphasis upon the regional origin of food, its traceability and organic production by key actors - the state, consumers' movements, retailers and marketing boards - we interpret as a conŽdence-building strategy which attempts to address deŽcits in disembedded trust resulting from widening chains of interdependency, crises such as BSE and the introduction of unfamiliar new technologies. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd.