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Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture

BACKGROUND: Research into public risk perceptions associated with emerging risks in agriculture and supply chains has focused on technological risks, zoonotic diseases, and food integrity, but infrequently on naturally occurring diseases in plants. Plant virus infections account for global economic...

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Autores principales: Hilaire, Johny, Tindale, Sophie, Jones, Glyn, Pingarron-Cardenas, Gabriela, Bačnik, Katarina, Ojo, Mercy, Frewer, Lynn J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8917942/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35310134
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40066-022-00366-5
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author Hilaire, Johny
Tindale, Sophie
Jones, Glyn
Pingarron-Cardenas, Gabriela
Bačnik, Katarina
Ojo, Mercy
Frewer, Lynn J.
author_facet Hilaire, Johny
Tindale, Sophie
Jones, Glyn
Pingarron-Cardenas, Gabriela
Bačnik, Katarina
Ojo, Mercy
Frewer, Lynn J.
author_sort Hilaire, Johny
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Research into public risk perceptions associated with emerging risks in agriculture and supply chains has focused on technological risks, zoonotic diseases, and food integrity, but infrequently on naturally occurring diseases in plants. Plant virus infections account for global economic losses estimated at $30 billion annually and are responsible for nearly 50% of plant diseases worldwide, threatening global food security. This research aimed to understand public perceptions of emerging risks and benefits associated with plant viruses in agriculture in Belgium, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK. METHODS: Online qualitative semi-structured interviews with 80 European consumers were conducted, including 20 participants in each of Belgium, Slovenia, the UK, and Spain. Microsoft Streams was used to transcribe the interview data, and NVivo was utilized to code the transcripts and analyze the data. RESULTS: The results indicate that, while study participants were relatively unfamiliar with the plant viruses and their potential impacts, plant viruses evoked perceived risks in a similar way to other emerging risks in the agri-food sector. These included risks to environment and human health, and the economic functioning of the relevant supply chain. Some participants perceived both risks and benefits to be associated with plant viruses. Benefits were perceived to be associated with improved plant resistance to viruses. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide the basis for risk regulation, policy, and communication developments. Risk communication needs to take account of both risk and benefit perceptions, as well as the observation that plant viruses are perceived as an emerging, rather than an established, understood, and controlled risk. Some participants indicated the need for risk–benefit communication strategies to be developed, including information about the impacts of the risks, and associated mitigation strategies. Participants perceived that responsibility for control of plant viruses should be conferred on actors within the supply chain, in particular primary producers, although policy support (for example, financial incentivization) should be provided to improve their motivation to instigate risk mitigation activities.
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spelling pubmed-89179422022-03-14 Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture Hilaire, Johny Tindale, Sophie Jones, Glyn Pingarron-Cardenas, Gabriela Bačnik, Katarina Ojo, Mercy Frewer, Lynn J. Agric Food Secur Research BACKGROUND: Research into public risk perceptions associated with emerging risks in agriculture and supply chains has focused on technological risks, zoonotic diseases, and food integrity, but infrequently on naturally occurring diseases in plants. Plant virus infections account for global economic losses estimated at $30 billion annually and are responsible for nearly 50% of plant diseases worldwide, threatening global food security. This research aimed to understand public perceptions of emerging risks and benefits associated with plant viruses in agriculture in Belgium, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK. METHODS: Online qualitative semi-structured interviews with 80 European consumers were conducted, including 20 participants in each of Belgium, Slovenia, the UK, and Spain. Microsoft Streams was used to transcribe the interview data, and NVivo was utilized to code the transcripts and analyze the data. RESULTS: The results indicate that, while study participants were relatively unfamiliar with the plant viruses and their potential impacts, plant viruses evoked perceived risks in a similar way to other emerging risks in the agri-food sector. These included risks to environment and human health, and the economic functioning of the relevant supply chain. Some participants perceived both risks and benefits to be associated with plant viruses. Benefits were perceived to be associated with improved plant resistance to viruses. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide the basis for risk regulation, policy, and communication developments. Risk communication needs to take account of both risk and benefit perceptions, as well as the observation that plant viruses are perceived as an emerging, rather than an established, understood, and controlled risk. Some participants indicated the need for risk–benefit communication strategies to be developed, including information about the impacts of the risks, and associated mitigation strategies. Participants perceived that responsibility for control of plant viruses should be conferred on actors within the supply chain, in particular primary producers, although policy support (for example, financial incentivization) should be provided to improve their motivation to instigate risk mitigation activities. BioMed Central 2022-03-13 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8917942/ /pubmed/35310134 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40066-022-00366-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Hilaire, Johny
Tindale, Sophie
Jones, Glyn
Pingarron-Cardenas, Gabriela
Bačnik, Katarina
Ojo, Mercy
Frewer, Lynn J.
Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture
title Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture
title_full Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture
title_fullStr Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture
title_full_unstemmed Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture
title_short Risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in Europe: plant viruses in agriculture
title_sort risk perception associated with an emerging agri-food risk in europe: plant viruses in agriculture
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8917942/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35310134
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40066-022-00366-5
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