Franck Meijboom - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Franck Meijboom
Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fi... more Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fish farming. What these concepts imply in practice, how they are defined and made operational is less clear. This paper focuses on the role of fish buyers as a key actor in the supply chain between the fisher or fish farmer and the consumer. Using semi-structured interviews, we explore and analyze whether and how the interviewed fish buyers define and implement moral values related to animal welfare and sustainability. The eight fish buyers who were interviewed suggest that moral values are used in their work, but also result in a number of value conflicts (moral and non-moral). The focus on sustainability and animal welfare appear to be driven by external and market factors. Sustainability mainly reflects fishing methods and quotas and fish welfare is seen as part of sustainability. Fish welfare seems more important for farmed than for wild fish as the buyers feel a responsibility regarding these kept animals. Further, the decision whether a product is sustainable is mainly based on labels. Fish buyers argue that labels are useful as a business-to-business tool. Nonetheless, based on the interviews, we argue that the relevance of these labels for addressing the ethical dilemmas of buyers is limited. Labels often are a rather procedural solution that deals with the genuine dilemmas only to a limited extent. We conclude that in order to move forward, the sector needs to further reflect and elaborate on its core values.
Current Therapy in Avian Medicine and Surgery, 2016
Genes Nutrition, 2013
Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen a... more Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen as a means to strengthen people's autonomy as they learn more about their personal health risks, and receive dietary advice accordingly. We examine in what sense personalized nutrition strengthens or weakens individual autonomy. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy is analyzed in relation to responsibility and trustworthiness. On a societal level, individualization of health promotion may be accompanied by the attribution of extended individual responsibility for one's health. This constitutes a dilemma of individualization, caused by a conflict between the right to individual freedom and societal interests. The extent to which personalized nutrition strengthens autonomy is consequently influenced by how responsibility for health is allocated to individuals. Ethically adequate allocation of responsibility should focus on prospective responsibility and be differentiated with regard to individual differences concerning the capacity of adults to take responsibility. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy also depends on its methodological design. Owing to the complexity of information received, personalized nutrition through genetic testing (PNTGT) is open to misinterpretation and may not facilitate informed choices and autonomy. As new technologies, personalized nutrition and PNTGT are subject to issues of trust. To strengthen autonomy, trust should be approached in terms of trustworthiness. Trustworthiness implies that an organization that develops or introduces personalized nutrition can show that it is competent to deal with both the technical and moral dimensions at stake and that its decisions are motivated by the interests and expectations of the truster.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2015
The ethics of consumption, 2013
Are we morally justified in killing fish and if so, for what purposes? We will not focus on the s... more Are we morally justified in killing fish and if so, for what purposes? We will not focus on the suffering that is done during the killing, but on the question whether death itself is harmful for fish. We need to distinguish two questions: (1) can death be considered a harm for fish; and (2) if so, how much of a harm is it? We will explore three lines of reasoning: (1) fish desire to stay alive; (2) death deprives fish of future happiness or goods; (3) something valuable is lost when fish are killed. Some argue that a being can form a desire to stay alive only when it has the capacity to be aware of itself as a distinct entity existing over time. We will cast doubt on this view: Do we value continued life because it is desirable or do we desire continued life because it is valuable? It seems more plausible that it is not the desire to live that matters, but being able to enjoy goods, and death thwarts future opportunities for enjoyment. This would entail that a being can have an interest in continued life, without actively being interested in it. Next, we will discuss the question how harmful death is for fish. A widely shared intuition is that it is worse to kill a human being or mammal than a fish, because human or mammal life is more valuable. But can we really account for this intuition?
Tijdschrift voor diergeneeskunde, 2013
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences, 2015
This chapter briefly explores whether there are distinct characteristics in the field of Behavior... more This chapter briefly explores whether there are distinct characteristics in the field of Behavioral Neuroscience that demand specific ethical reflection. We argue that although the ethical issues in animal-based Behavioral Neuroscience are not necessarily distinct from those in other research disciplines using animal experimentation, this field of endeavor makes a number of specific, ethically relevant, questions more explicit and, as a result, may expose to discussion a series of ethical issues that have relevance beyond this field of science. We suggest that innovative research, by its very definition, demands out-of-the-box thinking. At the same time, standardization of animal models and test procedures for the sake of comparability across experiments inhibits the potential and willingness to leave well-established tracks of thinking, and leaves us wondering how open minded research is and whether it is the researcher's established perspective that drives the research rather ...
Genes & Nutrition, 2013
Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen a... more Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen as a means to strengthen people's autonomy as they learn more about their personal health risks, and receive dietary advice accordingly. We examine in what sense personalized nutrition strengthens or weakens individual autonomy. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy is analyzed in relation to responsibility and trustworthiness. On a societal level, individualization of health promotion may be accompanied by the attribution of extended individual responsibility for one's health. This constitutes a dilemma of individualization, caused by a conflict between the right to individual freedom and societal interests. The extent to which personalized nutrition strengthens autonomy is consequently influenced by how responsibility for health is allocated to individuals. Ethically adequate allocation of responsibility should focus on prospective responsibility and be differentiated with regard to individual differences concerning the capacity of adults to take responsibility. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy also depends on its methodological design. Owing to the complexity of information received, personalized nutrition through genetic testing (PNTGT) is open to misinterpretation and may not facilitate informed choices and autonomy. As new technologies, personalized nutrition and PNTGT are subject to issues of trust. To strengthen autonomy, trust should be approached in terms of trustworthiness. Trustworthiness implies that an organization that develops or introduces personalized nutrition can show that it is competent to deal with both the technical and moral dimensions at stake and that its decisions are motivated by the interests and expectations of the truster.
The Veterinary Journal, 2010
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2012
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2013
Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fi... more Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fish farming. What these concepts imply in practice, how they are defined and made operational is less clear. This paper focuses on the role of fish buyers as a key actor in the supply chain between the fisher or fish farmer and the consumer. Using semi-structured interviews, we explore and analyze whether and how the interviewed fish buyers define and implement moral values related to animal welfare and sustainability. The eight fish buyers who were interviewed suggest that moral values are used in their work, but also result in a number of value conflicts (moral and non-moral). The focus on sustainability and animal welfare appear to be driven by external and market factors. Sustainability mainly reflects fishing methods and quotas and fish welfare is seen as part of sustainability. Fish welfare seems more important for farmed than for wild fish as the buyers feel a responsibility regarding these kept animals. Further, the decision whether a product is sustainable is mainly based on labels. Fish buyers argue that labels are useful as a business-to-business tool. Nonetheless, based on the interviews, we argue that the relevance of these labels for addressing the ethical dilemmas of buyers is limited. Labels often are a rather procedural solution that deals with the genuine dilemmas only to a limited extent. We conclude that in order to move forward, the sector needs to further reflect and elaborate on its core values.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2013
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2013
Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal-production sector in the world. This leads to the quest... more Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal-production sector in the world. This leads to the question how we should guarantee fish welfare. Implementing welfare standards presupposes that we know how to weigh, define, and measure welfare. While at first glance these seem empirical questions, they cannot be answered without ethical reflection. Normative assumptions are made when weighing, defining, and measuring welfare. Moreover, the focus on welfare presupposes that welfare is a morally important concept. This in turn presupposes that we can define the capacities of fish, which is an empirical undertaking that informs and is informed by ethical theories about the moral status of animals. In this article we want to illustrate the need for a constant interaction between empirical scientific research and ethics, in which both fields of research make their own contribution. This is not a novel claim. However, the case of fish sheds new light on this claim, because regarding fish there is still much empirical uncertainty and there is a plurality of moral views on all levels. Therefore, we do not only want to show the necessity of this interaction, but also the added value of a cooperation between ethicists and empirical scientists, such as biologists, physiologists, and ethologists. We demonstrate this by considering the different steps in the process of reflection about and implementation of fish welfare.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2009
European animal disease policy seems to find its justification in a ''harm to other'' principle. ... more European animal disease policy seems to find its justification in a ''harm to other'' principle. Limiting the freedom of animal keepers-e.g., by culling their animals-is justified by the aim to prevent harm, i.e., the spreading of the disease. The picture, however, is more complicated. Both during the control of outbreaks and in the prevention of notifiable, animal diseases the government is confronted with conflicting claims of stakeholders who anticipate running a risk to be harmed by each other, and who ask for government intervention. In this paper, we first argue that in a policy that aims to prevent animal diseases, the focus shifts from limiting ''harm'' to weighing conflicting claims with respect to ''risks of harm.'' Therefore, we claim that the harm principle is no longer a sufficient justification for governmental intervention in animal disease prevention. A policy that has to deal with and distribute conflicting risks of harm needs additional value assumptions that guide this process of assessment and distribution. We show that currently, policies are based on assumptions that are mainly economic considerations. In order to show the limitations of these considerations, we use the interests and position of keepers of backyard animals as an example. Based on the problems they faced during and after the recent outbreaks, we defend the thesis that in order to develop a sustainable animal disease policy other than economic assumptions need to be taken into account.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2012
As the world population is growing and government directives tell us to consume more fatty acids,... more As the world population is growing and government directives tell us to consume more fatty acids, the demand for fish is increasing. Due to declines in wild fish populations, we have come to rely more and more on aquaculture. Despite rapid expansion of aquaculture, this sector is still in a relatively early developmental stage. This means that this sector can still be steered in a favorable direction, which requires discussion about sustainability. If we want to avoid similar problems to the ones we have experienced with livestock farming, we need to generate knowledge of the biology, profitability, environmental aspects, consumer awareness, and product appreciation of particular fish species. However, the discussion about a sustainable aquaculture also raises the question how we should treat fish. This moral question is regularly addressed as a problem of applied ethics with a focus on tailoring ethical principles to practical questions. In this article we do not deny the importance of the practical accounts, but we start from the fundamental question whether and why fish matter in our moral deliberations, i.e., from the discussion on moral status. We elaborate the distinction between moral considerability and moral significance in order to show both the importance and the limitations of the discussion about moral status for practical problems in aquaculture. We illustrate these points with a case-study about the farming of a specific fish species, the African catfish.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2000
ABSTRACT. Thanks to developments in genomics, dietary recommendations adapted to genetic risk pro... more ABSTRACT. Thanks to developments in genomics, dietary recommendations adapted to genetic risk profiles of individual persons are no longer science fiction. But what are the consequences of these diets? An examination of possible impacts of genetically tailor-made diets raises ...
Ethics and the politics of food: preprints of the 6th congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics, EurSAFE 2006, Oslo, Norway, June 22-24, 2006, Jun 30, 2006
Most of the nutrigenomics research in the Netherlands has been initiated from the idea that the f... more Most of the nutrigenomics research in the Netherlands has been initiated from the idea that the future applications will be beneficial on a public health level or for special groups of citizens that have clear genetically induced increased risk to a certain ailment. However, especially the effects on overall public health are believed to be small. Nevertheless, personalised dietary advices are still considered to make sense for individuals, but now as a market instrument rather than as a tool for public health policy. In ...
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2006
The many well-publicized food scandals in recent years have resulted in a general state of vulner... more The many well-publicized food scandals in recent years have resulted in a general state of vulnerable trust. As a result, building consumer trust has become an important goal in agri-food policy. In their efforts to protect trust in the agricultural and food sector, governments and industries have tended to consider the problem of trust as merely a matter of informing consumers on risks. In this article, we argue that the food sector better addresses the problem of trust from the perspective of the trustworthiness of the food sector itself. This broad idea for changing the focus of trust is the assumption that if you want to be trusted, you should be trustworthy. To provide a clear understanding of what being trustworthy means within the food sector, we elaborate on both the concept of trust and of responsibility. In this way we show that policy focused on enhancing transparency and providing information to consumers is crucial, but not sufficient for dealing with the problem of consumer trust in the current agri-food context.
Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fi... more Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fish farming. What these concepts imply in practice, how they are defined and made operational is less clear. This paper focuses on the role of fish buyers as a key actor in the supply chain between the fisher or fish farmer and the consumer. Using semi-structured interviews, we explore and analyze whether and how the interviewed fish buyers define and implement moral values related to animal welfare and sustainability. The eight fish buyers who were interviewed suggest that moral values are used in their work, but also result in a number of value conflicts (moral and non-moral). The focus on sustainability and animal welfare appear to be driven by external and market factors. Sustainability mainly reflects fishing methods and quotas and fish welfare is seen as part of sustainability. Fish welfare seems more important for farmed than for wild fish as the buyers feel a responsibility regarding these kept animals. Further, the decision whether a product is sustainable is mainly based on labels. Fish buyers argue that labels are useful as a business-to-business tool. Nonetheless, based on the interviews, we argue that the relevance of these labels for addressing the ethical dilemmas of buyers is limited. Labels often are a rather procedural solution that deals with the genuine dilemmas only to a limited extent. We conclude that in order to move forward, the sector needs to further reflect and elaborate on its core values.
Current Therapy in Avian Medicine and Surgery, 2016
Genes Nutrition, 2013
Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen a... more Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen as a means to strengthen people's autonomy as they learn more about their personal health risks, and receive dietary advice accordingly. We examine in what sense personalized nutrition strengthens or weakens individual autonomy. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy is analyzed in relation to responsibility and trustworthiness. On a societal level, individualization of health promotion may be accompanied by the attribution of extended individual responsibility for one's health. This constitutes a dilemma of individualization, caused by a conflict between the right to individual freedom and societal interests. The extent to which personalized nutrition strengthens autonomy is consequently influenced by how responsibility for health is allocated to individuals. Ethically adequate allocation of responsibility should focus on prospective responsibility and be differentiated with regard to individual differences concerning the capacity of adults to take responsibility. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy also depends on its methodological design. Owing to the complexity of information received, personalized nutrition through genetic testing (PNTGT) is open to misinterpretation and may not facilitate informed choices and autonomy. As new technologies, personalized nutrition and PNTGT are subject to issues of trust. To strengthen autonomy, trust should be approached in terms of trustworthiness. Trustworthiness implies that an organization that develops or introduces personalized nutrition can show that it is competent to deal with both the technical and moral dimensions at stake and that its decisions are motivated by the interests and expectations of the truster.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2015
The ethics of consumption, 2013
Are we morally justified in killing fish and if so, for what purposes? We will not focus on the s... more Are we morally justified in killing fish and if so, for what purposes? We will not focus on the suffering that is done during the killing, but on the question whether death itself is harmful for fish. We need to distinguish two questions: (1) can death be considered a harm for fish; and (2) if so, how much of a harm is it? We will explore three lines of reasoning: (1) fish desire to stay alive; (2) death deprives fish of future happiness or goods; (3) something valuable is lost when fish are killed. Some argue that a being can form a desire to stay alive only when it has the capacity to be aware of itself as a distinct entity existing over time. We will cast doubt on this view: Do we value continued life because it is desirable or do we desire continued life because it is valuable? It seems more plausible that it is not the desire to live that matters, but being able to enjoy goods, and death thwarts future opportunities for enjoyment. This would entail that a being can have an interest in continued life, without actively being interested in it. Next, we will discuss the question how harmful death is for fish. A widely shared intuition is that it is worse to kill a human being or mammal than a fish, because human or mammal life is more valuable. But can we really account for this intuition?
Tijdschrift voor diergeneeskunde, 2013
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences, 2015
This chapter briefly explores whether there are distinct characteristics in the field of Behavior... more This chapter briefly explores whether there are distinct characteristics in the field of Behavioral Neuroscience that demand specific ethical reflection. We argue that although the ethical issues in animal-based Behavioral Neuroscience are not necessarily distinct from those in other research disciplines using animal experimentation, this field of endeavor makes a number of specific, ethically relevant, questions more explicit and, as a result, may expose to discussion a series of ethical issues that have relevance beyond this field of science. We suggest that innovative research, by its very definition, demands out-of-the-box thinking. At the same time, standardization of animal models and test procedures for the sake of comparability across experiments inhibits the potential and willingness to leave well-established tracks of thinking, and leaves us wondering how open minded research is and whether it is the researcher's established perspective that drives the research rather ...
Genes & Nutrition, 2013
Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen a... more Personalized nutrition has the potential to enhance individual health control. It could be seen as a means to strengthen people's autonomy as they learn more about their personal health risks, and receive dietary advice accordingly. We examine in what sense personalized nutrition strengthens or weakens individual autonomy. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy is analyzed in relation to responsibility and trustworthiness. On a societal level, individualization of health promotion may be accompanied by the attribution of extended individual responsibility for one's health. This constitutes a dilemma of individualization, caused by a conflict between the right to individual freedom and societal interests. The extent to which personalized nutrition strengthens autonomy is consequently influenced by how responsibility for health is allocated to individuals. Ethically adequate allocation of responsibility should focus on prospective responsibility and be differentiated with regard to individual differences concerning the capacity of adults to take responsibility. The impact of personalized nutrition on autonomy also depends on its methodological design. Owing to the complexity of information received, personalized nutrition through genetic testing (PNTGT) is open to misinterpretation and may not facilitate informed choices and autonomy. As new technologies, personalized nutrition and PNTGT are subject to issues of trust. To strengthen autonomy, trust should be approached in terms of trustworthiness. Trustworthiness implies that an organization that develops or introduces personalized nutrition can show that it is competent to deal with both the technical and moral dimensions at stake and that its decisions are motivated by the interests and expectations of the truster.
The Veterinary Journal, 2010
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2012
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2013
Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fi... more Sustainability and welfare are concepts that are often mentioned in the context of fishing and fish farming. What these concepts imply in practice, how they are defined and made operational is less clear. This paper focuses on the role of fish buyers as a key actor in the supply chain between the fisher or fish farmer and the consumer. Using semi-structured interviews, we explore and analyze whether and how the interviewed fish buyers define and implement moral values related to animal welfare and sustainability. The eight fish buyers who were interviewed suggest that moral values are used in their work, but also result in a number of value conflicts (moral and non-moral). The focus on sustainability and animal welfare appear to be driven by external and market factors. Sustainability mainly reflects fishing methods and quotas and fish welfare is seen as part of sustainability. Fish welfare seems more important for farmed than for wild fish as the buyers feel a responsibility regarding these kept animals. Further, the decision whether a product is sustainable is mainly based on labels. Fish buyers argue that labels are useful as a business-to-business tool. Nonetheless, based on the interviews, we argue that the relevance of these labels for addressing the ethical dilemmas of buyers is limited. Labels often are a rather procedural solution that deals with the genuine dilemmas only to a limited extent. We conclude that in order to move forward, the sector needs to further reflect and elaborate on its core values.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2013
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2013
Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal-production sector in the world. This leads to the quest... more Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal-production sector in the world. This leads to the question how we should guarantee fish welfare. Implementing welfare standards presupposes that we know how to weigh, define, and measure welfare. While at first glance these seem empirical questions, they cannot be answered without ethical reflection. Normative assumptions are made when weighing, defining, and measuring welfare. Moreover, the focus on welfare presupposes that welfare is a morally important concept. This in turn presupposes that we can define the capacities of fish, which is an empirical undertaking that informs and is informed by ethical theories about the moral status of animals. In this article we want to illustrate the need for a constant interaction between empirical scientific research and ethics, in which both fields of research make their own contribution. This is not a novel claim. However, the case of fish sheds new light on this claim, because regarding fish there is still much empirical uncertainty and there is a plurality of moral views on all levels. Therefore, we do not only want to show the necessity of this interaction, but also the added value of a cooperation between ethicists and empirical scientists, such as biologists, physiologists, and ethologists. We demonstrate this by considering the different steps in the process of reflection about and implementation of fish welfare.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2009
European animal disease policy seems to find its justification in a ''harm to other'' principle. ... more European animal disease policy seems to find its justification in a ''harm to other'' principle. Limiting the freedom of animal keepers-e.g., by culling their animals-is justified by the aim to prevent harm, i.e., the spreading of the disease. The picture, however, is more complicated. Both during the control of outbreaks and in the prevention of notifiable, animal diseases the government is confronted with conflicting claims of stakeholders who anticipate running a risk to be harmed by each other, and who ask for government intervention. In this paper, we first argue that in a policy that aims to prevent animal diseases, the focus shifts from limiting ''harm'' to weighing conflicting claims with respect to ''risks of harm.'' Therefore, we claim that the harm principle is no longer a sufficient justification for governmental intervention in animal disease prevention. A policy that has to deal with and distribute conflicting risks of harm needs additional value assumptions that guide this process of assessment and distribution. We show that currently, policies are based on assumptions that are mainly economic considerations. In order to show the limitations of these considerations, we use the interests and position of keepers of backyard animals as an example. Based on the problems they faced during and after the recent outbreaks, we defend the thesis that in order to develop a sustainable animal disease policy other than economic assumptions need to be taken into account.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2012
As the world population is growing and government directives tell us to consume more fatty acids,... more As the world population is growing and government directives tell us to consume more fatty acids, the demand for fish is increasing. Due to declines in wild fish populations, we have come to rely more and more on aquaculture. Despite rapid expansion of aquaculture, this sector is still in a relatively early developmental stage. This means that this sector can still be steered in a favorable direction, which requires discussion about sustainability. If we want to avoid similar problems to the ones we have experienced with livestock farming, we need to generate knowledge of the biology, profitability, environmental aspects, consumer awareness, and product appreciation of particular fish species. However, the discussion about a sustainable aquaculture also raises the question how we should treat fish. This moral question is regularly addressed as a problem of applied ethics with a focus on tailoring ethical principles to practical questions. In this article we do not deny the importance of the practical accounts, but we start from the fundamental question whether and why fish matter in our moral deliberations, i.e., from the discussion on moral status. We elaborate the distinction between moral considerability and moral significance in order to show both the importance and the limitations of the discussion about moral status for practical problems in aquaculture. We illustrate these points with a case-study about the farming of a specific fish species, the African catfish.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2000
ABSTRACT. Thanks to developments in genomics, dietary recommendations adapted to genetic risk pro... more ABSTRACT. Thanks to developments in genomics, dietary recommendations adapted to genetic risk profiles of individual persons are no longer science fiction. But what are the consequences of these diets? An examination of possible impacts of genetically tailor-made diets raises ...
Ethics and the politics of food: preprints of the 6th congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics, EurSAFE 2006, Oslo, Norway, June 22-24, 2006, Jun 30, 2006
Most of the nutrigenomics research in the Netherlands has been initiated from the idea that the f... more Most of the nutrigenomics research in the Netherlands has been initiated from the idea that the future applications will be beneficial on a public health level or for special groups of citizens that have clear genetically induced increased risk to a certain ailment. However, especially the effects on overall public health are believed to be small. Nevertheless, personalised dietary advices are still considered to make sense for individuals, but now as a market instrument rather than as a tool for public health policy. In ...
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2006
The many well-publicized food scandals in recent years have resulted in a general state of vulner... more The many well-publicized food scandals in recent years have resulted in a general state of vulnerable trust. As a result, building consumer trust has become an important goal in agri-food policy. In their efforts to protect trust in the agricultural and food sector, governments and industries have tended to consider the problem of trust as merely a matter of informing consumers on risks. In this article, we argue that the food sector better addresses the problem of trust from the perspective of the trustworthiness of the food sector itself. This broad idea for changing the focus of trust is the assumption that if you want to be trusted, you should be trustworthy. To provide a clear understanding of what being trustworthy means within the food sector, we elaborate on both the concept of trust and of responsibility. In this way we show that policy focused on enhancing transparency and providing information to consumers is crucial, but not sufficient for dealing with the problem of consumer trust in the current agri-food context.