Fully understand the complexity of food safety society.

Original title: Fully understand the complexity of the common governance of food safety society
Liu Zhiyong
The construction and realization of the goal of the social co-governance system of food safety is a long-term, complex and dynamic process, which requires continuous efforts in consensus, cognition, institutional measures and legal system construction. Correct cognition is the premise of correct action, fully understanding the complexity of food safety social co-governance, which is helpful to the promotion of system innovation, the improvement of governance capacity and the realization of governance goals.
the complexity of the object of
the object of multi-coordination governance of the food safety society seems to be very clear, that is, food safety. But in fact, the connotation of food safety is very rich, the conceptual boundary has a great ambiguity and uncertainty. On the one hand, the upstream and downstream industries of food production and operation are complex, the chain is quite long, and they are greatly affected by the natural environment and social environment, on the other hand, the stage of food safety and socio-economic development, the consumer population and their consumption preferences and consumption capacity are closely related. Therefore, the seemingly clear governance object is complicated by the complexity of its own connotation and category. The management of food safety is indeed a thorny issue in modern society, far from simple for the management of an event.
according to the basic definitions of international organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), there are at least three basic criteria for microscopic safe food: pollution-free, pollution-free, and healthy nutrition. How to test whether food meets these basic standards is a complex problem first. From the point of view of pollution-free and pollution-free, we should consider not only the natural environment of soil, water, air and other cultivation and cultivation of food raw materials, the quality and use of pesticide fertilizers, but also the social environment and the quality of employees in the primary processing and circulation process, as well as the chemical process and food additives. Even if we don't talk about health nutrition, there are many difficulties in the supervision, testing and sampling of pollution-free and pollution-free aspects, such as insufficient human resources, inadequate equipment, insufficient professional ability, and unalimity of inspection standards and law enforcement standards. In terms of natural environment, the soil environment, water environment and atmospheric environmental pollution in China are serious, the production environment and production conditions of agricultural products affect the quality of agricultural products and food safety from the source, and unreasonable use of fertilizers, pesticides, additives and so on also has potential threats to food quality and safety. The extensive application of chemical technology and products in the process of industrialization has seriously eroded agriculture and agricultural products. In the social environment, the profit-buying psychology and short-term effects of illegal traders also greatly affect food safety and quality. In addition, the stage of development, consumption level, consumption habits and consumption capacity also determine the complexity of food safety issues. Therefore, recognizing the complexity of the governance object itself is one of the prerequisites for understanding the necessity of social co-governance, and it is also the basis for understanding the complexity of co-governance in food safety society.
Diversification and Complexity of Governance Subjects
Because of the richness and complexity of food safety connotation, a single government subject can not complete the task of governance independently, so the principle of social co-governance advocates the participation of social pluralistic subjects. The newly amended Food Safety Law encourages "the news media to carry out publicity on food safety laws, regulations and food safety standards and knowledge, and to supervise public opinion on food safety violations" and encourages reporting, and "any organization or individual has the right to report food safety violations". The inclusion of various social actors such as food industry associations, consumer rights organizations, the news media and citizens in the food safety supervision system, and the active encouragement of different forces in the social system outside the government system to participate in food safety publicity, education, supervision and reporting reflect the principle of social co-governance.
in practice, there are about 14 categories of food directly related to ensuring the quality and safety of food from farm to table, such as food raw material suppliers, food producers, operators, consumers, etc. At the same time, it should also include the natural environment elements such as soil, water, air and other environmental pollution control, agricultural elements of the management, food transport, storage, expired food treatment and other circulation process organizers and other non-direct related. Such a long food safety chain, any link problems may cause food safety hazards. This requires cooperation and extensive participation between the various functional departments of the government system and the social actors of the social system, and multi-subject participation becomes the inevitable problem of food safety governance.
recognition of the diversity of the subjects of social co-governance is only one aspect of the problem. The openness and organizational flexibility of the system of co-governance, non-mandatory binding force, and the freedom of joining and withdrawing from different social subjects make the system of co-governance an open, dynamic and non-rigid network of organizations and communities of interests. Due to the different tasks and interests of each subject, the role of food safety governance is also different, and the resource supply and collective action path are not the same. Therefore, the subject of co-governance is not only diverse, but also complex, thus forming a flexible, open, complex and dynamic governance system.
complexity of governance
social co-governance contains many stakeholders or social actors. In the process of co-rule system and co-rule, in theory, the participants in the co-rule network are equal and independent subjects, and the subjects are flexible non-mandatory contractual relations. However, in reality, the existence of sectoral interests within the government system, information barriers may hinder the formation of benign interaction, citizens valuable reporting clues may be covered up or ignored. At the same time, powerful trade association organizations in the social system may also become obstacles to positive interaction in the system of co-governance due to private interests, the food sector "professional counterfeiters" may become a disharmonious factor in a good common governance order, consumer protection organizations may be forced to give up because of various efforts to achieve organizational goals. Therefore, in the process of participation, the subjects are not isolated existence, but a variety of contacts, this interdependence, competition, cooperation, game interaction, constitute the complexity of the relationship between the subjects.
In the practice of establishing and co-governing the governance system of the common governance of food safety society, it should be clearly seen that the relationship between the government and other social subjects and industry organizations is the relationship between service, cooperation, supervision, game and win-win situation. Recognizing the intricacies of the relationship between subjects rather than the natural cooperative relations is conducive to the corresponding institutional measures, fully stimulate the vitality and enthusiasm of the participants, and avoid acts that are not conducive to the realization of the goal of co-governance.
complexity of the process of co-governance
complexity of the relationship between the subjects, which makes the process of co-governance extremely complex. The joint participation of multiple subjects is not a simple power overlay, nor can it achieve the goal of co-governance smoothly. Only when the advantages of multiple subjects complement each other and interact benignly, and exert the combined force or cooperation multiplication effect of co-governance (synergy, also translated as synergy), can we really benefit the realization of the goal of co-governance. And the burst of this power is undoubtedly a complex interactive process. The social co-management of food safety requires the benign interaction of the three system forces of state, market and society. It is necessary not only for the supervision responsibility of government departments and the implementation of corporate social responsibility, but also for the self-discipline of industry organizations and the resonance and efficiency of social organizations, as well as the integration of market mechanisms and public spirits, and the joint role of economic, social, environmental, legal, scientific and technological, management and other factors. There are both orderly participation and benign interaction of multiple subjects, as well as interest games and rational checks and balances. In this process, we should not only attract and support the active participation of social subjects, but also see the problem of negative participation and low enthusiasm; Therefore, in the process of food safety governance, how to stimulate the power of multi-subject society co-governance? How are benefits shared and risks shared? How to establish incentive mechanism, rights protection mechanism, conflict resolution mechanism, benefit compensation mechanism and coordination communication mechanism? How can positive interaction be realized? These problems not only need to be discussed in depth, but also need to be summarized in practice, and need to be solved gradually in theory and practice.
social co-management is a useful exploration of the national governance system in the field of food safety, which is worthy of strong promotion. At the same time, we must recognize not only the breakthrough and freshness of ideas, but also the complexity and long-term challenges of practice. According to the reality of our country, in the specific stage of underdeveloped civil society and imperfect market mechanism, agriculture and food industrialization, scale and intensiveness, we should continue to promote the improvement of system innovation and specific policy measures, and explore a feasible and applicable road of co-governance.
(the author is an associate professor at the School of Urban Economics and Public Administration, Capital University of Economics and Trade)