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Nano-in-food - Threat or Opportunity for Organic Food?

Paull, John and Lyons, Kristen (2008) Nano-in-food - Threat or Opportunity for Organic Food? In: Proceedings of the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), pp. 1-4.

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Summary

Nanotechnology is creating engineered particles in the size range 1 to 100 nanometers. At the nano-scale, materials exhibit novel behaviours. Nine billion dollars is currently invested annually in nano-research, with the explicit intention of rapid commercialisation, including food and agriculture applications. Nanotechnology is currently unregulated, and nano-products are not required to be labelled. Health, safety and ecological aspects are poorly understood, and there have been calls for a moratorium. Two consumer surveys indicate that public awareness of nanotechnology is low, there is concern that the risks exceed the benefits, that food safety is declining along with declining confidence in regulatory authorities. A majority of respondents (65%) are concerned about side effects, and that nano-products should be labelled (71%), and only 7% reported they would purchase nano-food. There is an opportunity, for the organic community to take the initiative to develop standards to exclude engineered nanoparticles from organic products. Such a step will service both the organic community and the otherwise nano-averse consumers - just as GMOs have been excluded previously.


EPrint Type:Conference paper, poster, etc.
Type of presentation:Paper
Keywords:nanotechnology, nanometres, nanometers, engineered nanoparticles, nanoscale materials, nano-food, organic agriculture, organic farming, regulation, labelling, IFOAM, standards, risks, precautionary principle, consumer surveys, USA, Australia, Soil Association.
Subjects:"Organics" in general > Countries and regions > United States
"Organics" in general > Countries and regions > Australia
Values, standards and certification
Values, standards and certification > Consumer issues
"Organics" in general
Environmental aspects
Values, standards and certification > Regulation
Values, standards and certification > Evaluation of inputs
Values, standards and certification > Assessment of impacts and risks
Research affiliation: International Conferences > 2008: IFOAM OWC: System Values Track
Australia > Australian National University
Australia > Griffith University
Related Links:http://orgprints.org/13569/01/13569.pdf
Deposited By: Paull, Dr John
ID Code:14765
Deposited On:01 Oct 2008
Last Modified:12 Apr 2010 07:38
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted
Additional Publishing Information:Paper presented in the Nanotechnology Workshop, June 20, 2008.

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