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Today, farming systems need to be both multifunctional and sustainable: the lack of integrated analysis of food chains means this is not easy. Sustainability ‘audits’ need to cover both ‘upstreaming’: the farm to fork and ‘downstreaming’: the farm to field aspects. Audits of this type are not possible without an integrated and holistic approach that brings together both social and economic drivers and the environmental consequences of farmer and policy decisions. In particular, more rigorous research linking microbiological research to public perceptions of risk; actual levels of risk, and public perceptions of ‘traceability’ in the food chain is needed.<P>
In this project we bring together expertise to determine current perceptions of farmers, retailers, consumers and local ‘downstream’ industries (tourism and shell fisheries) to the issue of pathogen transfers to the food chain and assess the impacts of changes in management practices at the farm level (to reduce the risk of pathogen transfers) on farm costs and costs to other stakeholder groups and the region as a whole. We will also develop a risk assessment tool to quantify the efficiency and costs of adopting management practices to reduce pathogen transfers. <P>
Additional process based research will improve our understanding of the factors controlling pathogen survival in soils and manure stores as well as mechanisms of pathogen transport. This information will be used to improve management of manures/wastes on farms to reduce the risk of transfers to the food chain.