back to menuIn the last issue of Consumer News there was an article from the Manchester Business School and the Leeds University Business School about research into appropriate ways of communicating risk and giving advice The research was commissioned by the Food Standards Agency.
As a consumer representative I joined a Saturday Workshop dealing with the same subjects in Leeds and found it all very intriguing. There were one or two familiar faces but many more unfamiliar ones, and we were not introduced. On breaking into separate groups. we realised that we were the consumer representative group and that all groups were given the same imaginary scenario.
At the lunchtime break we discovered that the other groups were health workers, retailers, farmers and general public [are they not consumers? - Ed] and were busy with similar tasks - reacting to news bulletins, reasoning and negotiating so as to reach a consensus decision.
This part of the project is intended to make recommendations for the best communication of risk without causing panic, and explore the efficacy of a forum to test communication strategies. It will be interesting to learn how the project progresses.
I was pleased to be invited to join the Oxford Consumer Group members for their AGM, an interesting event which showed just how active and involved the members are in the everyday life and local changes taking place in Oxford.
The business part over, members welcomed local man, Sir John Krebs, Chairman of the Food Standards Agency, as their speaker. He gave a lively talk reviewing the decisions and activity of the Agency over its first year. This allowed time for the audience to question him on the areas of particular interest to them.
Members came armed with statistics and scientific quotes to support queries. They wanted details on such things as food labelling and slaughterhouses, bees and GM crops, local specialities and food marketing. Sir John handled them all with skill and, as well as providing useful answers, he probably took away a very good idea of the sort of food worries which concern the grass roots consumers - in Oxford anyway.
It was altogether a very pleasant evening for members and guests.
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