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Consuming safe and sustainable food requires trust. Consumer trust in food can be established in different ways, including through personal relationships or various institutional arrangements established by government, private companies and/or civil-society organisations. The recent increase in food-safety incidents and sustainability concerns in China suggests a dwindling trust in the current government-dominated food governance arrangement. This paper investigates whether emerging alternative trust arrangements and modes of food supply are better able to build consumer trust in contemporary China. Based on a survey of urban middle-class consumers in Beijing using various (i.e., alternative and conventional) food-supply modes, the role and importance of personal and institutional trust arrangements are compared. We found that even among the wealthier and more educated consumers in Beijing, only a small proportion regularly use alternative food-supply schemes; most rely on conventional wet markets and supermarkets. Buying food is primarily constrained by convenience, freshness and the price of food and less by food-safety concerns. In Beijing, trust in food-safety information remains largely derived from the government and less from the market (private certification schemes) or civil society. These findings contribute to the increasing body of knowledge on the embedded character of food consumption and on the relevance of designing policy strategies that connect institutional context and particular consumption practices. In our conclusion, we argue that to secure safe and sustainable food provision, the present government-based trust regime in China requires strengthening through linking up with market- and civil society-based trust regimes, complemented by elements of personalised trust.

RIVM rapport:Abstract niet beschikbaar, The COOL (=Climate OptiOns for the Long term) project has a twofold objective:- Developing strategic notions how drastic reductions of GHG emissions in the Netherlands can be achieved in the long term, in an European and global context, using a method of participatory integrated assessment.- Making recommendations for improving the methodology of participatory integrated assessment, in particular regarding (1) stakeholder participation, (2) utilisation of knowledge by stakeholder participants, and (3) facilitating the linking of the three geographic and political levels (NL, EU, global) by stakeholders.This report focuses on the second objective of the COOL project. The COOL project consists of three subprojects: a national, an European and a Global dialogue. The three projects have starting points in common, but have developed throughout their running in partly different directions. All three projects are evaluated with respect to their dialogue structure, the utilisation of knowledge by participants in the participatory integrated assessment and with respect to the interactions between the three projects. From these evaluations lessons are drawn how in the future participatory integrated assessment projects can be better organised and how they can better contribute to - in this case - climate change policy making.

RIVM rapport:The aim of the COOL project was to develop strategic notions how drastic reductions of GHG emissions in the Netherlands can be achieved in the long term, in an European and global context, using a method of participatory integrated assessment. The project brought together in a dialogue setting scientists, policy makers and stakeholders representing different groups and different interests in society. Experiences and insights from different groups were thus available for the process. In the dialogue, which was set up as a series of workshops, long term policy options for significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions and their feasibility have been analysed. As Dutch climate policy is dependent on international policy developments, the COOL-project incorporated next to the national Dutch level, also a dialogue on the European and on the global level.

RIVM rapport:Abstract niet beschikbaar, This report contains the results of the European Dialogue of the COOL (Climate Options for the Long Term) project. The European Dialogue is one of the three Dialogues within the COOL project, the other being the Nation Dialogue (focused on the Netherlands) and the Global Dialogue. The European Dialogue brought together some 40 non-governmental and governmental stakeholders from different countries around Europe to assess in a participatory way the strategy for far reaching greenhouse gas emission reductions in Europe in the long term (till 2050). The European Dialogue was organized in two major groups, the energy sector and the transport sector, which have met four times for 1-2 days in one and a half year. Following a backcasting methodology and with input from scientific institutions both groups have discussed and developed options that can contribute significantly to 80% GHG emission reductions in 2050, compared to 1990 levels. The final outcomes of this participatory process with a very diverse group of stakeholders are two strategic visions, which are shared by the participants of these dialogues. The strategic visions show that 80 GHG emission reductions seems technologically possible over a time period of 50 years. The major bottlenecks are to be found rather in non-technological factors: institutions, price signals, behavioral changes, and international developments.