Riesgos alimentarios y consumo sostenible.
SUMMARIES

«¿A new consumer?»
LUIS ENRIQUE ALONSO BENITO

In this article is enunciated and discussed the theory of a new consumer, that in the last years has appeared in the sociological literature about consumption problems. Later are related the characteristics that the social contemporary theory attributes to the western postmodern societies: the risk, the fragmentation and the personification, with the characteristics and emerging values in the model of consumption (security, pleasure, personification, knowledge, simplicity). The article ends with a reflection upon the present moment of the movements of consumers and its relation with other new social movements of our days, as well as upon its important repercussions (and multidimensional) for a new model of welfare and citizenship.

«Diet and Culture: among the abundance and the food risk »
MABEL GRACIA ARNAIZ

The agendas of the Spanish investigators dedicated to the study of the human diet is full of hot themes -food crisis, illnesses and psychological disorders, badly structured meals, leveling down of the consumption, biotechnological applications etc- that should be solved as part of the recognition and knowledge of the cultural differences, of the role played by the nationalization in the food consumption and the social implications for the health and the environment. The production, distribution and consumption of food, implies several sectors in any society, that go from agriculture to the processing of the food, from the restaurant to the home, from the individual to the social group. In spite of the great abundance, the actual system of production and food distribution does not assure the basic needs among the people, neither the fair distribution of the food, or the regenerative capacity of the resources utilized. Does not favor the confidence in the food produced, or the human desire to preserve and improve the quality of life.

‘A note about consumption, viability and modernization”
ERNEST GARCÍA

This article talks about the trends towards a possible development more sustenaible from the point of view of the evolution of certain demands of products and services in the last decades.
Taking as a reference several data sources and empirical studies, the author, Professor of Sociology at the University of Valencia, analyzes the environmental impact of the diet, transportation, housing, and other types of consumption oriented toward social distinction. Also, in a very simple way presents the suggestive question of the social division in “clases of consumption” and the viability to generalize at all the inhabitants of the planet, the consumption of “idle goods” that characterize the practices of consumption of the majority that inhabit in the developed countries.

«From the Agricultural Alternative to the Food Industry: Need of changes in the food´s politics»
Niels Heine Kristensen and Thorkild Nielsen

The development of the biological agriculture has started from zero, arising from the “counter-culture” organized by organic farmers, defenders of the environment and “political” consumers. National authorities and foreign institutions answered to this by establishing, along this last decade, a series of rules and systems of control for the biological agriculture. Currently, the biological food production is growing very fast in some member states of the UE. This recent development is not marked only by more positive attitudes of the food industry regarding the biological products, but also by a growing need of answers of comparison in terms of food´s politics.

‘Food production and other products of human consumption: possible risks in its consumption."
GERARDO ÁLVAREZ DE CIENFUEGOS LÓPEZ

This work makes a general review of the paper that plays the industrial microbiology in the production of medicines, chemical and industrial products and food and beverages. Emphasizing upon its extensive contributions in all this central fields in the development of our society, by means of its contribution to the obtaining of substances and products of employment and consumption generalized.
Also deals with the up-todate and potentiality of the microbiology applied to the techniques of genetic manipulation, especially in those referred to products of clinical interest, in the food industry and in processes of decontamination.
Finally, is presented the question of the dangers that are sifted upon the obtaining of the different food destined to the human consumption, from the technology and the raw materials employed . Emphasizing the author that, from the technological point of view, not problems exist to guarantee the necessary food security ; being presented the controversy around the quality of raw materials, especially once the possibility of using organisms genetically altered is open.

“ Changes of food consumption in Spain: some proposals of a analysis of nourishing behaviors."
CECILIA DIAZ MENDEZ

The data upon the demand of food in our country vouches for the thesis that the Spaniards arelittle by little more Europeans: we approach in the consume of calories, in the percentage of calories originated by animal products, in the percentage of the expense reserved to food and in the increase of expenses for eating out.
Also, in this article, the author analizes the paper of food changes on diverse factors, as the worry for health issues, the environmental damage, the quality, more free time, the commercial distribution or the incorporation of women to paid jobs out of the home.
Finally, the analysis is centered in the aspects of diet most studied till now, from the Sociology´s point of view and where to advance. The effect of social contexts upon the diet, the results of certain public political actions or the practices of elaboration. Aspects, all of them, that limit the challenges of the Sociology´s work of the diet for a near future.

“Asturias and the future of the food and agriculture production”
ENRIQUE JOSÉ PANTÍN CHAO

In this article, the author, General Director of Food and Agriculture of the Principality of Asturias, does a review of the historical evolution of the Asturian agrarian sector and stands out the potentiality of the “pantry” of traditional productions that hoards Asturias.
The analysis outlines the gradual specialitation of the agrarian exploitations of our community and the changes occured in the productive orientation of the livestocks of cattle, main fountain of income of the Asturian peasants.
Also, points out how the special territorial conditions , food and agriculture, and environment of Asturias, determine not to enter productive dynamics , but affect in the promotion and impulse of high quality productions. Thus, the potentiality of high quality products of quality, being supported by technological innovations and the improvement of infrastructures and commercialization, should be the authentic bet of future for the rural world.

«Sovereignty of the Consumer»
MANUEL BERNARDO FERNÁNDEZ SOMOANO

A regional model can be used to understand concepts of Sovereignty and Food Security, and understand that it is possible a new type of agriculture that arranges the interests of the farmers as wells as those of the consumers, passing by a farming industry that is one more link of the chain. And considering that the public Administrations should be the responsible of some practices and procedures that serve to the general interest of: the Food Security.

«The future of the food industry»
LUIS ALONSO ECHEVARRÍA

The security and quality of the food is object, in the last years, of large debates in Europe (crazy cows, OGMs, dioxins, antibiotics, hormones, waste products, etc.) and is a priority cause of worry for the consumers and for the majority of the agents of the sector. As a result of the several crisis of food security, strong criticisms have arised against the actual food and agriculture model. In the design of the agrarian politics, the new demands of the consumers were not taken into account, as for the systems of production and the characteristics required to the food, until the successive crisis revealed that these demands and the criticisms on the part of the consumers had a scientific solid base. The matter that more clearly has revealed these contradictions and the need of a change in the productive systems has been, without doubt, the scandal of the crazy cows. The crisis of the crazy cows has caused the break of the mutual trust among producers and consumers and has revealed the need of a deep change of the PAC and, in this particular case, specifically in the systems of production employed in the meat production. Short-term, the serious economic and sanitary consequences of the crisis should be repaired. However, to avoid that problems of this nature should be repeated, great reforms are needed and is necessary to abandon the actual instensive systems of production, the reason for this, the negative effects upon the health and the environment, and change those for extensive systems of production that may give an answer to the new demands of the consumers as for quality, security and respect for the environment and the animal welfare.

«Toward soustainable food systems»
CATHERINE MARIELLE

The concept of soustainability is analyzed with special emphasis in the case of Mexico and in the rural economies. The fundamental thing according to the autor is not in the word but in the content and her proposal is to expand the framework of soustainable agriculture to that of soustainable food systems . It is considered in the article that the main topics of action are: maintenance of the biological cycles and traditional rhythms of work and the ecological maintenance of the land; help the farmer; mechanisms of distribution and commercialization more fair and universalize a food system that enable a world exchange and not a global concentration for breaking an evolving society in harmony with nature.

“ Food Security in Europe”
LAURA GONZÁLEZ ÁLVAREZ

In this brief annotation, the author, representative in the European Parliament, explains how under the impact of the crisis of the crazy cows have been approved new normatives of food security and a new associated worry to organisms genetically altered.