Richard Milne

Arbiters of Waste: Date Labels, the Consumer and Knowing Good, Safe Food

The importance of date labelling in informing both retailers and consumers how long a food will remain edible, safe and of sufficient quality makes it a prime site for the identification of, and intervention in, food waste. This paper examines the historical and spatial evolution of the date labelling system in the UK. The paper shows how reforms to date marking have occurred in response to shifting concerns about food quality, safety and latterly waste. It distinguishes four periods during which labels moved from an internal stock control mechanism to a consumer protection mechanism, a food safety device and recently emerged as a key element in the fight against food waste. Contributing to recent sociological studies of food labelling, the paper charts changing understandings of the role of the label in mediating between consumers, the food industry and regulators. It shows how regulatory objects such as date labels materialize societal concerns about food and situates contemporary efforts to reform date labelling in relation to prior articulations of consumer, government and industry interests.

Pharmaceutical prospects: Biopharming and the geography of technological expectations

The paper explores the role of imagined geographies in the shaping of new technologies. I argue that the role of place in future-oriented visions of technoscience is a neglected topic in studies of the social shaping of technology. The paper proposes an approach that combines the sociology of expectations with the geography of science. It focuses on the interplay between envisaged and current geographies to highlight the recursive dynamics of place and imagination. To illustrate this approach, the paper discusses the example of biopharming, the production of biopharmaceuticals using genetically modified crops. I argue that expectations for biopharming bear the imprint of place, or rather of the places in which they are imagined, as well as those they imagine, and ultimately those they produce. I use this example to suggest how social studies of science and technology can usefully investigate the spaces, places and scales of technological development.

Fraught cuisine: food scares and the modulation of anxieties

This paper explores the circulation of contemporary anxieties related to food through an engagement with sociological and geographical work on affect. The paper draws on four case studies of ‘food scares’ in the UK and Sweden to consider the emergence, circulation and expression of food anxieties. It suggests that existing analyses of food anxiety neglect its affective dimensions, and that the circulation of concerns about food is an affective and embodied process as well as a cognitive one, taking place through encounters between heterogeneous bodies at a range of temporal and spatial scales. However, it argues that the movement of affect should not be considered as a linear ‘manipulation’ of mute subjects, but rather as a circulation of affective intensity that moves through heterogeneous milieux and is open to ‘modulation’. In contrast to manipulation, the modulation of affect is constituted through interactions and encounters, making its outcome unpredictable and uncertain.

Psychological, behavioral and social effects of disclosing Alzheimer's disease biomarkers to research participants: a systematic review

BackgroundCurrent Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research initiatives focus on cognitively healthy individuals with biomarkers that are associated with the development of AD. It is unclear whether biomarker results should be returned to research participants and what the psychological, behavioral and social effects of disclosure are. This systematic review therefore examines the psychological, behavioral and social effects of disclosing genetic and nongenetic AD-related biomarkers to cognitively healthy research participants.MethodsWe performed a systematic literature search in eight scientific databases. Three independent reviewers screened the identified records and selected relevant articles. Results extracted from the included articles were aggregated and presented per effect group.ResultsFourteen studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the data synthesis. None of the identified studies examined the effects of disclosing nongenetic biomarkers. All studies but one concerned the disclosure of APOE genotype and were conducted in the USA. Study populations consisted largely of cognitively healthy first-degree relatives of AD patients. In this group, disclosure of an increased risk was not associated with anxiety, depression or changes in perceived risk in relation to family history. Disclosure of an increased risk did lead to an increase in specific test-related distress levels, health-related behavior changes and long-term care insurance uptake and possibly diminished memory functioning.ConclusionIn cognitively healthy research participants with a first-degree relative with AD, disclosure of APOE ε4-positivity does not lead to elevated anxiety and depression levels, but does increase test-related distress and results in behavior changes concerning insurance and health. We did not find studies reporting the effects of disclosing nongenetic biomarkers and only one study included people without a family history of AD. Empirical studies on the effects of disclosing nongenetic biomarkers and of disclosure to persons without a family history of AD are urgently needed.Trial registrationPROSPERO international prospective register for systematic reviews CRD42016035388. Registered 19 February 2016.

A focus group study of food safety practices in relation to listeriosis among the over-60s

In recent years, policy attention has moved from the safety of food at the point of sale to focus on the roles and responsibilities of the consumer in managing food risks. Although the redefinition of consumer roles and responsibilities has taken place across the board, responsibilities for risk management and avoidance are not equally distributed, as some consumers are significantly more ‘vulnerable’ than others to food-borne illnesses. Nevertheless, vulnerability to food poisoning does not immediately equate with being ‘at risk’. Orienting itself primarily to the example of listeriosis in the over-60s, this article draws on the early findings of current qualitative research into older peoples attitudes to food and use of date labels to consider the relationship between vulnerability and food safety risk. It situates this study within a review of existing studies of food choice in later life to argue for its relevance to food safety policy. It suggests that this can best be developed by adopting an approach that draws on theories of social practice.

Expanding engagement with the ethical implications of changing definitions of Alzheimer's disease

The production of accessible and usable evidence is the main purpose of Cochrane. For 25 years, Cochrane has produced systematic reviews of primary research in human health care and health policy, and these reviews are internationally recognised as the highest standard in evidencebased health-care resources. Goal 2 of Cochrane Strategy 2020 is to increase “access and use of Cochrane evidence by everybody, everywhere in the world”. In the area of mental health, access and use of evidence remains a challenging issue, especially in lowincome and middle-income countries (LMICs). To contribute to filling this gap, a new Cochrane entity, Cochrane Global Mental Health (GMH), has been developed as a satellite to the five Cochrane groups that cover the specialty of mental health. The scope of Cochrane GMH covers three areas: first, to support the production of systematic reviews with a focus on questions specifically relevant to mental health in LMICs; second, to support the dissemination, access and use of systematic reviews in LMICs; and third, to provide input and training on evidence synthesis and implementation activities relevant to mental health in LMICs. GMH’s mission is to enable knowledge and experiences to be shared to produce, disseminate, and implement systematic reviews for the optimisation of mental health promotion, prevention, and treatment interventions everywhere. Cochrane GMH aims to follow some basic guiding principles. First, a pragmatic attitude will be implemented by focusing on the evidence base, irrespective of the intervention being considered, therefore including approaches that are culturally appropriate, such as traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine, which would not normally be included. Second, GMH will focus not only on interventions that fit with a biomedical approach, but also on interventions that fit with a public health approach. Pragmatically, this principle means aggregating and disseminating the evidence on effective interventions for mental health disorders as well as on effective promotion and prevention strategies, whether simple or complex. Third, people with severe mental disorders will be regarded as a priority, as recently highlighted by the WHO mhGAP initiative that deemed psychosis, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a priority disorder. We recognise that Cochrane GMH does not have the resources to achieve all that needs to be done. People will need to become involved as authors in reviews, review advisory group members, peer-reviewers, editors, and users. We are keen to have a strong contribution from LMICs in the work of Cochrane GMH, with the option of increasing involvement as capacity allows. We aim to develop a mutual learning approach and exchange attitude between mental-health workers in different parts of the world.

Perspectives on Communicating Biomarker-Based Assessments of Alzheimer's Disease to Cognitively Healthy Individuals.

In clinical trials which target pathophysiological mechanisms associated with Alzheimer’s disease, research participants who are recruited based on biomarker test results should be informed about their increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia. This paper presents the results of a qualitative focus group study of attitudes and concerns toward learning information about biomarker-based risk status among healthy research participants in the United Kingdom and Spain and people with dementia and their supporters/caregivers from countries represented in the European Working Group of People with Dementia of Alzheimer Europe. The study identified expectations related to learning risk status and preferences related to the content, quality, and follow-up of the disclosure process. The latter emphasize distinctions between risk and diagnoses, the importance of clear information about risk, and suggestions for risk reduction, as well as expectations for follow up and support. The implications of these preferences for practice are discussed. Providing details of research participants’ experience and views may serve as a guide for the development of processes for the responsible disclosure of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers.

In search of lost time: age and the promise of induced pluripotent stem cell models of the brain

This paper explores the promise of induced pluripotent stem cells as a model system for the study of neurodegenerative diseases of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases of the aging brain. Research in these areas, as in neuroscience more broadly, has struggled with the imperfect mapping between human and animal brains. The paper argues that the contemporary promise of induced pluripotent stem cells for research is established through their potential to resolve problems of translation, bridging laboratory and clinical contexts by acting as a model of “real” patient bodies. However, the paper shows how this promise is contested and renewed through a rearticulation of the relationship between neurodegeneration, aging and the qualities of “young” and “aged” bodies. This not only results in the introduction of new qualities and attributes to the model system, but also a re-imagining of how aging features within both late and early-onset neurological diseases.

Drawing bright lines: food and the futures of biopharming

Biotechnology has always been about the future. The synthesis of insulin and somatotropin towards the end of the 1970s prompted a genetic ‘gold rush’ (Wright, 1994). Established pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly invested in new ones such as Genentech, foreseeing a stream of biotechnological medicines. At around the same time, agronomists envisaged a world transformed by agricultural biotechnology, in which Saudi Arabia would come to resemble the wheat fi elds of Kansas (Mintz, 1984, in Kloppenburg, 2004). The future promise of agricultural and pharmaceutical biotechnologies has been accompanied, challenged and contested by less hopeful visions. In Europe at least, debates around genetically modifi ed crops continue, while biotechnological medicines are only now even beginning to realize their potential (Hopkins et al., 2007). Yet this has led, not to a debunking of biotechnology, but to a reimagining of futures and a new wave of expectations as the new genetic sciences continue to be characterized by their engagement with a ‘future yet to be’ (Franklin, 2001). Biopharming represents one such re-imagining of biotechnological promise. It is the production of pharmaceuticals using genetically modifi ed crops, and represents a coming together of medical and agricultural applications of biotechnology. For proponents, the new technology recombines not only plant and human biologies, but also the promises of past applications. This chapter examines how the promise of biopharming, so-called ‘non-food’ agriculture (Spök et al., 2008), is performed through the new technology’s relations with the cultural and biological materials and meanings of food. I focus on one technical decision, the selection of maize as a platform for biopharming by an EU research consortium, in shaping both hopeful and apprehensive narratives for expert and lay actors. The chapter draws on recent work in STS on technological expectations and ‘co-production’ (Jasanoff, 2004), which emphasizes that neither ‘natural’ nor ‘social’ orders can be taken as causing the other, but that each is produced alongside the other. It explores this relation between existing ‘natures’ and the imagined futures of biotechnology. It considers how the co-produced biologies and socialities of food support and challenge narra-

On the personal utility of Alzheimer’s disease-related biomarker testing in the research context

Many healthy volunteers choose to take part in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention studies because they want to know whether they will develop dementia—and what they can do to reduce their risk—and are therefore interested in learning the results of AD biomarker tests. Proponents of AD biomarker disclosure often refer to the personal utility of AD biomarkers, claiming that research participants will be able to use AD biomarker information for personal purposes, such as planning ahead or making important life decisions. In this paper, the claim that AD biomarkers have personal utility for asymptomatic individuals is critically assessed. It demonstrates that in the absence of clinical validity, AD biomarkers cannot have personal utility and do not serve research participants’ autonomy. Over the next few years, many research groups will be confronted with participants’ preferences to learn the results of AD biomarker tests. When researchers choose to make results available upon explicit request, they should ensure adequate information provision and education, notably on the uncertain clinical significance of AD biomarker information. Routine disclosure of AD biomarkers to cognitively unimpaired individuals in research settings cannot be justified with an appeal to the personal utility of AD biomarker information.