If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Food safety, always an important issue, has recently gained a higher profile following a number of highly publicised incidents in Australia and overseas. Consumers in Australia and Japan were surveyed to obtain information on a range of issues including food safety. This paper presents the findings of this survey and shows that Japanese consumers tended to score lower on the measure of confidence in food safety, suggesting that they are less confident about the safety of the food they consume than Australian consumers. Other demographic factors that have a significant impact on consumer confidence in both countries are identified.

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Agriculture in developing countries is influenced not only by available agricultural resources but also by a complex web of interactions based on social, economic, cultural and political factors. The relationship is two way – what happens in agricultural industries influences each of the factors just mentioned. This paper focuses on the social factors in relation to the livestock industries. Livestock are an increasingly important part of the agricultural sector of developing countries and social and cultural factors may be more important for livestock than for cropping industries.

The authors examine the economic implications of animal diseases and control programmes at the national level, including the role of government in animal health, the effect of regulations and the use of cost-benefit analysis. Special attention is paid to the role of economic analysis in government decision-making processes. Economics provides a framework for gathering information and for the presentation of that information in a methodical manner, thereby providing a method for the decision maker to examine policy alternatives. In addition, assumptions underlying the analysis must be clearly laid out and explained by the person undertaking the analysis. Economic reasons for government intervention in animal health programmes include externalities, natural monopolies, public goods, coordination failure, information failure and distribution issues. An integrated holistic approach that includes national and international policy objectives is outlined in the paper. In the approach outlined, government coordinates the activities of stakeholders in animal health, including producers, consumers and researchers.

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