The Object of Regulation: Tending the Tensions of Food Safety

Abstract

I'm struggling to see what it actually is", says Alison, peering into a colander of defrosting meat. What 'it' is, we propose in this paper, is helpfully thought of as 'the object of regulation' in at least three senses which together signal both our inheritance of a Foucauldian problematic and our departure from it. Our suggestion is that much of even the best work on biopolitics, biopower, and biosecurity that has been inspired and informed by these writings has replicated Foucault's own struggle to get to grips with the complexity of matters that he variously refers to as "natural" or "artificial" "givens". By following science and technology studies scholars in using broadly ethnographic techniques to explore objects as and at the intersection of practices, we redress this balance somewhat by thinking through an empirical study of the securing of food safety-specifically Alison's inspection of a restaurant kitchen. What we find is that the securing of meat as a material object of regulation is primarily done by in-volving multiple versions of the future, something which requires a great deal of usually underrecognised, undervalued, and undertheorised articulation work. With risk-based regulation, cost sharing, and public sector cuts in the UK set to redefine the ways in which Alison and her colleagues engage with food business operators, we conclude by arguing for a greater appreciation of the skilful work of tending the tensions of food safety, as well as recognition of its limitations.

Spaces of security, surveillance and food safety: interrogating perceptions of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland's governing technologies, power and performance

“…(), the FSAI can thus be seen to operate within a complex ‘borderland’ where biosecurity ideals are forced to interact with alternative operating logics. Similarly, following Bingham and Lavau (), the FSAI can be considered a ‘mingled body’ whose role lies not only in securitising the food supply for the health of populations but in stabilising ‘capitalist relations of power and accumulation’ (Robertson , 361) for the Irish food industry. In this way, the FSAI appears to operate with a form of ‘poly‐functionality’ (Foucault , 19) in its duty to securitise the Irish food supply.…”

“…), the FSAI also conducts routine surveillance of the Irish food chain in an effort to protect from unpredictable future food risks. Incorporating elements of action, oversight and anticipation, the FSAI thus demonstrates a variety of biosecuring strategies (Bingham and Lavau ; Hinchliffe et al . ), operating within the Irish food industry landscape to prevent, identify, trace, control and communicate food risks before and as they occur.…”

“…Here, the threat to biosecurity posed by international trade is emphasised, with a comparative approach involving the UK and Australia highlighting how attempts to simultaneously govern neoliberalism (in the form of trade liberalisation) and biosecurity can create both compatibilities and conflicts. Recent work by Major () and Bingham and Lavau () also touch on the tensions between neoliberalism and biosecurity; the former in the context of neoliberal strategies creating vulnerabilities for healthcare and hospitality workers in advance of a major biosecurity event (SARS in Toronto) and the latter concerning regulatory approaches adopted in the governance of meat and related food safety inspections. The exploration of the interaction between biosecurity and other logics of operating (including animal welfare concerns, cost effectiveness and ‘retailer pressure to minimise unit price’ in poultry disease management) by Hinchliffe et al .…”

Wild urban companions: living with everyday native animals in Brisbane

“…There was no skillful work or expertise involved, and flying fox resistance did not enhance the performance. By adopting methods that were ostensibly 'non-lethal', townspeople treated the flying foxes as if they were capable of "infinite flexibility, complete plasticity" (Bingham & Lavau 2012, p. 1604, and the violence of severing their connections with urban space and flows could be justified as "training" them to leave the city. Flying foxes were not being lived with, but were, in fact, being made very killable in this performance.…”

“…Biopolitical regulation must be responsive to the qualities and dynamics of the life it allows to circulate while simultaneous suppressing the risks and discomforts of doing so. The exercise of this power requires what Bingham and Lavau (2012) refer to as the "skillful work of tending the tensions" (p. 1589) of "managing abundance" (p.1604), and it is a practice that gives rise to the performance of specific expertise. In Brisbane, "Living with Wildlife" has given rise to a range of highly skilled wildlife professionals who specialise in negotiating the interests of human urban residents with the interests of everyday wild animals.…”