Missing the outbreak for the germs: Institutionalized non-knowledge and industrial power in agrofood safety governance

Leafy greens cause a growing proportion of foodborne illness outbreaks despite heavy investment in surveillance technologies designed to control pathogenic hazards in agriculture. To understand how the governing regime maintains authority despite continual lapses in control, I examine a deadly 2 0 18 outbreak of Escherichia coli O157: H7 linked to romaine lettuce. By comparing the outbreak investigation and regulatory response to the questions notasked and actions nottaken, I show how the regime ’ s methods of understanding the outbreak also organized its ignorance of dangers outside its carefully constructed field of vision. Applying agnotology theory, I argue that the industrial organization of leafy greens agriculture and the institutionalized non-knowledge of emergent social–ecological vulnerabilities coproduce one another, allowing the industrial food regime to avoid fundamental reforms that might enhance resilience. This case demonstrates that critical examination of organized non-knowledge in complex environmental governance systems can reveal limits to institutional learning and systemic reflexivity that impede sustainability transitions.

尽管在旨在控制农业中病原体危害的监测技术方面投入巨大，但绿叶蔬菜导致的食源性疾病暴发比例却在不断上升。为了理解管理体制在控制不断失误的情况下如何维持权威，我研究了2018年与生菜相关的致命大肠杆菌O157:H7暴发事件。通过将暴发调查和监管反应与未提出的问题以及未采取的行动进行比较，我展示了该体制对暴发的理解方法是如何同时组织起对其精心构建的视野之外的危险的忽视的。运用无知学理论，我认为绿叶蔬菜农业的产业组织和对新出现的社会 - 生态脆弱性的制度化无知是相互作用的，这使得工业化食品体制得以避免可能提高适应性的根本性改革。这个案例表明，对复杂环境治理系统中有组织的无知进行批判性审视，可以揭示阻碍可持续性转型的制度学习和系统反思的局限性。