This visionary book takes stock of the urgent challenges facing food chains globally and provides a critical evaluation of radical new thinking and perspectives on agricultural and food policy. Wyn Grant investigates the principal drivers of change in food and agriculture, including globalization, climate change, the structure of the industry, changing patterns of consumer demand and new technologies. Rethinking Agricultural and Food Policy provides a comprehensive account of the contemporary challenges impacting the food chain. Chapters explore the various barriers towards positive progress, exposing the deficiency of institutional architecture at a domestic and international level and examining how attempts to reform and revitalize it encounter inertia, embedded production structures, defenders of the status quo and vested interests. Proposing that a holistic, interdisciplinary approach is essential in making progress towards revitalizing policy and encouraging innovation in international governance, Wyn Grant calls for a new agenda to deliver real and necessary change and offer hope for the planet and its people. Using critical insights from natural and social science to uphold its calls for a holistic, integrated approach to agricultural and food policy, this timely book will be an essential read for policy makers, as well as students taking undergraduate or postgraduate courses in agriculture, food and the environment.

Agricultural politics and policy retains a central place in the politics of advanced industrial societies. Governments in most countries continue to subsidize agricultural production and regulate markets for farm commodities. The growth of concern about the environmental impact of agriculture has added a new dimension to the sector's politics. Tensions between the US and the EU over the protection of agriculture remain a major feature. New Zealand offers an interesting example of an experiment with deregulated and liberalized agriculture, while Japanese agriculture continues to be highly protected. All these topics are covered in this two volume set, which brings together the best writing on the subject from leading agricultural economists, political scientists and rural sociologists from across the world.

The election of the Clinton administration in the United States and the debate in the European Community about the consequences of the industrial policy clause in the Maastricht treaty have put industrial policy back on the academic and political agenda again. This volume brings together the key articles on industrial policy, ranging from general theoretical perspectives and overviews of the literature to studies of the experience of particular countries, including Japan and the newly industrialising countries of East Asia. Four articles are concerned with the industrial programmes of the European Community. This is a comprehensive and authoritative compilation of work on a theme of interest to economists and political scientists.

Improving urban air quality has become a policy priority for the European Union, national governments and city authorities as more evidence comes to light of the harmful health effects of road traffic pollution. This book clearly illustrates how to work towards effective policies for improved urban air quality.The authors argue that designing and implementing successful policies is not just a matter of deciding on the most appropriate technological solutions. A process of institution building has to take place which works towards consensus among a variety of potentially divergent interests; from the police and highway authorities to business interests and citizens. Making use of policy network theory, this volume presents studies of attempts to build such coalitions, and the factors that have often frustrated them, in countries such as Canada, France, Italy and Switzerland. This book provides a major contribution to the theoretical and empirical understanding of the policies needed to combat road traffic pollution. The Politics of Improving Urban Air Quality will prove invaluable to scholars of environmental studies and public policy.

California has a worldwide reputation as a pioneer of innovative policies for the control of air pollution by motor vehicles. Autos, Smog and Pollution Control analyses the difficulties which have been encountered in developing and implementing these policies. Professor Grant uses an analytical framework drawn from the leading theories of public policy formation, such as policy communities, to address the issues raised by California's policy making experience. This study shows how an ambitious attempt to encourage the use of electrically powered vehicles has faced technological constraints, consumer resistance and political opposition. Other policies developed in the state such as dealing with 'gross emitters', trip reduction programmes and the construction of light rail and subway systems are also critically examined. The concluding chapter relates Californian experience to the developing debate in Britain and the European Union about air pollution from motor vehicles. Autos, Smog and Pollution Control will be welcomed for its critical analysis of California's air pollution control policies as well as for the light which it sheds on contemporary theories of policy formation and the changing forces affecting environmental policymaking.