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About
IFAS is the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards, an interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis institute at Michigan State University. We focus on the social, economic, political and ethical aspects of grades and standards creation, enforcement and review. The institute is part of a small but growing international network of scholars and practitioners concerned with these issues.
Mission
The IFAS mission is to raise fundamental issues with respect to equity, fairness and transparency of food and agricultural standards at the local, national and international levels.
Objectives
Grades and Standards (G&S) are often considered to be convenient, neutral and benign means for handling issues of technical compatibility. In contrast, IFAS considers G&S to be shaped by political, ethical and strategic, as well as technical considerations. As a result, IFAS will attempt to:
- Understand the relationships which connect science and technology (S&T) to the creation, maintenance and modification of agricultural G&S
- Identify and make explicit the ethical and value issues raised by G&S in domestic and international agricultural production and marketing
- Identify the sociopolitical dynamics surrounding the development, maintenance and change of agricultural G&S
- Explore policy implications such that the process of standards setting and enforcement may be made more accountable, transparent and democratic
