National Center for Food Protection/Defense - Risk Management Communication Project

John Shutske, Professor and Extension Agricultural Safety and Health Specialist
Michele Schermann, Research Fellow
Will Hueston, Project Leader
Lisa Brienzo, Project Coordinator
Numerous national collaborators

Objective

Develop, deliver, and evaluate “best practices” to communicate risk-related information to various audiences about intentional threats to our food system and other related crisis and emergency events.

Need or Impact

In the event of a disaster or emergency, appropriate risk communication with the media and the public is crucial and can influence the magnitude of resulting losses. This project involves the development and delivery of risk communication best practices and techniques to a range of professional groups, focused on issues of food safety and protection of the food system from intentional threats.

Status

Ten “best practices” have been developed and field tested. Information developed in this project has been used extensively in Extension education programs (including “Protecting or Food System from Intentional Attack” and various academic courses). Additional future work will incorporate risk communication strategies to reach immigrant and other under-served audiences.