Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk is about risk communication, or as the subtitle states, "the perils of poor risk communication." The authors provide clear illustrations of what can go wrong when the public is not well informed about the risks associated with new technology. Also included is guidance on what constitutes good risk communication.

As Powell and Leiss show via several examples, the food industry (of which farmers are an essential part) is highly vulnerable to public reaction when risks are not communicated well. People want food to be "healthy" and "pure." And they have lots of alternative choices when certain foods are perceived to be otherwise. The effects on food producers can be devastating.

A major portion of Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk consists of case histories. The first chapter describes the British "mad cow" disaster. Public concerns about linkages between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, "mad cow disease") and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans caused beef consumption to drop 11 per cent in the European Union (EU) in 1996 and cost EU governments US$5 billion in compensatory subsidies to the beef industry. The authors trace this story from the early 1980s. Had the British government and beef industry taken this matter more seriously during the 1980s and early 1990s and had they been more honest in earlier statements to the public, the blood baths (financial, and death to hundreds of thousands of cattle) which followed might have been avoided.

The penalty can be huge, both economically and to long-term credibility, for governments and industry officials who assure the public "there is no risk" when this is shown subsequently to be false.

There are several related chapters. One describes the huge cost incurred by the U.S. meat and fast food industry for underestimating – or simply ignoring – the risk caused by strain O157:H7 E. coli contamination. Indeed, it seems likely that this organism will cause more human deaths and food industry bankruptcies in the years ahead.

Another chapter shows why Dow Corning was forced to seek bankruptcy protection in 1995 because of potential liabilities associated with silicone breast implants, even though breast implants never represented more than a small percentage of the company’s annual sales and profits. Failure to acknowledge and deal with potential problems when first recognized (silicone leakage from implants, in this case) can result in enormous financial losses at a later date.

In several cases, the authors show how the unwillingness of industry and government agencies to speak openly and truthfully about potential risks can create a communications void which can, and often will, be filled by others. Powell and Leiss show how this occurred with dioxins and PCBs, neither of which represents nearly the health hazard which is commonly assumed by the public and politicians. The reason for that? Simple – the skilled communications efforts of Greenpeace and similar organizations, and the unwillingness of anyone in government nor industry to speak out from the "other side." Recombinant bovine somatotrophin (rBST) can be added to this list, in Canada.

Powell and Leiss are especially critical of Health Canada and other Canadian regulatory agencies for their continuing unwillingness to tell the public what is going on with pending regulatory issues. Canadian government inactions are in marked contrast to those of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency which do provide regular and timely updates and explanations on important regulatory matters.

Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk shows the contrast between how government agencies in Washington and Ottawa have dealt with public communications with respect to BSE, rBST and other risk/regulatory issues. Powell and Leiss are critical of the Canadian media for their superficial treatment of many risk related topics. Canadian farm organizations and agri-food businesses also garner their share of criticism.

An especially crucial chapter in Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk involves agricultural biotechnology as a prime candidate for the type of financial disaster which has happened many times before when industry and governments fail to deal openly and honestly with potential public concerns about the new technology. And just as occurred with dioxins, PCBs and rBST, other groups in society have been quick to fill the communications vacuum.

Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk provides some summary advice on risk communication, primarily in two chapters entitled, "A diagnostic for risk communication failures," and "Ten lessons." The key elements include willingness to speak out, timeliness, persistence, consistency, credibility and – most of all – honesty.

This book should be required reading for all agricultural organizations concerned with public communication and the use of new technology.

Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk is published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. Doug Powell can be contacted c/o Department of Food Science, University of Guelph.