Transparency is the best disinfectant!

This is my 5-minute 'lightning talk' from Asset2018 in Belfast last week - which was not delivered due to the event format and constraints on my side. Note, it was intended to stir debate on the topic and I welcome your feedback.

**************************************************************************

Transparency and Trust in the food chain are hot topics but what do we know about them?

Well, transparency is generally seen as an incontrovertible practice in public and private sector governance.

Transparency is also viewed as a necessary condition for the efficient functioning of markets and provides a foundational layer for trust to function as a social lubricant by reducing information asymmetry

Transparency is a tool to address distrust and improve responsible management of organizations, both public and private

In the literature, there is a consensus that transparency is an enabler of trust although they have a bidirectional relationship. In fact, trust is both an antecedent and consequence of transparency

However, in the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, it is claimed that globally, trust is in crisis. Why is this? Why don’t citizen consumers trust the four main groups in civil society namely; government, industry, media and NGO’s?

Could it be that we are too transparent or have we reached our transparency limits? 

Is there a perception that we have more exposures of deceptive and unethical practices and economically motivated adulterations?

Are we in control or are we out of control?

Well, our food has never been safer but our tools, technologies and know-how are moving at a faster pace, essentially, we are better able to detect anomalies in the food chain

These detections are then disclosed and often amplified through social media

So, with regard to information transparency, are we getting better? 

I think we are…..

If we look at transparency,  it is the process of disclosing information that is relevant, accurate, timely and understandable by the receiver and can be used to inform their decision making

In the food world, consumers should be seen as ‘dependent receivers’

In other words, if the information is withheld, their health or their lives could be in jeopardy

What holds organizations or governments back from sharing information with dependent receivers?

Ethical principles of privacy, confidentiality, IP or copyright are some of the filters that act to regulate the free flow of information and limit transparency

But the goal of transparency is to truthfully communicate to enhance understanding rather than to obfuscate with technical jargon

We know that consumers don’t understand technical food safety speak

To regain the consumer trust that Edelman said we have lost, we must find ways to improve transparency, of course, this must be within the legal, regulatory and technical boundaries we operate in 

But when human health and safety is at risk, the clock is ticking

And when we find bad actors who lie, cheat and defraud through acts of EMA, the legal and regulatory enforcement actions must be transparent  

After all, transparency holds an emancipatory promise to empower the powerless by reducing the opacity 

But experts caution as transparency can also empower the powerful, especially if populism is allowed to drive resentment towards globalization

The push for the 'country of origin' labelling, for example, can have an opposite effect and empower the powerful nations and companies while shutting out the less powerful SME’s from the global food chain, essentially forming a non-tariff trade barrier

Our supply chains are global, multicultural and complex

But Transparency and Trust have two enemies, bad character and bad data. We cannot fix bad character but if we get the data right we make it harder. 

In conclusion, transparency needs to be viewed as a scale that ranges from the opacity, darkness and secrets at one end with increased risks to our economic stability and human health and safety 

And on the opposite end is the light that reduces information asymmetry with its emancipatory promise. 

We have to find the balance on this scale

To do so, we must embrace technologies and tools to help us to better manage our food chain risks 

For example, exciting new use cases of blockchain technologies combined with IOT and big data are taking shape and will help further enhance our food chain visibility and increase transparency and trust 

In our world of food, maybe transparency is the best disinfectant after all

Thank you.        

References:

Domenique Bessire (2006). Transparency: a two-way mirror?

Welch & Rotberg (2006). Transparency: panacea or Pandora's box?

Amitai Etzioni (2010). Is Transparency the best disinfectant?

Parris et. al. (2015). Exploring transparency: a new framework for responsible business management

Brad Rawlins (2009). Give the Emperor a Mirror: Toward Developing a Stakeholder Measurement of Organizational Transparency

Turilli & Floridi (2009). The ethics of information transparency