농식품 소비자정책의 추진방향과 정책과제

Abstract

소비자의 농식품 품질과 건강에 대한 관심이 증가하고, 소비자 권리의식이 확대됨에 따라 농식품 분야에서 소비자정책을 추진해야 하는 필요성이 빠르게 증가하고 있다. 농업정책이 기존의 생산뿐만 아니라 농장에서 식탁까지 푸드시스템 전반을 대상으로 확장되어야 한다는 필요성이 제기됨에 따라, 농림축산식품부는 2008년 2월에 농식품이 부처명과 관련 법률에 명시적으로 포함되었다.

반면 농식품부에서 수행해온 농식품정책에서 그동안 소비자가 핵심적인 위치를 점하지 못하고, 정책 대상으로 자리매김하지 못한 것으로 평가되고 있다. 농식품 위해사고 발생이 빠르게 증가함에 따라 소비자의 농식품 안전에 대한 불안이 심각하게 대두되었고, 여러 기관에서 운영하는 다수의 농식품 인증·표시제도는 생산자와 소비자의 혼란을 야기하였다. 또한 다양한 소비자의 요구를 반영할 수 있는 소통체계가 운영되지 않았으며, 식생활 및 영양 관련 정책이 부족하다는 문제점도 제기되고 있다.

농식품부는 국민의 먹을거리를 책임지는 총괄 부처로서 빠르게 신장되고 있는 소비자의 역할 및 권리에 대해 농식품 분야에서 적극적인 대처가 필요한 상황이다. 이 연구는 농식품 소비자정책의 목표와 추진방향을 재정립하고, 주요 정책분야의 운영실태를 파악하여 개선방향을 제시하는 것을 목적으로 추진되었다.

Background of Research With consumers’ awareness of rights and their interest in agrifood quality and safety increasing, the agrifood paradigm changed from quantitative shortage to qualitative improvement. As policy needed to expand to deal with the entire food system from farm to table, agricultural authorities were expanded to the ministry dealing with agrifood in February 2008, and agrifood was included explicitly in relevant laws. However, consumers are evaluated not to be in a central position in agrifood policy. Consumers are anxious about agrifood, and there is a lack of a communication system to reflect various consumers’ needs. The results are also insufficient in regard to Green Diet Education promoted in 2010. MAFRA, as a ministry in charge of the people’s food, should actively respond to consumers’ rapidly increasing roles and rights. The purpose of this study is to establish goals and directions of agrifood consumer policy, understand the current situation of the major policy, and present improvement methods.

Method of Research This study reviews laws and statistics for consumer support policy and the establishment of the policy basis among agrifood consumer policy, and excludes regulatory policies on businesses. To understand the present situation of agrifood policy, we reviewed literature, did visiting research on organizations, held 15 meetings by theme, and published the contents of the discussions. The consumer survey was conducted by way of face-to-face interviews with 516 housewives in the capital area from November to December 2013. The expert survey of 48 people in the relevant field was conducted by email in December 2013. We also commissioned experts to review the cases of the US, Japan, and Germany.

Research Results and Implications Agrifood consumer policy should improve consumers’ capabilities, rights, and consumption by increasing their right to information, securing the right to damage relief, and creating a food environment. The projects of agrifood information, education, and promotion need to reestablish agents’ roles under a mid- and long-term plan, and strengthen a cooperation system among relevant agencies. The implementation system, centered around the central government and nationwide consumer groups, should change to the system that includes various local groups related to agrifood consumption and diet and is linked to consumer groups closely connected to living. The emphasis should be on the role of governance linking central administrative agencies and local governments, and the role of intermediaries between government agencies and private groups. Agrifood damage relief has the fundamental limit in that the existing legal system does not compensate enough for agrifood damage. Food damage is mostly in a form of a small sum of money and there are many damage cases. Laws should be modified to reflect the features and the difficulty of proving causality and reaching an agreement. We suggested modifying agrifood consumer conflict resolution standards, including primary agricultural, fishery, and livestock products in the application scope of the Product Liability Act, increasing the effectiveness of the consumer group lawsuit system, and introducing class-action suits. In addition, because it is hard to identify and prove causes of agrifood accidents, it is necessary to provide the relief system and prevention education for consumers, and strengthen the government’s management and monitoring of manufacturers and distributors. We reviewed the establishment of the basis of agrifood consumer policy using statistics and laws. Agrifood consumption statistics should include home food and eating out, and the US and Japan also survey the amount of intake and expenditure. Therefore, the existing investigation system should be supplemented. The cooperative system with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Statistics Korea is needed to expand the items investigated and release more data. To better use food statistics, it is necessary to establish an information network, promote them to users, release timely statistics, provide more secondary data, and increase reliability by approving and strengthening post management. Also, it is needed to integrate the code system for the basis of statistics production, and consider introducing an organization fully in charge of statistics and vitalizing private statistics production. The laws on agrifood consumer policy are the basis for the implementation of basic plans and consumer protection according with features of agrifood consumption. To efficiently implement agrifood consumer policy, it is necessary to modify substantial laws for agrifood consumer protection, establish a system for strengthening consumers’ capabilities, modify the implementation system, and prepare relevant provisions. We considered modifying laws from consumers’ view, enacting the tentatively named “Agrifood Consumer Policy Act” and completely revising the Diet Education Support Act, and suggested the basic contents of the Agrifood Consumer Policy Act.

Researchers: Kyei-Im Lee, Ki-Whan Park, Yun-Jae Hwang, Hyun-Jung Ban, Hyun Joung Jin Research period: 2013. 6. ~ 2014. 2. E-mail address: lkilki@krei.re.kr