ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author estimates consumer willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce food-borne risks. The revealed-preference and contingent-valuation estimates of WTP for organically grown produce are comparable. Estimates of WTP to reduce risk are frequently characterized as a “value of life”. The disagreement among consumers about differences in health risk suggests that improved public information concerning food-borne risks might lead to more accurate risk perceptions and improve consumers’ ability to efficiently minimize the health risks they face. They could be used to help inform consumers about pesticide incidence and toxicity, to allow them to more efficiently reduce their risk from ingesting pesticide residues. Moreover, the risk indices may be used to help allocate testing and epidemiological resources to the foods and pesticides for which improved information would be most valuable and to help decide which legal tolerances should be reassessed.
