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Analyses the likely impact of the recent bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis on the organization of the UK beef supply chain. Using concepts from New Institutional Economics, argues that, in addition to the direct financial costs of the crisis, additional hidden transaction costs and long‐term “transaction benefits” should be considered. Hidden costs include the increased need for monitoring and traceability in the supply chain, while hidden benefits may result from a reorientation of the industry towards a more consumer‐driven focus, a greater attention to food safety issues and opportunities for branding and market segmentation. It is suggested that the hidden transaction costs and benefits are likely to lead to closer vertical co‐ordination throughout the beef supply chain.

Marketing systems for fresh food products are frequently analysed in the economics and marketing literature, most often either in terms of a quantitative model reflecting some policy or environmental concern, or in terms of a simple description of the shape and size of the system. Considers explicitly the nature of the relationships at each level of a marketing system, using methods derived from the transaction cost and marketing literatures. The methods focus on simple evaluations of transactions at each level of a system, and are applied to the marketing system for a fresh product from Egypt to the UK.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the formation of the European Union, and current economic crises and cost considerations in various countries around the world, interest has been developing in cross‐national and cross‐cultural marketing opportunities in the sector of food. Today in the United States the food industry is of paramount importance, a trend that is evident in other nations. Opportunity exists for commercial growth on an international level by companies large and small. An understanding of the food marketing systems of different nations and cultures is necessary for growth and development by these companies. Different organizations and scholars have been studying various aspects of the field of cross‐national and cross‐cultural food marketing on a micro level. Analyzing these different studies evidences a need to conduct further study and to develop more theory—specifically on cross‐national and cross‐cultural food marketing at a macro level.

Looks at the way in which public transport is used for evacuation of personnel in the event of emergencies or disasters. Although the work of the emergency services is well documented, it seems that the important task of evacuation, and particularly the planning, operation and documentation is often overlooked. This article looks at how public transport copes with this task, and suggests that this is due to the sometimes unpredictable nature of the transport system due to roadworks, road closures, accidents, etc. Special events, such as football matches, are a regular occurrence, which include the need to move large crowds to and from the venue. This strategy and planning can be used in the evacuation of people in the event of a disaster.

The purpose of this paper is to show, with concrete cases, how to forgo or substantially moderate strategy that is structured within action plans: moves to alleviate coping with obstacles encountered in programme execution.

The paper presents a series of real‐life examples of planned withdrawal – or not – from situations clearly uneconomic, unable to meet their original purposes, counterproductive, or otherwise a futile allocation of resources and effort.

The paper finds that studied protection can spell out beforehand, with foresight and determination (and often, due expression of trust), the success of an undertaking.

Getting the future right often seems more difficult than getting it wrong.

Planners, strategists and designers should profit from the types of examples reviewed to confirm the solidity of their own procedural foresight.

In place of strife was the heading for a piece of legislation blueprinted in the Wilson government but never put into effect. They got cold feet from fear of political repercussions from the unions.

SEPTEMBER finds the summer irrevocably over, although there will still be one or two very beautiful months in the English autumn remaining. It is usually the time when the older librarian thinks of conferences, and today he realizes regretfully that these have receded into what already seems a remote past. This month as we write we have to repeat the expectation we have expressed every month since May that before these words appear in print the threatened lightning attack on the life of England will have been made by the Nazis. It is becoming so customary, however, that one can only suggest that so far as circumstances allow we proceed with our normal work. The circumstances may make this difficult but they should be faced. One thing stands out: that in public libraries, at anyrate, the demands made by readers have gradually returned to their usual level and in some places have risen above it. This does not always mean that the figures are as high as they were, because in many of the great cities and towns a part of the population, including a very large number of the children, have been evacuated. In spite of the pressure on the population as a whole, it would seem that head for head more books are being read now than at any previous time.

LIGHT rarely comes to people as swiftly as it did to Paul on the Damascus road. More often it is the slow accretion of knowledge through education and persuasion, the steady pressure of convinced advocates and the relentless force of events that opens their minds to new ideas.

In a Report, issued on July 9, 1896, the Select Committee on Food Products Adulteration recommended the establishment of a central government scientific authority, who should act as a court of reference upon scientific questions arising under the Adulteration Acts, and who should be empowered, at their discretion, to prescribe standards and limits as to the quality and purity of food. It was rightly held by the Select Committee that the constitution of such an authority is an absolute necessity in order that the all‐important question of food standards may be duly considered and dealt with, and that all matters affecting the administration of the Acts and involving scientific considerations may be placed on a more satisfactory footing. The Committee also expressed the opinion that the formation of such an authority would result in the removal of many practical difficulties met with in the administration of the Acts, and would largely obviate the costly litigation in which public bodies, traders, and others are constantly liable to be involved under existing conditions. Nothing whatever has been done to give effect to the recommendation of the Committee in spite of the fact that the necessity for some such course of action as that indicated has been demonstrated beyond possibility of question, and that further evidence proving the wisdom of the Committee's suggestion is constantly afforded. The Islington brandy case provides the latest illustration of the extremely unsatisfactory conditions under which public bodies are required to administer the Acts and under which traders have to answer charges made against them. A local grocer was summoned by the Islington Borough Council for selling, as brandy, a liquid which was certified by the Public Analyst to contain 60 per cent. of spirit not derived from the grape, and which was therefore not of the nature, substance and quality of the article demanded. The vendor naturally referred the matter to the firm who had supplied him. The case was taken up by a traders' association, and, after five lengthy hearings, in the course of which much expert evidence was given on both sides, resulted in a conviction and the infliction of a penalty of £5 and £50 costs—an amount which probably represents only a fraction of the expense involved. For the present we do not propose to review the scientific evidence which was put forward by the prosecution and by the defence. There is no doubt that Mr. FORDHAM, the magistrate who heard the case, was perfectly right in taking the view that the term “brandy,” when unqualified, means a spirit distilled from wine or from fermented products of the grape. It is also perfectly plain that when a person asks for brandy and is supplied with coloured grain spirit, or with a mixture of grain spirit and true brandy, he is prejudiced, and that the vendor commits an offence under the Acts. The fact that the term “brandy” has been commonly applied to “silent spirit” coloured and flavoured to imitate true brandy, or to mixtures of brandy and alcohol derived from other sources than the produce of the grape, is not a legitimate excuse for the sale of such factitious articles as “brandy.” The great difficulty lies in differentiating by analytical means between the genuine article and the imitation. The vast majority of people, being utterly ignorant even of the elements of chemistry, labour under the impression that all that need be done in a matter of this kind is to tell the Public Analyst to “analyse,” and that full, exact, and absolutely definite information which nobody can call in question, will be forthcoming as a matter of course. The evidence given in the case under consideration is quite enough in itself to show the absurdity of this assumption. On the one hand the Public Analyst stated that he was satisfied, from the results of his general investigations in regard to brandy and from the results of his analysis of the sample submitted to him, that this sample contained 60 per cent. of spirit other than that derived from the produce of the grape. On the other hand, a number of analytical experts called for the defence asserted that in the present state of analytical knowledge it was perfectly impossible for any Public Analyst to arrive at the conclusion mentioned in regard to the sample in question, and that, as a fact, the analytical evidence adduced did not justify the statement made in the certificate on which the proceedings were founded. The defence do not appear to have denied that the Public Analyst might be right. In reality it appears only to have been contended that his analytical evidence was not, sufficient to prove that he was so. At any rate the experts called for the defence certainly did not prove by scientific evidence that he was wrong.