Food for the mind
The Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue hosted three events focusing on the food industry in October 2008: Meet the Expert with Thilo Bode, Risk Trading - Opportunities for the Food and Insurance Industries, and Focus on Food. The centre piece was Risk Trading, a client event organized by Swiss Re’s Industrial Risk Insurer's European, Middle East and Africa team.
At the time of writing, global food prices are again falling. However, their dramatic rise in 2007, and spike into 2008, accompanied by riots and global protests, highlighted the risk of demand for food outpacing supply. Moreover, the poisoned milk scandal in China in September 2008, as well as numerous public health cases being pursued in the US, demonstrated the food safety risk inherent in the increasingly global supply chain.
As part of its programme focusing on food in the second half of 2008, the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue held three events in two days. The centre piece was "Risk Trading - Opportunities for the Food and Insurance Industries" (Risk Trading), a client event organized by Swiss Re’s Industrial Risk Insurer (IRI)’s European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) team. The themes of the event were food safety and food security, with a focus on supply chain risk and how companies can mitigate such threats. Participants included global experts from diverse fields, together with representatives from major food corporations. A further two events were leveraged from the Risk Trading event: "Meet the Expert: Thilo Bode", an intimate audience with a veteran campaigner for greater transparency and clarity in food labelling; and, "Focus on Food", with particular attention paid to food regulation and litigation in the UK and US.
