The knowledge base for product development 153 Research and development in the food industry is a well-recognised case of market failure with its private costs and benefits differing from its so- cial ones. The end result is an under-investment in R&d by private firms and attempts to justify government supporting it. The question is how to solve this dilemma In the meantime, increasing masses of scien- tific and technical information and analysis are being super-imposed on a world wide background of rapid legal, political and social change Organisations can be grouped as functional, processed-based and societal knowledge-based. This means that a compal be based departments such as marketing, production; or it can be an integrated technological entity, or lastly it can be a technological entity integrated into ociety.Is the food industry, which has been mainly functional, moving towards an integrated technological organisation with management based on societal knowledge? If so, the knowledge needed in the industry will have to increase exponentially 4.1.2 Creation and movement of knowledge in the food system The passing of knowledge between suppliers and food manufacturers emphasises that one cannot think of a part of the food industry by itself. In knowledge creation, each part of the food system is affecting knowledge in another part. In primary production, knowledge creation has been very much government-financed and often government-led. In early years, farming and fishing were essential for the production of food for the population, and were often the occupations of many individuals and families. Governments therefore elt that R&D in food production was their social responsibility. Today scientists in private and publicly managed agencies do significant basic and applied research. Governments are still funding agricultural research from government revenues and often organise agricultural research. For example in the United States, the US Department of Agriculture is still a major player in agricultural research and State governments are also involved. Internationally, there are also United Nations organisations and other world governmental agencies funding and organising agricultural research. The roles of the different public agencies and private firms are intertwined in complex ways(Alston et al, 1997) Surprisingly, research for the fishing industry has never been so extensively government funded, and one might think that the over-fishing and lowering of ish stocks has been due to lack of knowledge as much as human greed. Distribution research has also been an area of government research for many years because of the need to store and transport food to urban areas, and internationally. So knowledge increase in the food system is still dependent on governmental funding and support, except for the food ingredient processing and onsumer product manufacturing which have been among the low spenders on R&d related to sales among the industries based on process eng may be due to its only recent emergence as a science-based industry, theResearch and development in the food industry is a well-recognised case of market failure with its private costs and benefits differing from its so￾cial ones. The end result is an under-investment in R&D by private firms and attempts to justify government supporting it. The question is how to solve this dilemma. In the meantime, increasing masses of scien￾tific and technical information and analysis are being super-imposed on a world wide background of rapid legal, political and social change. Organisations can be grouped as functional, processed-based and societal knowledge-based. This means that a company can be based on functional departments such as marketing, production; or it can be an integrated technological entity; or lastly it can be a technological entity integrated into society. Is the food industry, which has been mainly functional, moving towards an integrated technological organisation with management based on societal knowledge? If so, the knowledge needed in the industry will have to increase exponentially. 4.1.2 Creation and movement of knowledge in the food system The passing of knowledge between suppliers and food manufacturers emphasises that one cannot think of a part of the food industry by itself. In knowledge creation, each part of the food system is affecting knowledge in another part. In primary production, knowledge creation has been very much government-financed and often government-led. In early years, farming and fishing were essential for the production of food for the population, and were often the occupations of many individuals and families. Governments therefore felt that R&D in food production was their social responsibility. Today scientists in private and publicly managed agencies do significant basic and applied research. Governments are still funding agricultural research from government revenues and often organise agricultural research. For example in the United States, the US Department of Agriculture is still a major player in agricultural research and State governments are also involved. Internationally, there are also United Nations organisations and other world governmental agencies funding and organising agricultural research. The roles of the different public agencies and private firms are intertwined in complex ways (Alston et al., 1997). Surprisingly, research for the fishing industry has never been so extensively government funded, and one might think that the over-fishing and lowering of fish stocks has been due to lack of knowledge as much as human greed. Distribution research has also been an area of government research for many years because of the need to store and transport food to urban areas, and internationally. So knowledge increase in the food system is still dependent on governmental funding and support, except for the food ingredient processing and consumer product manufacturing which have been among the low spenders on R&D related to sales among the industries based on process engineering. This may be due to its only recent emergence as a science-based industry, the The knowledge base for product development 153