Given the enormous impact that agricultural practices have on the natural environment, it is surprising that so little research has been done on the subject. In addition to problems associated with runoff from feedlots, farming generally requires the use of large amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. The chemicals that are used in farming, if not adequately controlled, pollute the air and water and negatively impact plants, wildlife, animals, and humans. Many environmental scientists believe that agriculture has become too dependent on chemicals to raise animals and grow crops and that it relies too little on effective natural alternatives.

At the same time, agricultural politics, especially when environmental issues are involved, can be extremely conflictual. The agricultural industry in the United States and in many other nations employs many people, is quite powerful, and wields a great deal of influence in government. Trying to convince owners of huge agricultural companies to change their practices in order to protect the ecosystem is no easy task. Nevertheless, environmental groups have had some success in persuading government to adopt necessary regulations along these lines. One would think political scientists would be more interested in studying the politics of agriculture and environmental protection.

This book is a welcome addition to the environmental policy literature, primarily because it addresses an important gap in our understanding of the relationship among agricultural practices, environmental protection, and public policy. The author begins with the premise that citizens of industrialized nations overwhelmingly believe that current national governance is inadequate and ineffective, that political leaders are incapable of making the right policy decisions, and that the entire network of state and civil society actors is untrustworthy. He relies primarily on the writings of others rather than on empirical data to support these arguments. He presents several possible explanations why so much distrust in government exists, and he uses agro-environmental policy development in France, the United States, and Canada to examine the validity of this distrust. In other words, is it possible that citizens in these countries significantly misperceive the ability of government to make good public policy, in this case good agro-environmental policy?

The author employs policy network theory to explain the development of agro-environmental policy in the three countries over time. The data on agenda setting and policy formulation in the countries he investigates were obtained through nearly 100 interviews conducted between 1997 and 1998 with government officials representing all the primary organizations involved in agro-environmental policy. Government documents were also used, mainly to update the analysis to spring 2002. Policymaking within each country is discussed in separate chapters. Along the way, a measure of policy performance is conceptualized and operationalized. The author concludes that Canada displays the lowest level of policy performance and that France moved from poor to high policy performance between the 1980s and 1990s. The level of policy success in the United States falls in between those two nations. He concludes that the distrust-inspiring theories introduced in Chapter 3 of the book unjustifiably fuel the present crisis of confidence and misplace the responsibility for policymaking failures, even in Canada. Government leaders are doing a good job addressing environmental problems associated with agriculture.

Although the book provides an in-depth explanation of how policies in France, the United States, and Canada developed over time, it contains three major flaws. First, the author never explains why the handling of agro-environmental issues by public officials is a valid indicator of level of government performance in the three nations. What particular characteristics does this issue area possess that it should be treated as a critical benchmark of policy success of nations in general? Surely, it is easier to understand how critical issues such as national defense, education, health care, and the economy are closely related to trust in government. If this is the case, then it would make more sense to study policymaking across these issue domains, rather than within the agro-environmental issue area. At the very least, the study could have examined additional environmental policy issues, such as clean air and water policy and the handling of hazardous waste, in order to assess policy success more broadly within the environmental policy arena. The issue of trust in government, while important, is an unnecessary distraction in this research and should have been de-emphasized or excluded.

Second, the author pays a great deal of attention to agenda building throughout the investigation. Unfortunately, very little theory addressing agenda building is introduced in the research. The one study that is discussed (John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, 1995) is criticized and found to be lacking in its ability to explain policy performance. Much has been written on agenda building, including on agenda blocking, yet none of this literature is reviewed in the book.

Third, readers are told very little about the confidential interviews on which the study—and its conclusions—are based. Who exactly was interviewed for this study and how were respondents chosen (sampled)? What positions did they have? What were their backgrounds, and which political forces did they represent? Exactly what questions were they asked, and how were these questions coded? These issues are not also addressed.

Despite these flaws, Misplaced Distrust contains a valuable discussion of how France, the United States, and Canada have developed policies to control the negative impacts of agricultural practices on the ecosystem. Perhaps this investigation will inspire other political scientists to conduct additional comparative research in this important policy area.