Food System Governance

Abstract

Much of the food security debate used to centre on food production and developing countries. Scholars and policymakers, however increasingly request a broader and more integrated approach. The food system concept for instance, aims to understand the interconnected relationships between: various activities various food security outcomes , various scales, and various socio-economic and environmental constraints and impacts. This broader perspective enhances new governance challenges, due in part, to the inherent fragmented institutional structure of the food system, characterized by predefined jurisdictional scales, compartmentalisation of policy domains and separated public and private spheres. The current governance institutions strengthen the food system but they also hinder it, because there are too few linkages, the short term dominates the long term; or they provide too little flexibility. Governance arrangements are challenged to cross these historically entrenched institutional boundaries, that allocate power relationships and resources, and that represent dominant beliefs, roles and rules. We welcome theoretical papers contributing to the understanding of food system governance, and empirical papers (from developing and developed countries) that analyse promising governance arrangements based on a food system perspective.

Title	Details
Who Governs the Food System? A Review of Different Governance Arrangements in Southern Africa	View Paper Details
Hard and Soft Governance in World Food Trade: Dispute Settlement and Equivalence as Trade-facilitating Tools	View Paper Details
Transnational Regulation Crisis: How to Build Food Safety in a Unified Market	View Paper Details
Industry and the Governance of the Food System: An Exploratory Paper	View Paper Details