On the Nature of Food Security in the European Union: A Systematic Review

Attention for food security has increased significantly in the European Union in recent years. Although food security has been a formal EU development policy issue for decades, the term is pervasive in a broad range of policy debates nowadays, concerning e.g. agriculture, fisheries, trade, and environment. What is more, the deployment of food security in the EU is characterized by a wide array of, sometimes conflicting, ideas regarding what food security entails and how EU policies could most effectively contribute to both European and global food security. This raises questions about the nature of food security and how to analytically make sense of it. How should food security in the European Union be typified? Is it a discourse, a frame, a value, a fixed material state, a mixture? In this paper we aim to address this question through a systematic review of studies that address the relationship between the European Union and food security. We aim to provide a synthesis of this body of knowledge, leading to a conceptual framework that can help to grasp EU food security dynamics. In addition, we focus on the implications these studies mention for the European governance of food security.