From Food Production to Food Security - Global Environmental ...

governance focuses on the range of scales and levels inherent in food systems and notes boththe importance of, and problems arising from, the cross-scale and cross-level interactions.Another classification of multilevel governance approaches differentiates between Type 1(general-purpose jurisdictions; non-intersecting memberships; jurisdictions at a limitednumber of levels; and a system-wide architecture at a limited number of levels) and Type 2(task-specific jurisdictions; intersecting memberships; no limit to the numbers ofjurisdictional levels; and flexible design) (H. Schroeder, pers comm). Type 1 emphasizes themultiple tiers at which governance takes place, and is focused mainly on the administrativeunits of municipality, province and national government. This is akin to the ‘monocentric’system described above. Type 2 includes networks and partnerships between public andprivate actors across levels of social organization and is more akin to the ‘adaptivegovernance’ described above. It includes both formal and informal rights, rules and decisionmakingprocesses.But however ‘appropriate’ ‘adaptive governance’ or ‘Type 2 governance’ may seem, theystill have to operate within and/or alongside the formal monocentric / Type 1 governancesystems that typify many contemporary societies. How can these two systems co-exist tomaximum advantage? Boundary organisations (Holmes et al., 2010) and boundary agents(i.e. individuals) are needed who can span the two governance systems.This problem of the additional complexity of different governance systems can often be seenwhen there is a food ‘scare’, and especially when compounded by cross-scale and cross-levelchallenges. These usually arise suddenly and attract high media interest demanding a rapid‘policy’ response from the establishment (see Box 1, below).Prompted by the increasing dominance of the major food retailers in the food system (asnoted above), further governance questions relate to the location and concentration of powerand role of marketing in changing consumer behaviour regarding diet and waste. The need tomodify diets for health reasons and reduce waste for environmental, financial and ethicalreasons has a strong governance aspect: who is responsible for bringing about change andwhat governance approach will be most effective?Finally, food system governance is increasingly important in relation to the growingenvironmental agenda. Liverman et al. (2009) identify three governance questions whicharise when analysing food systems. The first includes the extent to which concerns aboutfood systems are incorporated into global and regional environmental governance. As the fullset of food system activities and food security outcomes are poorly represented inenvironmental assessments (Wood et al., 2010), they are not highlighted in the discussionsaround either adaptation or mitigation agendas in the UNFCCC process or in environmentalcomponents of regional trade agreements. The second concerns the ways in which thegovernance of the food system affects the earth system, for instance how the shifts to longglobal supply chains controlled by large private firms affect climate and land use. The third120