The Use of a Risk Governance Concept in the Area of Food Security

Abstract

The goal of the article is to analyze the use of the risk governance concept in the area of food security. The concept is treated as a method to ensure food security in both the positive sense (scenarios creation, early warning systems) and the negative sense (risk reduction). The analysis is organized around two problems: the main assumptions of the risk governance concept and the application of risk governance in the area of food security. The first part discusses risk governance is discussed as a theoretical concept. In the second part, the practical application of risk governance is discussed in the three dimensions of food security: food availability, food access and food safety. The analysis permits four conclusions: first, the concept of risk governance is widely used in the context of food security. Second, the main motive for its use is to strive to ensure food security. Third, strategies, mechanisms, and instruments to minimize the risk as well as the scale of application and the degree of institutionalization of risk governance depend on the food security dimension. Fourth, risk governance has a high usability as a process for elimination and mitigation of risks, particularly covariate ones, in the area of food security.