Every human being needs food everyday and food is therefore one of the most direct links between society and nature. Human health, ecosystems, and food processing are closely connected, but these relationships are no longer the same as in the past. Where our food is produced, which farming and processing methods are applied, and how it is traded is changing rapidly. Increasingly people become concerned about these changes; about presence of chemicals in their food and about the use of particular farming and industrial methods. For many years people have engaged in attempts to increase the sustainability of their food, but it seems the issue has recently become even more urgent through globalization and technological innovation. So, people ask how to reduce the negative impacts of pesticides’ use in agriculture and to increase the safety of food? What risks are posed by innovative technologies such as genetic modification (GM) and nanotechnologies? Under what conditions private labels such as organics or Fairtrade can offer an alternative to official regulation? Can we trust the information we read on the product-labels in the supermarkets? What roles can and do governments, farmers, supermarkets, consumers and NGOs play in increasing the sustainability of food?

These are some of the questions that emerge when studying the governance of food. Identifying potential governance arrangements contributing to more sustainable food provision needs to be done by applying a broad perspective as changes in Western food production and consumption are closely connected with changes in other parts of the world.