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Plant health and food security, linking science, economics, policy and industry

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Abstract

Protecting plant resources from harmful organisms that can spread internationally is a major challenge for plant protection organisations. Natural scientists and economists have methods that contribute to informing and supporting government decision makers in plant health authorities, who also need to account for stakeholders’ views when developing policy and regulations to mitigate plant pest risks. Increasingly plant protection authorities seek to develop integrated decision making through economists and scientists working within an interdisciplinary framework. In this special section of Food Security we introduce a series of papers presented at an international conference that brought together natural scientists, economists, industry representatives and plant health policy makers to report the state of the art and explore the direction and future research needs for such interdisciplinary working to deliver rational plant protection policy and improved food security for the 21st Century. The collection of papers combine contributions from leading academics and influential policy makers and provides cohesive international perspectives on the use of science and economics, as well as their integration, to progress the development of integrated multi-disciplinary plant health policy making around the world. Using a modified version of the world café method during a conference workshop activity, participants identified greater international co-operation as a key mechanism that would reduce international plant health risks. Specifically, co-operation over analysis among stakeholders and along supply chains were seen as key issues.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Mariella Marzano who helped develop the idea for the breakout exercise and for useful comments on an earlier draft of this text. This paper resulted from a conference sponsored by the OECD’s Co-operative Research Programme on Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems whose financial support made it possible for most of the invited speakers to participate in the Conference. The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its Member countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Sand Hutton, York, YO41 1LZ, UK

    Alan MacLeod & Helen M. Anderson

  2. Fera Science Ltd, National Agri-Food Innovation Campus, Sand Hutton, York, YO41 1LZ, UK

    Glyn D. Jones & Rick A. Mumford

Authors
  1. Alan MacLeod
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  2. Glyn D. Jones
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  3. Helen M. Anderson
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  4. Rick A. Mumford
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Correspondence to Alan MacLeod.

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MacLeod, A., Jones, G.D., Anderson, H.M. et al. Plant health and food security, linking science, economics, policy and industry. Food Sec. 8, 17–25 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-015-0521-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-015-0521-2

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