ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the advantages and shortcomings of applying to food security the concept of the global public good, as such an examination is crucial in drawing comparisons with the central concept of this handbook: food as a commons. The concept of food security is deeply rooted in the human rights discourse and has repeatedly changed its emphasis over recent decades due to both dominant political and economic pressures and new insights gained from international development experience. Food security, as a good that demands continuous coordinated action, aptly epitomises the problem of jointness of production. The normative call of public goods demonstrates that depriving people of food security is a barrier to social cohesion and clashes with many deeply-anchored concepts of justice.
