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

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 cafe 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.