Abstract The food crisis of 2007–8 highlighted the need for a concerted global effort to tackle hunger and food insecurity. For most of the previous thirty years, food prices were generally low and falling due to overproduction and high levels of agricultural subsidies in industrialized countries. The situation was rapidly reversed in 2007–8, when food prices shot to record high levels, resulting in food riots and rising hunger across the developing world. This article argues that a key reason for the weakness in the global response to the 2007–8 food crisis is that the governance of food security at the international level is highly fragmented. It focuses in particular on one area that clearly illustrates this fragmentation: food aid. Multiple arrangements and agreements exist for food aid that have separate rules, reporting mechanisms, and norms, yet there is little collaboration or coordination between these arrangements.