Abstract
The general goal of the research was to integrate organic food consumer behavior into the topic of the management of
environmental security. The detailed objectives were to determine Romanian consumers’ beliefs about organic food and its role
for environmental security, to identify consumers’ judgement of environmental problems, to establish the influence that
demographic and social variables have on consumers’ beliefs and to emphasize the relationship between these. A random survey
on 413 organic food consumers from North-Western Development Region of Romania was developed. A set of positive beliefs
of organic food consumers regarding organic food and its contribution to environmental security are displayed by the present
research: organic food is consumed because it is healthy (80% of tested consumers believe so) and it helps to protect the
environment (75% of consumers). The study reveals there is a statistically significant difference between consumers who believe
humanity faces threatening environmental problems and those who do not, concerning the strength of belief that organic food
helps protecting the environment more than conventional food (p<0.05). An original aspect of the paper is the investigation of the
Romanian organic food consumers’ beliefs from the perspective of environmental security. The set of variables selected to
characterize consumers’ beliefs from the environmental security point of view may be considered the novelty of the paper.