A qualitative study of the recent literature on Localized Agri-Food Systems (Lafs), supported by the outcomes of numerous empirical studies, discusses the role of governance as a decision-making process in the organizations identified with those systems. In this article, three approaches of the literature are analyzed: territory, biocultural embeddedness of food, and governance. The combination of these three elements leads to a complex policy approach involving conflict and coordination of socio-territorial actors. This article remarks usefulness for public policy of knowing the mechanisms and instruments of governance to build an agenda and processes of decision-making. It is concluded that governance, understood as the quality of bottom-up decisions, based on trust and reciprocity mechanisms, helps to recognize conflicts in the territory and to give greater elements to territorial development and defense of production and local markets.