This book outlines key issues currently facing the global food system, as well as responses to them, including corporate concentration, the planetary boundaries, food poverty, alternative proteins, urban food systems and circular food systems.

This report by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food argues that public climate finance should be directed into food system transformation because of the potential to deliver cost-effective co-benefits for climate mitigation, biodiversity, health and food system resilience. Currently, food systems receive only 3% of public climate finance despite producing one third of global emissions.

This policy brief from Climate Advisers and the Good Food Institute suggests that alternative proteins (both plant-based and cultivated, i.e. lab-grown, options) are important for food security around the world and national security in the United States. It argues that feeding edible crops to livestock drives up the price of staple crops, negatively affects the quantity of food available to people, and makes food reliant on long, fragile supply chains (e.g. at risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks).

This discussion paper from the UK’s Food Research Collaboration discusses meetings that happened between lobbyists and policymakers when the UK government was developing restrictions on promoting foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS). It shows that most of the relevant meetings were with media and advertising interests as opposed to directly with food companies. It als notes that some exemptions and loopholes were introduced that made the final legislation less strict than the initial proposals.

This briefing note from IPES Food explores the evolution of three terms: ‘agroecology’, ‘nature-based solutions’, and ‘regenerative agriculture’. It also examines how the terms have been used at the United Nations Food Systems Summit, COP26 and the 15th conference of parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as by funders and agrifood corporations.

Current climate mitigation pledges made as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change rely on unrealistic amounts of land-based carbon sequestration, according to this report. 1.2 billion hectares of land would be needed - almost as much as the current global extent of cropland - and there could be significant negative impacts on food production, sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers, and indigenous peoples’ rights.

Increasing demand for animal-sourced foods is creating a “trap” where both options for meeting that demand - intensive versus extensive farming methods - each bring their own risks for the emergence and spread of infectious zoonotic diseases, according to this paper. The author sets out recommendations for managing zoonotic disease risks from livestock.

This paper reviews the literature on the sustainability of four technologies that are being developed for use in sustainable food systems: vertical farming, plant-based alternatives, food delivery services and blockchain in food systems. These four technologies were chosen because they have recently attracted significant investments in the Nordic region.

This paper maps the location and cumulative magnitude of the environmental pressures (greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, habitat disturbance and nutrient pollution) caused by both aquatic and land-based food production across the globe.