This paper analyses the annual reports and websites of 12 leading food and beverage companies and finds that a number of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled methods are being used to “nudge” consumer behaviour or choices, for example by changing the position of options on menu boards, automatically suggesting additional products based on a customer’s current choices, or using virtual-reality-based marketing.

This paper considers how people could be fed in the event of a sudden reduction in sunlight - for example, caused by a volcanic eruption, an asteroid strike, or nuclear war. These triggers could cause global agricultural output to collapse through abrupt falls in light, temperature and precipitation. The paper identifies foods that could still be produced under these conditions, and assesses their potential contributions to nutrition.

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has published a recording of a webinar held on 28 January 2022, titled “Building a vision for achieving net-zero food systems by 2050”. It discusses non-CO2 emissions trends in the food sector and their implications for achieving climate targets.

MILK, the inaugural issue of Feminist Food Journal, a new quarterly online magazine focused on the intersections of food systems and feminism, explores feminist perspectives on the contested liquid. Through diverse global perspectives, it considers what a feminist milk paradigm could look like and contemplates how we could get there.

This book presents a toolkit of agroecological methods of farming, based on case studies including the author’s farm, Huxhams Cross Farm in Devon, England.

This report from the WWF considers how agriculture and land use across the UK can be changed to help meet climate commitments while also protecting nature. The key components of its strategy are moving towards agroecological farming practices, tackling nitrogen pollution, restoring natural ecosystems in appropriate locations, and shifting diets. It calls for governments across the UK to support farming communities through financial support, regulation and strong trade standards.

This policy brief from the UK’s Food Research Collaboration argues that thinking of vegetable supply chains in the UK as interactive and entangled networks of state, community and commercial actors, rather than primarily as markets, can give communities greater influence over supply chain governance and provide growers with alternatives to supermarket supply chains.

This report from the UK’s Food, Farming & Countryside Commission investigates how people who are experiencing food insecurity make decisions about what to eat. It focuses on Devon, with the report interviewing food producers, people receiving emergency food, and others in the food system. Buyers and producers want to see more investment in small and sustainable food production, food projects built around community access, sharing of resources, and collective food buying and preparation.

This policy insight from the UK’s Food Research Collaboration argues that the 2021 Independent Review for the National Food Strategy failed to address the specific nutritional needs of babies and young children. The report identifies eight policy recommendations, including supporting women who wish to breastfeed, regulating the composition, labelling and marketing of foods aimed at young children, and reforming the Healthy Start scheme.