The UK Government has published the final report of the Independent Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta of the University of Cambridge. The review sets out a new framework for how we should account for nature in economics and policy.

Table member Dominic Moran has written a letter to the editor of the journal Nature Food. In it, he argues that the debate on livestock production and consumption ought to be viewed through the lens of market failure (that is, a situation in which the incentives that influence individual behaviour lead to a suboptimal outcome for society at large) and externalities (costs or benefits produced by a transaction that affect people other than the buyer and seller). Moran concludes that assessing the extent of market failure in the livestock sector can help governments to decide to what extent to intervene.

This paper finds that the pest management choices of farmers in Switzerland depend on whether they are advised by public or private extension services (i.e. providers of technical information to farmers). In a survey of 733 Swiss fruit growers dealing with fruit fly infestations, those advised by public extension services were 9-10% more likely to use preventative measures such as nets, while those advised by private extension services were 8-9% more likely to use synthetic insecticides.

This study sets out the economic and social threats and opportunities that alternative meat products (i.e. plant-based meat replacements and cellular agriculture) pose to rural producers in the United States. It is based on interviews with 37 stakeholders, including researchers, farmers, non-profits, funding agencies, government agencies, and representatives from the cultured meat, plant-based meat, beef, soy and pea sectors.

This blog post by Dr Rosalind Sharpe of the UK’s Food Research Collaboration asks what is meant by a “sustainable food system”. A group of students on the Centre for Food Policy’s Master’s course discussed this issue, and came up with a list of attributes including “healthy, equitable, inclusive, affordable, nutritious, culturally sensitive, sustainable, circular, resilient, respectful, lasting and simply ‘real’”.

The Global Nutrition Report has an interactive “Nutrition for Growth Commitment Tracker” where you can track progress made by a variety of stakeholders on their commitments towards ending malnutrition, made as part of the Nutrition for Growth summit. Stakeholders include national governments, donors, businesses, civil society organisations and the United Nations.

Target: Zero Hunger is a podcast series produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations about the stories, issues, and policies at the root of global food security. The most recent episode is “Desert locusts: Are we winning the fight?” It can be listened to in English here and in French here.

This book, published February 2021, uses case studies from across the globe to discuss the future of food. Chapters cover food and place identities, politics of agricultural production, food trade, hunger and malnutrition, food insecurity in rich countries, and future scenarios for sustainable food and farming.

This report from climate non-profit Project Drawdown discusses how food, agriculture and land use contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and how the sector can both reduce emissions and sequester carbon. Suggestions include conserving and restoring tropical forests, making animal and rice agriculture more efficient, using fertilisers more efficiently, reducing food waste, eating plant-rich diets, intensifying agriculture to spare land for conservation and ecosystem restoration, using regenerative cropping and grazing techniques to build soil carbon, and using perennial crops.