This report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations reviews - with the contributions of over 300 scientists - the state of knowledge on soil biodiversity, factors threatening it, and how knowledge of soil biodiversity can be applied to fields such as agriculture, food processing, ecosystem restoration and the pharmaceutical industry.

In this paper, Table member Erasmus Zu Ermgassen and co-authors use publicly available data to trace Brazil’s beef exports from 2800 municipalities to 152 countries, along with their deforestation links. The authors argue that, because of the high variation between the sources of beef for different trading companies, it is not advisable to rely on national level statistics when assessing environmental footprints.

This paper, co-authored by Table member Francesca Harris, calculates the ground and surface water use associated with cereal traded between states in India. It uses a new modelling method based on supply and demand data to quantify sub-national food flows in the absence of relevant food trade data. It reports that 154 km3 of water travels between Indian states through the trade of cereals each year. 41% of the cereals traded are produced in states with over exploited groundwater.

This paper sets out the results of a Life Cycle Assessment of a multispecies pasture rotation (MSPR) system on the White Oak Pastures farm in Georgia, US. It compares the carbon footprint and land area for producing beef, pork and poultry via the MSPR to literature estimates of the impacts of producing the same meats through a “conventional, commodity (COM) production system”.

This blog series from the Future Food Beacon at the University of Nottingham explores the Palaeobenchmarking Resilient Agricultural Systems (PalaeoRAS) research project. The PalaeoRAS project seeks to understand how crops responded to climate stress in the past and might respond in the future. 

This piece from Carbon Brief explains the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a “Green Industrial Revolution” and rounds up media coverage and reactions to each of the points.

This book by Table member Richard Hoffman (Lecturer in Nutritional Biochemistry at the University of Hertfordshire) argues that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial for both health and the environment. It offers tips for eating healthily in an obesogenic environment.

This book by Bram Büscher explores how environmentalists are using the internet and social media platforms to spread their messages, and considers the power dynamics that are at play in the era of “post-truth politics”.

This briefing note from European think-tank ECDPM and the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) provides recommendations on how the European Union can use trade policies and agreement to encourage its trading partners to adopt more sustainable food practices. It stresses the importance of consulting marginalised food systems actors and civil society.