This paper takes a closer look at who the stakeholders are in the debate around livestock, the different narratives that they construct about the livestock problem - and the solutions they propose.  It does this by constructing four scenarios, each of which imagines a different livestock ‘solution,’ and explores the values that underpin them. In 2023, this paper was adapted into a podcast series called "Meat: The Four Futures." Visit the podcast page to learn more.

In this discussion paper, Tara Garnett and colleagues from SLU Sweden consider the productivity-welfare relationship in more detail. They argue that this is a critical issue to understand if we are to improve our knowledge of what more sustainable systems of livestock production and consumption look like.

Some reflections from a meeting between food systems researchers where a number of assumptions were challenged, diverse ethical and philosophical questions raised, and some areas that need further exploration and research identified.  The purpose of this article is to share our reflections with the FCRN community and to seek out your thoughts and ideas about what sort of research and activity is needed next.

This report outlines the work needed to shift societies to consumption patterns that can meet both public health and environmental goals.

The paper begins by highlighting the rationale for focusing on the diets question, and then moves on to discuss definitions of ‘good nutrition’ on the one hand, and ‘sustainability’ on the other.

FCRN organised a workshop whose aim was to bring people together to develop a research agenda on how our eating practices might be shifted in healthier and more sustainable directions.  Particular emphasis was placed on meat eating as an exemplar of an important, yet difficult aspect of our consumption practices, and one with a strong bearing on health and sustainability.

This report provides a detailed and integrative analysis of the dramatic changes in China’s food system over the last 35 years, and explores the linkages among the environmental, health, economic and cultural trends that are emerging. 

This paper describes these emerging perspectives (efficiency, demand restraint, food system transformation) and explores their underlying values; highlights LCA’s role in shaping these perspectives; and considers how LCA could be oriented to clarify thinking and advance policy-relevant knowledge. It argues that more work is needed to understand the values underlying different approaches to the food sustainability problem.

The FCRN’s Tara Garnett, and Charles Godfray of Oxford’s Future of Food programme have lead authored a new paper published in Science, written in collaboration with a range of academics.