Tara Garnett | TableDebates

Foodsource

Focus: the difficult livestock issue

A central topic of most debates on sustainable food systems is the complex role of livestock, meat and dairy. This is due to their connection to many issues of moral and practical concern related to food systems; affecting both humans and the environment, and animal's own interests. The picture is complex. And because different stakeholders bring different worldviews and perspectives, people often disagree about the appropriate role of livestock, meat, and dairy, in sustainable food systems. Yet demand for meat and dairy consumption is expected to grow considerably, and as a result, debates around livestock-related issues are becoming increasingly prominent. Understanding these helps to provide a broader understanding of food systems more generally.

Plates, pyramids and planets

Plates, pyramids and planet – Developments in national healthy and sustainable dietary guidelines: a state of play assessment

This report evaluates government-issued food-based dietary guidelines from across the globe, looking in particular at whether they make links to environmental sustainability as well as personal health.

Lean mean green obscene

Lean, green, mean, obscene…? What is efficiency? And is it sustainable?

This paper explores these questions by considering how stakeholders think about efficiency in relation to animal production and consumption, both terrestrial and aquatic.

gut

Gut feelings and possible tomorrows: (where) does animal farming fit?

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.

breeding. Source: Wikimedia commons

Breeding for productivity and breeding for welfare: what is the relationship?

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.

efficiency welfare

Animal efficiencies, animal welfare: either/or, or both/and? Some Reflections from an Informal Meeting

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.

changing

Changing what we eat: A call for research & action on widespread adoption of sustainable healthy eating

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

sustainable healthy diet. Source: Wikimedia commons

What is a sustainable healthy diet?

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.

sustainable diets. Source: Wikimedia commons

Changing to healthier & more sustainable diets: how can this be achieved?

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.