Environmentalist Vandana Shiva argues food is the currency of life, indivisible from Earth and its natural systems. She claims to unpack the false promises of technology and reveal the dangers of UPFs and take a stand on a future based on the natural regeneration of biodiversity. 

This report by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) identifies opportunities to reduce species loss by improving practices in corn, beans and coffee. It warns that conservation offers biodiversity gains but can also lead to agricultural intensification which drives biodiversity loss, a phenomenon known as the Jevons paradox. 

The paper explores to what extent ruminant farming can enhance and preserve biodiversity, and calculates what would be an equivalent level of consumption. It found that with biodiverse-friendly grazing production, an average person could consume 2.2kg of milk per year and 0.8 kg of red meat. 

The study analyses how crop diversity impacts yield stability at a national scale, and finds that the stabilising effect of crop diversity increases as the land area increases. This doesn’t diminish the importance of field-level diversity, but it has implications for national strategies to diversify crop production. 

The report, produced by Nature Friendly Farming Network and the Wildlife Trust, finds that a modelled reduction of farming inputs; pesticides, fertilisers and animal feeds, would result in commercial gains for 165 UK farmers. They refer to this balancing act as the ‘Maximum Sustainable Output’ -- the point where a farm achieves maximum output while harnessing the natural resources available to it.

A new report from the UK’s biodiversity certification scheme Fair to Nature explores the topic of nature-friendly and wildlife-friendly farming. The report cites previous consumer research conducted by Fair to Nature which has demonstrated that a majority of consumers in the UK feel more positively about brands that have a certification label related to wildlife and biodiversity protection in the UK. 

Maintaining biodiversity is key to a healthy food system; for example it is critical for the functioning of agroecosystems (influencing factors like soil health and the hydrological cycle) and it ensures genetic diversity in crops and animals. This paper assesses whether biodiversity-focused nature-base solutions (NbS) - the management and utilisation of nature to address sustainability challenges - provide a viable solution to the challenge of maintaining both biodiversity and a sustainable food system.