This paper estimates the climate implications of replacing 90% of conventional agricultural production with electrically-powered microbial biomass cultivation. If such a replacement took place before a widespread transition to renewable energy, economy-wide emissions could in fact increase as energy would have been directed away from replacing fossil fuels. If conducted after the transition to renewable energy, the replacement could help to mitigate climate change, producing cooling of between 0.22°C and 0.85°C depending on assumptions about socioeconomic pathways.

This paper discusses the state of the art in indoor vertical farming systems (VFS) as well as future challenges in areas such as product quality, automation, sustainability and socio-economic context.

This report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food examines the evidence supporting agroecology, regenerative, and Indigenous approaches to food systems. It also looks at broader questions of how data is gathered, whose knowledge carries weight and what counts as evidence. It calls for “decolonising and democratising knowledge systems within education, research, and innovation” to help accelerate food systems transformations.

This paper analyses six themes that emerge from discourse on regenerative agriculture and identifies three opportunities for how to use discourse to transform “industrial-productivist” agriculture.

This report from US think-tank The Breakthrough Institute assesses technologies and management practices that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the US beef sector. It estimates that full adoption of existing mitigation options (as special feed additives, composting manure and particular grazing patterns) by 2030 could reduce US beef emissions by 18%. 

This report from the Good Food Institute sets out the current state of the growing seafood alternatives industry, covering the industry’s commercial landscape, investment, sales data, and consumer insights from January 2020 to June 2021. It includes plant-based, cellular agriculture and fermentation-based forms of seafood alternatives.

This article in The Counter argues that, contrary to previous predictions, meat grown via cellular agriculture is unlikely to become economically viable as a mainstream source of food. Citing a competing technical analysis, the article argues that the cost of the equipment needed to grow cells and keep them from contamination is likely to remain prohibitive, as is the cost of animal-ingredient-free versions of the liquid used to feed cells.

This report from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification examines patterns of funding for agricultural innovation in the Global South. It finds that most (60-70%) of the approximately US$60 billion in funding per year comes from governments, particularly the Chinese government, with private corporations providing the next biggest portion (20-25%). Less than 7% of the overall funding is clearly targeted towards sustainable agricultural intensification.

This report from international non-profit GRAIN analyses all food and agriculture grants made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aiming to understand how the Foundation is influencing the food system. It finds that while most of the grants are supposedly targeted towards African farmers, most of the funding actually goes to groups in North America and Europe, including research, development and policy organisations. The report argues that the Foundation has a harmful influence and that its activities gloss over the knowledge, technologies and biodiversity that farmers in the Global South already possess.