This report by the UNFCCC-supported Race to Zero sets out the implications for financial institutions of the shift towards sustainable land use. It sets out the policy landscape around limiting deforestation and land conversion for commodity production, as well as the financial losses in the food and agriculture sector caused by climate-linked disasters. It argues that investors are overlooking the risks to the financial value of 40 of the world’s largest food and agriculture firms that could be caused by new policies and changing consumer attitudes. It concludes that financial institutions need to do more to eliminate deforestation and land conversion from their portfolios, invest in nature-based solutions and advocate for just rural transition policies.

This report from the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate assesses the opportunities and challenges of three alternatives to meat: plant-based (marketed as nearly equivalent to meat), insects and cultured meat. Its modelling results suggest that a shift from meat towards meat alternatives in high and upper middle income countries could lower global land use and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land use; it would also lower global prices of meats, soybeans and cereals, producing benefits for consumers but putting economic pressure on farmers.

A free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the UK and India could weaken pesticide standards in the UK and could also place UK farmers under pressure from cheaper imports, according to this report from Pesticide Action Network UK, Sustain Alliance and trade expert Dr Emily Lydgate.

This book examines the politics and narratives around so-called “superfoods” such as quinoa, kale and rooibos tea, discussing their links to intellectual property, marketing, venture capital and more.

This memo from the One Health Poultry Hub explores the power dynamics that lead to corporate concentration in the livestock industries in low- and middle-income countries, using poultry in India as a case study. It uses an analytical framework that examines agricultural subsidies, financialisation, trade liberalisation and infrastructure at the global, national and subnational levels.

A group of 33 institutional investors, holding over US$14 trillion assets, have written to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to ask for a clear global roadmap for the transition to a sustainable food system by 2050. They raise concern about the financial risks to which the food system is exposed as a result of environmental damage, and ask for clear targets on emissions reduction (including methane) within each food subsector. The letter is coordinated by the FAIRR Initiative.

Agricultural and forestry products that are traded internationally use around 22% of global agricultural land and account for 27% of global land-use emissions, according to this paper. Land-use emissions include those from both land use change, such as deforestation, and agricultural processes, such as from livestock’s digestive systems. Animal products account for the majority of land use but only 14 to 19% of net embodied emissions. One of the major trends observed between 2004 and 2017 was a decrease in Brazilian export to Europe and the US coinciding with an increase in Brazilian exports to China.

In April 2022, 7.3 million adults in the UK either had smaller meals or skipped meals, did not eat despite being hungry, or did not eat for a whole day because they could not afford or access food, according to new data from The Food Foundation. The number of people affected is higher than in January 2022, with The Food Foundation attributing the rise in food insecurity to rising food prices as well as higher energy bills, petrol prices and inflation (7% as of March 2022).