This book introduces critical mapping as a problematizing, reflective approach for analysing systemic societal problems like food, scoping out existing solutions, and finding opportunities for sustainable design intervention.

This book chapter discusses creating frameworks to increase soil carbon, covering the biophysical evidence on how different practices affect soil carbon, policy options, measurement systems and integration of economic, social and cultural dimensions.

This book gives an overview of how soils and terrestrial systems function and can best be managed. TABLE readers may be particularly interested in the book’s coverage of agricultural soils, pesticides, agriculture on soils affected by salt, organic farming, grazing systems, soil erosion, organic pest management, manure management, and agricultural runoff.

This paper identifies three ways in which digital technologies can support the participation of smallholders in food sustainability: “the tutorial”, “the dashboard” and “the platform”. It is based on 10 case studies of digital sustainability initiatives that use remote sensing technologies (e.g. drones, satellites and sensors), collection of social and economic data, and technologies that allow the creation of a digital identity (e.g. blockchain contracts and digital marketplaces).

This blog post by Caroline Ashley of Forum for the Future argues that we need to reframe our ideas about what farming is: away from the idea of farmers as producers of a specific crop, and towards a concept for farming as land stewardship with farms receiving multiple income streams including payments for ecosystem services.

This report from IDH, the sustainable trade initiative sets out lessons learned from the work of the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, a tool for market investment in sustainable land management such as sustainable forestry, climate mitigation projects and payments for ecosystems services. The report includes case studies on hazelnut production in Bhutan, cocoa and coffee agroforestry in Nicaragua, and sustainable forestry landscapes in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

This paper, based on research with smallholder maize farms in South Africa, argues that the introduction of modern seed varieties (including hybrid and genetically modified seeds) can contribute to “ecological deskilling” and undermine food sovereignty.

This paper, co-authored by Table member Simon Lloyd, simulates the likely implications for hunger and health of subsistence farmers either using a “peasant” (agroecological) or an “entrepreneurial” (input-heavy) style of farming, under a range of scenarios for climate and policy. The paper aims to move away from approaches to food security research that focus on the quantity and quality of food available, and towards one that considers the social and political factors that influence access to food and the viability of different farming options. The study models a generic landscape that is not intended to represent a particular location.

This paper finds that the pest management choices of farmers in Switzerland depend on whether they are advised by public or private extension services (i.e. providers of technical information to farmers). In a survey of 733 Swiss fruit growers dealing with fruit fly infestations, those advised by public extension services were 9-10% more likely to use preventative measures such as nets, while those advised by private extension services were 8-9% more likely to use synthetic insecticides.