Former TABLE intern Wendy Jenkins has recently contributed to an open-access book looking at the many visions on the protein transition, in which over 100 experts present their views on the transition to sustainable protein production and consumption. Their visions cover a wide range of transition directions, from radically rethinking protein production systems to levers of change in shifting protein consumption.

The United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its first pre-market consultation for a food product made from cultivated animal cells. The cultivated chicken product, made by UPSIDE Foods, still has to pass further approval stages before it can be sold to consumers in the US, including inspection of the manufacturing facilities by the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. The process described in the consultation documents uses genetic engineering, antibiotics and bovine serum at various stages, although antibiotics are not used in the main cell growth and differentiation phases.

The Scientific Advisory Board on Agricultural Policy, Food and Consumer Health Protection to the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture has just released an English version of a report on promoting more sustainable food consumption. The report, originally published in 2020 in German, defines policies that integrate consideration of four areas: human health, social aspects, the environment (including climate) and animal welfare. It focuses on designing food environments to support consumers in choosing healthy, sustainable diets.

This report by The Food Foundation sets out the state of the UK’s food system, covering the areas of food affordability, availability and appeal. Headline findings include: the poorest fifth of households would need to spend 47% of their disposable income to afford the Government’s recommended healthy diet, compared to 11% for the richest fifth; a greater proportion (22%) of workers in the food system earn minimum wage or less, compared to 8% across the whole UK; healthier foods are nearly three times more expensive per calorie than less healthy foods; and plant-based milks are on average 60% more expensive than dairy milk.

This report from the UK’s Sustainable Food Trust models the impacts on food production, land use, diets and self-sufficiency of a country-wide switch to sustainable farming methods, based on mixed farming rotations and grazing livestock.

This paper, co-authored by TABLE community member Hayo van der Werf, discusses which environmental issues, data, methods, formats and so on should be used in the environmental labelling of food in France. The motivation for the paper was to consider how the French government’s recent requirements to introduce environmental food labelling can provide relevant information that is feasible to gather.

This report from UK NGO Sustain examines how a proposed trade deal between the UK and Brazil - on which discussions are still only in the early stages - might increase harm caused by pesticides. Pesticide regulations have weakened since Bolsonaro took power in 2019, with harm to environmental or human health no longer informing whether a pesticide should be approved for use.

This policy insight from the UK’s Food Research Collaboration argues that the 2021 Independent Review for the National Food Strategy failed to address the specific nutritional needs of babies and young children. The report identifies eight policy recommendations, including supporting women who wish to breastfeed, regulating the composition, labelling and marketing of foods aimed at young children, and reforming the Healthy Start scheme.