In this podcast by the Sustainable Food Trust, molecular geneticist Dr Michael Antoniou explains how regulation of gene editing is changing in the UK, as well as the potential health risks of gene editing.

The UK’s National Food Strategy brought the term “agroecology” into mainstream policy discussions. This policy insight from the Food Research Collaboration traces how different definitions of the term have evolved, with varying degrees of emphasis on agroecology’s agricultural practices and political aims. The National Food Strategy defines agroecology mostly in terms of on-farm activities, rather than as inherently interlinked with wider food system shifts.

This report from IPES Food explores the factors underlying the increase in global food prices, which in April 2022 were 34% higher than a year previously. It focuses on the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as broader structural issues in the global food system, including heavy reliance on food imports, barriers to changes in production systems, excessive speculation in grain markets, and vicious cycles of climate change, poverty, conflict and food insecurity.

This book gives an overview of the concept of “biocultural rights” and the tools that indigenous and local communities can use to protect their ways of life and their rights to land, territories and resources.

This report summarises the work of National Convenors of Food Systems Summit Dialogues in the period following the United Nations Food Systems Summit held in September 2021, with a focus on how “national pathways” are being used to guide national and regional food systems transformations. It argues that there is an urgent need for financing long-term food systems transformations.

This report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food presents 14 case studies of countries that have incorporated food systems into their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) towards meeting the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. It finds that most of the 14 countries have focused their climate efforts on food production as opposed to other parts of the food system such as diet, waste, processing and transport. Many of the assessed NDCs emphasise agroecology and regenerative agriculture as well as ecosystem protection. While many NDCs discuss food systems resilience in the face of climate change, few have put concrete adaptation measures in place.

In this blog post, Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive of UK NGO Sustain, argues that the cost of living crisis in the UK should be tackled using windfall taxes on large corporations that are reporting record profits; Real Living Wages that are linked to the cost of living; strong safety nets such as free school meals for all children; extending the principle of “public money for public goods” to cover more state spending on food; joined-up local responses to food crises, e.g. through local food poverty alliances; and strong accountability in government for action on food poverty.