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.

This Research Brief from the Centre for Food Policy, aimed primarily at policymakers, lists 45 actions that have a direct pathway to impact across five environmental sustainability dimensions (greenhouse gas emissions, chemical pollution, freshwater resources, biodiversity and soil health). It groups the actions into five domains: land use in agriculture; the environmental impacts of agriculture; wild fishery and aquaculture sustainability; food loss and waste; and dietary change.

This paper studies how a top-down (i.e. state-led) food sovereignty policy in Bolivia was negatively impacted by the “corporate food regime”. Food sovereignty was included as a central element of Bolivia’s new constitution in 2009, and regulations were introduced to prioritise food from small-scale farmers in school feeding programmes.

December 2022 saw the signing of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an international agreement on tackling biodiversity loss, at the COP15 meeting of parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The framework sets out four goals for 2050, relating to the maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems, achieving sustainable development, fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and securing equitable access for all framework parties to the financial and other resources needed to implement the framework.

This report by the animal welfare campaign group Compassion in World Farming outlines and makes counterarguments to four narratives that it argues are being used to justify factory farming, i.e. intensive livestock farming based on high levels of edible crops as feed inputs. The four narratives are: that factory farming is necessary to feed a growing global population; that it is efficient; that it is a source of cheap food; and that it is compatible with climate mitigation targets. The report also examines the influence of large animal feed production companies on the food system.

This report by the UK’s Food Foundation examines the challenges faced by families in the UK who are unable to access certain public services as a result of the “No Recourse to Public Funds” (NRPF) conditions attached to their immigration status, for example while seeking asylum. Based on interviews with affected families, the study finds that the hostile environment towards immigrants created by UK government policy contributes to a “state of perpetual instability” in relation to people’s ability to access adequate shelter and income - and hence contributing to food insecurity and dietary inequalities.

This paper explores how the food industry was able to influence and weaken the 2018 Dutch prevention agreement on overweight, using documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests. It argues that so-called voluntary agreements - a form of governance developed through negotiation between public and private stakeholders - is too susceptible to industry influence, and that stronger public regulation is a better alternative.