In this report IFPRI describes the major food policy issues, developments, and decisions of 2014 and highlights challenges and opportunities for 2015.

In this commentary in Independent Science News researchers at University Pierre and Marie Curie/CNRS -National Center for Scientific Research in France discuss the concept of food sovereignty and whether or not it potentially provides a feasible and sustainable solution to feed the rural poor.

In this article published in the Economist, Jimmy Smith, director of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) argues that the livestock issue requires a differentiated approach.

FAO has launched a new online platform, which provides access to resources on developing sustainable food value chains (SFVC). The goal is for SFVC development to provide a flexible framework to improve food systems, reducing poverty and hunger in a sustainable manner.  FAO’s platform will include:

BBSRC - Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council has released a report on sustainable intensification (SI) together with an invitation for interested parties to comment. Responses received will be taken into account in addressing the group’s recommendations.

In this blog post for Global Food Security, former FAO agricultural economist Andrew MacMillan says the doctrine that food prices should be kept as low as possible to end hunger is wrong.

This paper critiques the concept of sustainable intensification as follows: “Though often lauded by scientists and policy makers alike as a panacea to the mass environmental degradation that accompanies typical food production processes, the authors find that ‘sustainable intensification’ is actually highly unsustainable as it fails to consider the long run social, economic and ecological consequences of intensified production. Thus the authors aim to redefine the scope of the discourse, moving beyond simple calls for increased production capacities to instead enmesh food security within a more holistic approach to development which requires better governance, more empowerment, and greater access and fairer distribution of food within more resilient food systems. Ultimately, sustainable intensification is rendered worthless if those facing dire food insecurity remain unable to access the yields of increasing production.“ 

This study calculates that crops grown on land obtained through large scale acquisitions in developing countries could potentially feed 100 million more people than current practices do today.

In the wake of the IPCC’s Working Group II report, Oxfam has published a briefing that focuses on the implications of climate change for food security and hunger.