This book discusses how the net zero transition and associated changes in land use, farming and diets could affect the UK food system.

This book critiques three approaches to agriculture: Malthusian (expansion of agriculture), industrialisation (dependent on external inputs), and intensification (based on labour). It argues that the world can be fed with an alternative to industrial agriculture, which tends to be overlooked.

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.

The global extent of farmland has peaked and is declining, according to this data visualisation from Our World in Data. The visualisation compares three different sets of data, which disagree on the total extent of agricultural land but which all agree that the peak occurred somewhere between 1990 and 2000. The decline in land use comes from pasture; croplands, on the other hand, are still expanding. In part, the decline in pasture extent is caused by a shift towards intensive grain-fed livestock rearing methods.

Agricultural and forestry products that are traded internationally use around 22% of global agricultural land and account for 27% of global land-use emissions, according to this paper. Land-use emissions include those from both land use change, such as deforestation, and agricultural processes, such as from livestock’s digestive systems. Animal products account for the majority of land use but only 14 to 19% of net embodied emissions. One of the major trends observed between 2004 and 2017 was a decrease in Brazilian export to Europe and the US coinciding with an increase in Brazilian exports to China.

This paper analyses satellite data and finds that the annual rate of carbon loss from tropical forests has doubled between the time periods 2001-05 and 2015-19, primarily driven by agricultural expansion.

Current cropland use could be reduced by 37% to 48%, finds this modelling study of different land-sparing strategies. The paper looks at regional potentials for reducing cropland use and global impacts on crop prices and production levels, finding that more efficient use of land could decrease crop prices and increase global agricultural production by 2.8%. The authors argue that their results can feed into debates about the impacts of afforestation policies - see also the TABLE summary of the paper Land-based climate change mitigation measures can affect agricultural markets and food security.

This report from the WWF considers how agriculture and land use across the UK can be changed to help meet climate commitments while also protecting nature. The key components of its strategy are moving towards agroecological farming practices, tackling nitrogen pollution, restoring natural ecosystems in appropriate locations, and shifting diets. It calls for governments across the UK to support farming communities through financial support, regulation and strong trade standards.

This report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature examines the links between wildlife and emerging human pathogens as well as the origins, drivers and risk factors of zoonotic diseases. It finds that around 99% of the human incidence of zoonoses come from domesticated animals or habitats disrupted by people (for example through the food system), as opposed to from direct exposure to wildlife.