The World Economic Forum and Oxford Martin School have released a white paper on alternative proteins, which examines the narratives surrounding such foods, their environmental and health impacts, and the political and regulatory factors impacting their uptake.

This paper surveyed food shoppers in Toronto to find the links between socioeconomic status and food preferences. It finds that the shoppers with the highest socioeconomic status tend to be motivated by both aesthetic and ethical concerns when choosing food.

People tend to underestimate the greenhouse gas emissions and energy use associated with different food types, according to this paper, but are likely to buy lower-emission food types when provided with information on greenhouse gas emissions.

The Food Ethics Council has created a new website about food citizenship, aimed at changemakers in the food and farming system, arguing that it is easier to influence the food system when people think of themselves as citizens rather than consumers.

The Dutch government-funded healthy eating agency Voedingscentrum has launched a new campaign encouraging men who eat a lot of meat to reduce their consumption. FCRN member Corné van Dooren says that men, on average, could eat 400g less meat per week to meet guidelines, while women could eat 100g less.

This feature in the Guardian explores the reasons for the rapid growth of the anti-plastic movement. It also describes historical lobbying campaigns that painted plastic packaging as being the responsibility of the consumer rather than manufacturers, and outlines some of the issues associated with recycling plastic (in comparison to recycling, say, glass or metals).

In the book The End of Animal Farming, author Jacy Reese examines the social forces, technologies and activism that he argues will lead to the end of animal agriculture.

The book “Food, Politics, and Society: Social Theory and the Modern Food System”, by Alejandro Colas, Jason Edwards, Jane Levi, and Sami Zubaida, surveys how social theory has shaped our understanding of the food system.

13% of the UK population is now vegetarian or vegan, while a further 21% identify as “flexitarian”, according to the 2018-19 edition of the Food and Drink Report by supermarket chain Waitrose & Partners. Among other food trends, the report also discusses plastic packaging, claiming that 88% of survey participants who had watched the final episode of the wildlife documentary Blue Planet II have changed how they use plastic.