This paper identifies three ways in which digital technologies can support the participation of smallholders in food sustainability: “the tutorial”, “the dashboard” and “the platform”. It is based on 10 case studies of digital sustainability initiatives that use remote sensing technologies (e.g. drones, satellites and sensors), collection of social and economic data, and technologies that allow the creation of a digital identity (e.g. blockchain contracts and digital marketplaces).

In this article for The Counter, author Sarah Mock describes her research with farmers across the United States. In writing her book, she originally set out to prove that agriculture should be organised around small family farms, but found that few farms of this type were financially stable. Instead, she delves into why small family farms are romanticised in the United States, discussing the history of land enclosure and subsidies.

Research programme PASTRES (Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience: Global Lessons from the Margins) has produced this report, which argues that debates around livestock’s climate impacts are distorted by a focus on intensive production systems in rich countries. It argues that these debates ignore the millions of people who depend on relatively low-impact forms of extensive livestock production, and makes suggestions for how to include pastoralists in debates on the future of food.

This paper, co-authored by TABLE’s Ken Giller, looks at trends in farming systems and land ownership to explore who the farmers of the future might be, with a focus on the future of smallholder farming. 

This report from international non-profit GRAIN analyses all food and agriculture grants made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aiming to understand how the Foundation is influencing the food system. It finds that while most of the grants are supposedly targeted towards African farmers, most of the funding actually goes to groups in North America and Europe, including research, development and policy organisations. The report argues that the Foundation has a harmful influence and that its activities gloss over the knowledge, technologies and biodiversity that farmers in the Global South already possess.