This book, by Anita Tull, explores some of the challenges that food and cooking skills education faces.

In this paper, the researchers evaluated the legal and administrative feasibility of enacting a US federal junk food tax to improve diets.

This report, authored by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and commissioned by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, shows how food systems affect health through multiple, interconnected pathways, generating severe human and economic costs – and points to levers that can help to address the critical health issues and compounding factors that contribute to poor health, such as climate change, poverty and inequality, and unsanitary conditions.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has published a report titled, ‘Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition,’ focused on Asia and the Pacific. Key messages from the report highlight that the fight against hunger is slowing, but malnutrition and stunting among children below the age of five remains high.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, schools chancellor Carmen Fariña and Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams announced that 15 Brooklyn schools will participate in Meatless Mondays in spring 2018. The program will provide participating schools with healthy, all-vegetarian breakfast and lunch menus every Monday. The NYC mayor, First Lady Chirlane McCray and Gracie Mansion will also go meatless for all Monday meals.

Public policy action tank Brighter Green has published a discussion paper on changing food environments and the effects on global public health. Author Judy Bankman examines the challenges created by the recent and swift adoption of a “Western”-style diet in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This study by US- and New Zealand-based researchers estimates the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2) on the edible protein content of crop plants, and subsequently on protein intake and protein deficiency risk globally, by country. The basis for this study is that 76% of the world’s population derives most of their daily protein from plants, and that a meta-analysis by Myers, et al. (2014) revealed that plant nutrient content (of various types including protein, iron and zinc) changes under elevated CO2.

This book aimed at an academic audience is edited by A. Bryce Hoflund, John C. Jones and Michelle C. Pautz. It has sections on topics such as the regulation of food, food insecurity and the role of local food system in public health.

This is a baseline report by research consortium INHERIT funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. The INHERIT project aims to identify effective inter-sectoral policies, interventions and innovations that enable a ‘triple win’ by reducing environmental impacts, improving health and wellbeing, and generating greater health equity.