This paper explores the links between market power - i.e. the influence that a firm or group of firms has over customers or suppliers - and the resilience of food supply chains to shocks, focusing on the UK as an example. It finds that market power can produce both positive and negative effects on resilience. 

This feature in The Guardian newspaper profiles the work of Oritain, a firm that assesses whether the geographical origins of products such as tea, fish, beef, apples, cotton and wool match the claims made on their labels. This is possible because regions often have unique ratios of elements, which can then be detected in the product. The feature discusses how the technology has been used to detect fraud, as well as its limitations with regards to the environmental or social impacts of production.

Ian Wright of the UK’s Food & Drink Federation, which represents food manufacturers, has warned that the just-in-time system on which the UK’s supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants have relied is “no longer working” and may not work again. In his view, the UK could face “permanent shortages” in the sense of not all products being available all the time.

Industrial-scale supply chains in the fresh produce sector are forcing farmers to adopt environmentally damaging practices, argues this Food Research Collaboration blog post by Rebecca Laughton of the UK’s Landworkers’ Alliance. Laughton suggests that local or decentralised supply chains are a better option for farmers, for example vegetable box schemes that connect agroecological farms to consumers.

This free online book explores how consumers, nations, and international organisations can work together to improve food systems and restore ecosystems and their ability to provide for people.

This report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food profiles how various food initiatives have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of demonstrating that transformative food system change is possible. Case studies include a non-profit distributor of sustainably grown food in Philadelphia, a food bank in Lagos, Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture and “solidarity kitchens” in Rio de Janeiro.

This book offers a range of case studies to illustrate how food systems can be designed for sustainability, covering food supply chains, new food experiences such as food robots in restaurants, methods for food and sustainability education, and food community engagement.

This paper argues that novel foods such as microalgae, mycoprotein, molluscs and mealworm can be important sources of nutrition that are resilient to disturbances such as climate change, trade restrictions and disease.