This report from Cambridge Consultants examines the technologies and data science techniques that can be used to measure soil carbon cheaply and accurate, enabling farmers to sell carbon sequestration credits.

This perspective article, co-authored by several Table members including Christian Reynolds, discusses the possibilities and challenges of using natural language processing and artificial intelligence to assess the nutritional and sustainability characteristics of recipes. The authors conclude that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary, combining artificial intelligence with expert domain knowledge.

In this article for the Institute of Food Technologists, Liz Specht of the Good Food Institute explores the role that microbial fermentation can play in the alternative protein sector. Specht groups microbial fermentation techniques into three classes: traditional fermentation such as cheese and yoghurt; biomass fermentation such as Quorn and tempeh; and precision fermentation for producing specific molecules, e.g. the heme protein used by Impossible Foods.

This paper describes a method for irrigating agricultural soils in areas that are prone to drought or do not have access to water supplies. The system is based on a “super moisture absorbent gel” (SMAG), which absorbs moisture from the atmosphere and then releases it to the crops when heated by the sun. 

This paper finds that the pest management choices of farmers in Switzerland depend on whether they are advised by public or private extension services (i.e. providers of technical information to farmers). In a survey of 733 Swiss fruit growers dealing with fruit fly infestations, those advised by public extension services were 9-10% more likely to use preventative measures such as nets, while those advised by private extension services were 8-9% more likely to use synthetic insecticides.

This report by the Cornell Atkinson Centre for Sustainability and Nature Sustainability examines the technological scope for moving to food systems that are healthy, equitable, resilient and sustainable. It finds that successfully scaling up promising technologies depends on specific “biophysical, political, socio-economic, and cultural contexts”, and therefore proposes creating “socio-technical innovation bundles” that are customised to the relevant context.

This book by Bram Büscher explores how environmentalists are using the internet and social media platforms to spread their messages, and considers the power dynamics that are at play in the era of “post-truth politics”.

This report from the non-profit Good Food Institute reviews the current status of fermentation technologies in the alternative protein industry. It covers traditional fermentation (e.g. tempeh, cheese, yoghurt), biomass fermentation (where microbial biomass is used as an ingredient, e.g. the filamentous fungi in Quorn) and precision fermentation (where a specific component is extracted from the biomass, e.g. Perfect Day’s dairy proteins and Impossible Foods’ heme protein).