The National Food Strategy, an independent review led by Henry Dimbleby for the UK Government, sets out a vision for the future food system, focusing primarily on England. Describing itself as “an interventionist strategy”, it aims to change diets between 2019 and 2032 to include 30% more fruit and vegetables, 50% more fibre, 25% less HFSS food (high in fat, sugar or salt), and 30% less meat (of all kinds).

This paper compares detailed nutritional properties of burgers made from a plant-based meat replacement (based on soy) and from grass-fed ground beef. It concludes that, although the macronutrient contents (e.g. protein, fat) of both options are similar enough that consumers reading nutrition labels may view them as nutritionally interchangeable, there are significant differences between the two in the levels of 171 out of 190 metabolites studied. 

In this paper, TABLE member Philippa Simmonds analyses the debate around meat taxes in the UK, using media analysis and interviews with key stakeholders, and assesses how perspectives in the debate align with various political ideologies. 

In this paper, George Cusworth, Tara Garnett and Jamie Lorimer of the Oxford Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project explore six narratives about the role that legumes can play in the future European food system. They identify three issues that these narratives are responding to as well as three areas of consensus about the potential of legumes.

On 9 July 2021, TABLE and the Global Alliance for the Future of Food co-hosted an “Ask The Author” session with Carl Obst (IDEAA-group) and Lauren Baker (GA), discussing Chapter 1 "From Practice to Policy: New Metrics for the 21st Century", from the new 2021 book True Cost Accounting for Food: Balancing the Scale.

The Wageningen Alternative Protein Project, a student-led initiative, has launched a new podcast series on alternative protein and the technologies used to produce it.

A pilot of environmental labelling on selected food products is launching in the UK in September 2021. The aim of the pilot is to test consumer responses ahead of a roll-out across the UK and European Union in 2022. The scheme is run by UK non-profit Foundation Earth and supported by supermarkets and food brands including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Co-op Food, Nestlé and Tyson Foods. 

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 book gives an overview of research methods used in the study of the relationship between food and digital and social media. Chapters cover textual analysis of websites and videos, digital ethnography, digital food networks, the influence of apps and social media on food habits, and digital archives and network analysis.