This paper, co-authored by Table member Georg Andersson, evaluates the trade-offs between greenhouse gas emissions, calorie output and biodiversity for several farm types in Sweden. It finds that while no one farm type maximises on-farm performance for all categories simultaneously, there is potential to manage the trade-offs, for example by reducing the land used for dairy farming in favour of both cropping for food production and extensive livestock grazing.

This paper, co-authored by Table member Prof Ken Giller, investigates how herbicide use impacts casual labour patterns on farms in Central Malawi. It finds that while herbicides can be beneficial for the households using them, herbicide use can replace some casual labour. This results in many households going hungry as they cannot find work. The study is based on a survey of 275 households as well as consultation with village leaders. 

This paper finds that suddenly banning wild meat from diets and markets, for example in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, could put some countries at risk of food insecurity, require an extra 124,000km2 of land to rear livestock as a replacement, and drive an additional 267 species towards extinction.

This systematic review examines the impacts on environment, food security and human health of seven types of plastic used in the food system. The authors created an interactive evidence map, which can be viewed here. Most publications focused on the agricultural stage, with fewer looking at retail, household or food waste disposal. There is relatively little evidence on the impacts of food system plastics in low- and middle- income countries.

In this blog post, published by the Resilience of the UK Food System in a Global Context research programme, Dr John Ingram of the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute argues that, contrary to public perceptions, the Australian food system is at growing risk of disruption from droughts, floods, an aging farmer population, or potential shocks such as a reduced ability to export beef to China due to bluetongue disease.

This article in The Atlantic explores the role that phosphorus - long thought to be a limiting factor in the productivity of the biosphere - plays in the food system. Phosphorus fertiliser has historically come from bones, phosphate rock deposits and human waste. Today, while there are fears of a shortage of mined phosphorus, phosphorus runoff also pollutes water and harms aquatic ecosystems. Companies are now trying to close the phosphorus loop by recovering the fertiliser from human sewage and animal waste.

This book argues that transitioning from today’s industrial food system towards a more sustainable system requires cultural shifts. The author draws inspiration from themes in the Homeric epics to propose a new environmental governance model based on “eco‐states responsible for agroecological management”.

This book examines the relationship between capitalism and the commons. Table readers may be particularly interested in the book’s discussion of agricultural land ownership and squatting, agroecological networks in Colombia, and women’s access to land in Africa.

This book reviews the environmental impacts of livestock production, covering life cycle assessment, livestock’s contributions to greenhouse gas emissions including methane, the impacts of pig and sheep production, and strategies for improving the environmental performance of intensive poultry production.