This report from the International Fund for Agricultural Development argues that food systems need to be transformed or even “disrupted” dramatically so that everyone has access to sustainable, nutritious food. The report sees governance as key to this transformation, for example by providing incentives for agroecological and nature-based strategies, supporting smaller-scale producers, incorporating environmental costs into the pricing of food, and building partnerships between different food systems actors.

The UN Food Systems Summit has published a synthesis of hundreds of independent dialogues that are taking place in advance of the Summit. The report identifies ten themes that emerged from the dialogues.

This report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food sets out a framework (and a worked example of using the framework) to guide the actions of individuals and organisations working on systems transformation. The framework is built around the seven principles of the Global Alliance, which are: renewability, resilience, health, equity, diversity, inclusion, and interconnectedness.

This paper proposes a “Sustainability Compass” that uses a hierarchical approach to define sustainability scores for four aspects of food systems: health, environment, economy and equity. The framework is designed to evaluate food policies, including by drawing attention to trade-offs and synergies across different goals. The paper suggests that the Compass can be used during agenda setting, policy formulation, decision-making and policy evaluation.

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 report from the United Nations Food Systems Summit synthesises the results of preparatory dialogues held by 11 UN Member States, as of 13 April 2021. The dialogues are designed to bring together a range of stakeholders in national food systems to discuss the issues faced by governments in promoting sustainable food.

This paper argues that the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is being used by large corporations, philanthropic organisations and export-oriented countries to take control of the narrative around food systems transformation and undermine more democratic forms of food systems governance. It analyses how the Summit was organised and how stakeholders were selected to take part.

This report from PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, co-authored by Table’s Jeroen Candel, analyses the current interface between science and policy for global food systems, identifies current gaps and weaknesses, and suggests options for improvement.

This paper argues that the way the concept of “biodiversity” is defined and used is blocking progress in protecting nature. It notes that the mainstream Western conservation movement tends to focus on charismatic species and wilderness.