OUR WRITING KeywordsAgri-food systemAgricultural biodiversityAgricultural innovationAgricultural intensificationAgricultural lossesAgricultural monocultureAgricultural productionAgricultural productivityAgricultural yieldAgroecologyAgroforestry/silvopastureAlcoholic drinksAlternative food movementAlternative proteinAlternatives to intensive farmingAnimal feedAnimal welfareAnthropoceneAnthropocentrismAquacultureArable crops and arable landBeefBig foodBiodiversityBiodiversity conservationBioenergyBiological nitrogen fixationBiotechnologyCarbon footprintCarbon sequestrationCarbon sinksCarbon sinks and sequestrationChicken/poultryClimate changeClimate change impactsClimate policyCommunicable diseasesConservation biologyConsumer food choice appsConsumer perceptions and preferencesConsumptionConsumption and production trendsConventional agricultureCorporate food regimeCrop diversityCrop systemsCrop-livestock integrationCulture & communityDairyDeforestationDeforestation riskDevelopment policiesDietary guidelinesDietary surveyEcomodernismEconomics, business, and tradeEcosystemEcosystem restorationEcosystem servicesEcosystems & biodiversityEcosystems and ecosystem servicesEnvironmental & Social ImpactsEnvironmental impact assessmentsEnvironmental policyFarmingFarming systemsFeed conversion efficiencyFish stocks/overfishingFish/aquatic typesFisheriesFlexitarianismFood and agriculture policyFood and healthFood chainFood consumptionFood cultureFood justiceFood policyFood securityFood sovereigntyFood supplements/nutritional enhancementFood System TransformationFood systemsFood systems thinkingFood systems: an introductionFood systems: research methodsFood waste/surplus foodFruitFuture of foodGenderGHG emission trendsGHG emissions and mitigationGHG impacts and mitigationGHGsGlobal healthGlobal warming potentialGovernance, policy, and powerGrazed and confusedGrazing and grasslandGreen economy/alternative economic modelsGWP*Health and nutrition policyHealth concernsHorticulture and fruit treesHousehold food consumptionHuman health & wellbeingHungerIndustrial food manufacturingIndustry actions/CSRInequalityInsectsIntensive agricultureInvasive speciesInvestmentLand governanceLand sparing - sharingLand systems & changeLand useLand use and land use changeLegumes/pulsesLife cycleLife cycle analysisLivestockLivestock on LeftoversLocal foodMalnutritionMalnutrition/undernourishmentMarine and aquatic ecosystemsMarketsMeatMeat and taboos/religious beliefsMeat, Dairy & LivestockMethaneMilkMitigation policiesMonogastricMultiple burdens of malnutritionNitrogenNitrogen fixationNon-communicable diseasesNutritionNutritionismOrganicOrganic farmingOvernutritionPalm oilPlant/crop sciencePolitical economyPolitics & ParadigmsPorkPost-harvest lossesPoverty alleviationPower & ProteinProduction efficiency/intensityProteinProtein malnutrition and PEM (Protein-energy malnutrition)Public attitudesRegenerative agricultureRegenerative grazingResearch methodsResilience and vulnerabilityRewildingRuminantRuminantsScaleScience and backgroundSmallholder (farms)Soil healthSoilsSoySoy MoratoriumSpotlight onStandards/certificationStorage and refrigerationSubstitutes for meat & dairySupply chainsSustainable development goalsSustainable food securitySustainable healthy dietsSustainable intensificationTechnology & innovationThe Great Protein FiascoTradeUltra-processed foodUltra-processed food (UPF)UndernutritionUrban agricultureUrban food systemsVegetablesVegetarianism/veganismWater footprintWater managementWater use/consumptionWritten materialsZoonotic diseases TypeEssayExplainerLetterboxPublication RegionAfricaAsiaAustralasiaEuropeGlobalLatin America and the CaribbeanMiddle-eastNorth America Year201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Regenerative Agriculture This is a brief summary of the longer TABLE Explainer “What is regenerative agriculture?”.It aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates surrounding regenerative agriculture. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer.Written by Jack Bosanquet Read Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Ecomodernism This piece is a summary of the TABLE Explainer What is Ecomodernism? and aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer. Read Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Land Sparing-Sharing This is a brief summary of the longer TABLE Explainer “What is the land sparing-sharing continuum?”.It aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates surrounding the land sharing-sparing continuum. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer.Written by Jack Bosanquet Read Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: What is Feed Food Competition? This piece is a summary of the TABLE Explainer What is feed-food competition? and aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer. Read Image Essay Groundswell 2024: questions for regenerative agriculture at the festival The annual regenerative agriculture festival has grown enormously in recent years. TABLE team members were fascinated by the event’s confidence, dynamic energy and environmental convictions - and found questions about what the regenerative movement means beyond the farm gate to be in the air but not yet answered. Read Image Essay How can feminist perspectives illuminate our vision(s) for meat? In a piece originally published by the Feminist Food Journal, Tamsin Blaxter uses a feminist lens to examine how gender shapes the ways in which we interpret and project certain futures for meat.The Feminist Food Journal (FFJ) is an online publication that explores food and culture through an intersectional and global feminist lens.An audio version of this essay will be available from FFJ shortly. The FEED Podcast is also producing an episode in collaboration with FFJ, due out later this year. Read Image Explainer Nature Knows Best? Naturalness in the Ultra-Processed Foods Debate The idea that more natural food – food which hasn’t been transformed by human and industrial intervention – is best for us is a powerful one. Psychologists have found a strong preference for that which is “natural”, even when people differ in what they understand that term to mean. But naturalness is a muddle – we are often signalled by advertising to see heavily manufactured foods as “natural”; the pioneers of cereal manufacturing were the greatest advocates of “natural” food in the early 20th century; and it’s rare that crops, which have been manipulated by human breeding over millennia, are seen as “unnatural”.If naturalness is a slippery idea, though, it is still undeniably compelling. At the moment, nowhere is the preference for naturalness when it comes to the food we eat more prevalent than in concerns expressed over ultra-processed foods (UPFs). But does the idea that naturalness is inherently best set up a misleading dichotomy between nature and technology that doesn’t serve the interests of a more sustainable and equitable food future? Does a narrow focus on processing itself misplace bigger questions of power and agency on the one hand, and unhelpfully dismiss scientific techniques on the other? We explore these questions in our latest explainer, Nature Knows Best? Naturalness in the Ultra-Processed Foods Debate.https://www.doi.org/10.56661/f76228c7 Read Image Essay Deconstructing Weetabix: What my family farm's supply chain taught me about power In this blog, Jack Thompson traces the supply chain of his family farm’s wheat to UK cereal manufacturer, Weetabix. In mapping every stage, he reveals where power is concentrated in arable farming: seed monopolies, fertiliser companies, machinery companies and grain merchants. He argues that this consolidation of agribusiness is driving not only environmental and social harm, but is a leading reason for the farmer protests in Europe. This article was originally published in Vittles, an online magazine based in the UK and India, publishing new food and culture writing. It was written by TABLE's research and communications officer, Jack Thompson. Read Image Publication Explorando los flujos y contraflujos de la Agricultura Regenerativa, la Agricultura Orgánica y la Agroecología Los movimientos regenerativo, orgánico y agroecológico comparten muchas preocupaciones y ofrecen soluciones aparentemente similares. Por lo tanto, en TABLE comenzamos a preguntarnos si tal vez se trata de intentos repetidos de articular las mismas cosas, o si existen diferencias sustantivas. Originalmente publicado en inglés, en octubre de 2021, el Dr. George Cusworth (U Oxford) y Rachel Carlile (U Edimburgo) trabajaron con la diseñadora gráfica Emily Liang (WUR) para desarrollar un diagrama que articule las similitudes y diferencias de estos movimientos agrícolas. Read VIEW MORE
Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Regenerative Agriculture This is a brief summary of the longer TABLE Explainer “What is regenerative agriculture?”.It aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates surrounding regenerative agriculture. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer.Written by Jack Bosanquet Read
Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Ecomodernism This piece is a summary of the TABLE Explainer What is Ecomodernism? and aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer. Read
Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Land Sparing-Sharing This is a brief summary of the longer TABLE Explainer “What is the land sparing-sharing continuum?”.It aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates surrounding the land sharing-sparing continuum. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer.Written by Jack Bosanquet Read
Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: What is Feed Food Competition? This piece is a summary of the TABLE Explainer What is feed-food competition? and aims to define the concept and illuminate key debates. Citations and references for the information discussed below can be found in the full explainer. Read
Image Essay Groundswell 2024: questions for regenerative agriculture at the festival The annual regenerative agriculture festival has grown enormously in recent years. TABLE team members were fascinated by the event’s confidence, dynamic energy and environmental convictions - and found questions about what the regenerative movement means beyond the farm gate to be in the air but not yet answered. Read
Image Essay How can feminist perspectives illuminate our vision(s) for meat? In a piece originally published by the Feminist Food Journal, Tamsin Blaxter uses a feminist lens to examine how gender shapes the ways in which we interpret and project certain futures for meat.The Feminist Food Journal (FFJ) is an online publication that explores food and culture through an intersectional and global feminist lens.An audio version of this essay will be available from FFJ shortly. The FEED Podcast is also producing an episode in collaboration with FFJ, due out later this year. Read
Image Explainer Nature Knows Best? Naturalness in the Ultra-Processed Foods Debate The idea that more natural food – food which hasn’t been transformed by human and industrial intervention – is best for us is a powerful one. Psychologists have found a strong preference for that which is “natural”, even when people differ in what they understand that term to mean. But naturalness is a muddle – we are often signalled by advertising to see heavily manufactured foods as “natural”; the pioneers of cereal manufacturing were the greatest advocates of “natural” food in the early 20th century; and it’s rare that crops, which have been manipulated by human breeding over millennia, are seen as “unnatural”.If naturalness is a slippery idea, though, it is still undeniably compelling. At the moment, nowhere is the preference for naturalness when it comes to the food we eat more prevalent than in concerns expressed over ultra-processed foods (UPFs). But does the idea that naturalness is inherently best set up a misleading dichotomy between nature and technology that doesn’t serve the interests of a more sustainable and equitable food future? Does a narrow focus on processing itself misplace bigger questions of power and agency on the one hand, and unhelpfully dismiss scientific techniques on the other? We explore these questions in our latest explainer, Nature Knows Best? Naturalness in the Ultra-Processed Foods Debate.https://www.doi.org/10.56661/f76228c7 Read
Image Essay Deconstructing Weetabix: What my family farm's supply chain taught me about power In this blog, Jack Thompson traces the supply chain of his family farm’s wheat to UK cereal manufacturer, Weetabix. In mapping every stage, he reveals where power is concentrated in arable farming: seed monopolies, fertiliser companies, machinery companies and grain merchants. He argues that this consolidation of agribusiness is driving not only environmental and social harm, but is a leading reason for the farmer protests in Europe. This article was originally published in Vittles, an online magazine based in the UK and India, publishing new food and culture writing. It was written by TABLE's research and communications officer, Jack Thompson. Read
Image Publication Explorando los flujos y contraflujos de la Agricultura Regenerativa, la Agricultura Orgánica y la Agroecología Los movimientos regenerativo, orgánico y agroecológico comparten muchas preocupaciones y ofrecen soluciones aparentemente similares. Por lo tanto, en TABLE comenzamos a preguntarnos si tal vez se trata de intentos repetidos de articular las mismas cosas, o si existen diferencias sustantivas. Originalmente publicado en inglés, en octubre de 2021, el Dr. George Cusworth (U Oxford) y Rachel Carlile (U Edimburgo) trabajaron con la diseñadora gráfica Emily Liang (WUR) para desarrollar un diagrama que articule las similitudes y diferencias de estos movimientos agrícolas. Read
