‘The food system is broken’ says Oxfam. Government scientific advisors warn of a ‘perfect storm’ of global events influenced by, and with, potentially catastrophic consequences for the food system. Organisations are launched to tackle the challenges posed by the ‘food-water-energy nexus.’ Some take a more political stance, and demand ‘food justice’ and ‘food sovereignty.’

Food and its sustainable provisioning is becoming of increasing interest to researchers as well as policy makers world-wide. In the European context, sustainable food production and consumption has deserved particular attention and the EU research agenda has been devoted to various aspects of sustainable food system research. The term “sustainable diets” was introduced a few years back as “those diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations” (FAO, 2012). Numerous researchers and practitioners have since taken on the challenge of defining what sustainable diets might mean in their particular context as well as integrating sustainability aspects into national nutritional recommendations (Gonzales Fischer and Garnett, 2016).

The 2016 version of China’s dietary guidelines revised by Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS) was launched in May this year and has generated a lot of buzz, for example in Washington Post and from the Guardian. This is due mainly to the Less Meat Less Heat campaign that the CNS jointly released with WildAid, where Chinese stars and Hollywood figures have appeared on billboards and in videos as a part of their behavior change campaign to reduce meat consumption in China.

This year, I have been lucky enough to have been awarded a Nuffield scholarship, which gives me an opportunity to spend 18 months travelling and studying in depth, on a topic which I am passionate about and that could potentially help to transform our industry for the future.  My topic is intimately connected to what I do as a day job, and is all to do with how we communicate carbon reduction schemes to farmers. My research is exploring two main questions

In this piece, Wendy Lu McGill expands on her overview of insect farming by diving into the nuances of regional variance. You can read her first piece on insect cultivation here. Wendy is a PhD researcher at the Plant and Agribiosciences Research Centre (PABC) working with Prof. Charles Spillane and Dr. Peter McKeown at the National University of Ireland Galway.

Por Marie Persson. Gracias a Carlos Gonzalez Fischer por sus sugerencias sobre los temas a tratar (y esta traducción) y a Sarah Najera por su colaboración con el planeamiento y la ejecución del foro. Pueden leer (y difundir) el resumen en inglés también.

In this piece, FCRN's communications and network development officer Marie Persson introduces a new regional forum. Thanks to Carlos Gonzales Fischer for input on forum topics and Sarah Najera for assistance with planning and execution of the forum .