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 Year20122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Rewilding This is a brief summary of the longer TABLE Explainer “Rewilding and its implications for agriculture”. It aims to illuminate key debates surrounding rewilding. Written by Trish Fisher Read Image Essay Essay: How power dynamics influence southern African seed and food systems Access to seed is a vital factor in crop production, affecting which crops are grown and hence what food is available. This essay explores the power dynamics influencing three different seed provision systems in southern Africa, with a focus on Zimbabwe: formal seed systems involving commercial seed dealers and seed aid programmes; informal seed systems based on local markets, social networks and individual farmers saving seeds; and an intermediate system where seed is produced by community organisations. The author is Dr Bulisani L Ncube, senior programme officer at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, whose PhD thesis analysed the relationship between seed security and food security. He explains how different stakeholders perceive each of the seed provision systems and their benefits and drawbacks for reliability, traceability, income, knowledge transfer and more. Read Image Publication Investment, Power and Protein in sub-Saharan Africa This report examines financial investment in protein production in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that in order to understand the changing place of protein in sub-Saharan African diets and food systems, it is important to investigate what motivates different financial actors to invest in new food products, markets and value chains – or to withhold investment from them. To this end, it examines what role investors’ expectations about the future of protein in sub-Saharan Africa play in mobilising investment in some places, protein sources and value chains – and in deterring investment in others. It thus examines what role the power to produce authoritative visions for the future of food, and to convince investors to act upon them, might play in transforming the organisation of protein production, provisioning and consumption within the region. https://www.doi.org/10.56661/d8817170 Suggested citation: Brice, J., (2022) Investment, Power and Protein in sub-Saharan Africa. TABLE Reports. TABLE, University of Oxford, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Wageningen University and Research. doi.org/10.56661/d8817170 Read Image Publication Primed for power: a short cultural history of protein The history of protein, from its 'discovery' and naming in 1838, is a story weaving science, nutritional politics, cultural attitudes to food, and much more. An understanding of this history is invaluable if we are to contextualise the current focus on protein that characterises discourses about health and sustainable food systems, and popular beliefs about fitness and nutrition. In this piece, we trace the history of protein from 1838 through to the end of the 'Protein fiasco' in 1974, discovering many echoes of the modern day. Table of contents: Introduction Section 1: The primary substance Section 2: Meat makes meat: the first protein fashion Section 3: Testing the lower limit: the end of the first protein fashion Section 4: 1918-1955: milk, aid and biopolitics Section 5: Protein fiasco Section 6: Epilogue Suggested citation: Blaxter, T., & Garnett, T. (2022). Primed for power: a short cultural history of protein. TABLE, University of Oxford, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Wageningen University and Research. https://doi.org/10.56661/ba271ef5 https://www.doi.org/10.56661/ba271ef5 Read Image Publication Investment, Power and Protein in sub-Saharan Africa: Executive Summary Read Image Essay Notes from the field - livestock animals in rural Romania After visiting Romania, George Cusworth reflects on the challenges facing Romania's subsistence peasant farmers, whose traditional agricultural practices support rich, biodiverse landscapes but who are increasingly under threat from financial pressures and external interests. All photographs curtesy of Alexander Turner. About the author: Dr George Cusworth is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. He works on the Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project, funded by the Wellcome Trust. He wrote this blog after visiting Romania in May 2022. Read Image Essay Use, Misuse and Abuse - a vet reflects on animal exploitation As I went through the process of extricating myself from an abusive relationship, back when I worked as a meat-vet, I started recognising my life was saturated in violence. That experience changed my perspective on not just my personal life, but the meat industry, the veterinary profession (my profession!), and our society at large. It forced me to rethink and re-evaluate some of my core-beliefs and values, and led me to make some fairly substantial changes in how I move through life. Content note: this piece mentions domestic violence, genocide, suicide and animal slaughter. About the author: TABLE intern Rebecca Sanders graduated as a veterinarian in 2011. After six years as a meat industry veterinarian in New Zealand, her growing concerns about the ethical and environmental implications of the meat industry prompted a radical change in trajectory and transition towards sustainable agricultural research. Read Image Explainer Rewilding and its implications for agriculture Where does rewilding sit in the future of food and agriculture? Rewilding is a contested term, described by some as laying a foundation for global biodiversity restoration and by others as a threat to human and non-human life in the countryside. This explainer explores how and why people disagree about rewilding, compares its various definitions, and considers how the rewilding debate ties in with different visions for the future of food. https://www.doi.org/10.56661/2aa26681 Read Image Essay Setting the TABLE for COP27 - Upcoming Events! TABLE will be hosting a series of 3 events this autumn leading up to COP27:What role for grazing ruminants in a 1.5°C world? on September 14 at 6pm BSTDoes methane from livestock matter? on September 28 at 5:30pm BSTPlating up the future of meat on October 17 at 11.30am BSTPlease join us as we explore questions regarding the evidence and values behind debates over livestock and climate change.Update: These events have already occurred. Please see the links below to watch the event recordings. Read VIEW MORE
Image Explainer TABLE Summary series: Rewilding This is a brief summary of the longer TABLE Explainer “Rewilding and its implications for agriculture”. It aims to illuminate key debates surrounding rewilding. Written by Trish Fisher Read
Image Essay Essay: How power dynamics influence southern African seed and food systems Access to seed is a vital factor in crop production, affecting which crops are grown and hence what food is available. This essay explores the power dynamics influencing three different seed provision systems in southern Africa, with a focus on Zimbabwe: formal seed systems involving commercial seed dealers and seed aid programmes; informal seed systems based on local markets, social networks and individual farmers saving seeds; and an intermediate system where seed is produced by community organisations. The author is Dr Bulisani L Ncube, senior programme officer at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, whose PhD thesis analysed the relationship between seed security and food security. He explains how different stakeholders perceive each of the seed provision systems and their benefits and drawbacks for reliability, traceability, income, knowledge transfer and more. Read
Image Publication Investment, Power and Protein in sub-Saharan Africa This report examines financial investment in protein production in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that in order to understand the changing place of protein in sub-Saharan African diets and food systems, it is important to investigate what motivates different financial actors to invest in new food products, markets and value chains – or to withhold investment from them. To this end, it examines what role investors’ expectations about the future of protein in sub-Saharan Africa play in mobilising investment in some places, protein sources and value chains – and in deterring investment in others. It thus examines what role the power to produce authoritative visions for the future of food, and to convince investors to act upon them, might play in transforming the organisation of protein production, provisioning and consumption within the region. https://www.doi.org/10.56661/d8817170 Suggested citation: Brice, J., (2022) Investment, Power and Protein in sub-Saharan Africa. TABLE Reports. TABLE, University of Oxford, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Wageningen University and Research. doi.org/10.56661/d8817170 Read
Image Publication Primed for power: a short cultural history of protein The history of protein, from its 'discovery' and naming in 1838, is a story weaving science, nutritional politics, cultural attitudes to food, and much more. An understanding of this history is invaluable if we are to contextualise the current focus on protein that characterises discourses about health and sustainable food systems, and popular beliefs about fitness and nutrition. In this piece, we trace the history of protein from 1838 through to the end of the 'Protein fiasco' in 1974, discovering many echoes of the modern day. Table of contents: Introduction Section 1: The primary substance Section 2: Meat makes meat: the first protein fashion Section 3: Testing the lower limit: the end of the first protein fashion Section 4: 1918-1955: milk, aid and biopolitics Section 5: Protein fiasco Section 6: Epilogue Suggested citation: Blaxter, T., & Garnett, T. (2022). Primed for power: a short cultural history of protein. TABLE, University of Oxford, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Wageningen University and Research. https://doi.org/10.56661/ba271ef5 https://www.doi.org/10.56661/ba271ef5 Read
Image Essay Notes from the field - livestock animals in rural Romania After visiting Romania, George Cusworth reflects on the challenges facing Romania's subsistence peasant farmers, whose traditional agricultural practices support rich, biodiverse landscapes but who are increasingly under threat from financial pressures and external interests. All photographs curtesy of Alexander Turner. About the author: Dr George Cusworth is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. He works on the Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project, funded by the Wellcome Trust. He wrote this blog after visiting Romania in May 2022. Read
Image Essay Use, Misuse and Abuse - a vet reflects on animal exploitation As I went through the process of extricating myself from an abusive relationship, back when I worked as a meat-vet, I started recognising my life was saturated in violence. That experience changed my perspective on not just my personal life, but the meat industry, the veterinary profession (my profession!), and our society at large. It forced me to rethink and re-evaluate some of my core-beliefs and values, and led me to make some fairly substantial changes in how I move through life. Content note: this piece mentions domestic violence, genocide, suicide and animal slaughter. About the author: TABLE intern Rebecca Sanders graduated as a veterinarian in 2011. After six years as a meat industry veterinarian in New Zealand, her growing concerns about the ethical and environmental implications of the meat industry prompted a radical change in trajectory and transition towards sustainable agricultural research. Read
Image Explainer Rewilding and its implications for agriculture Where does rewilding sit in the future of food and agriculture? Rewilding is a contested term, described by some as laying a foundation for global biodiversity restoration and by others as a threat to human and non-human life in the countryside. This explainer explores how and why people disagree about rewilding, compares its various definitions, and considers how the rewilding debate ties in with different visions for the future of food. https://www.doi.org/10.56661/2aa26681 Read
Image Essay Setting the TABLE for COP27 - Upcoming Events! TABLE will be hosting a series of 3 events this autumn leading up to COP27:What role for grazing ruminants in a 1.5°C world? on September 14 at 6pm BSTDoes methane from livestock matter? on September 28 at 5:30pm BSTPlating up the future of meat on October 17 at 11.30am BSTPlease join us as we explore questions regarding the evidence and values behind debates over livestock and climate change.Update: These events have already occurred. Please see the links below to watch the event recordings. Read
