A systematic evidence review by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Behaviour and Health Research Unit, investigates the influence of portion, package and tableware size on food consumption.

Photo credit: Getty images The German car giant Volkswagen has admitted that they have cheated in emissions tests in the US. Since 2009, Volkswagen has been installing elaborate software in 482,000 "clean diesel" vehicles sold in the US and according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), these cars had devices in their diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The cars' pollution controls would then only work when being tested for emissions.

A row over its Arctic drilling programme has culminated in oil giant Shell leaving the Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group.  This is a network of European business leaders advocating for climate action including GlaxoSmithKline, Tesco and Unilever.

Officials in Mumbai have imposed a four day ban on the slaughter and sale of meat. The ban was introduced after increasing pressure from the vegetarian Jain community - a financially very powerful community in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Globally, despite the global Avian Flu (AI) challenge, the margin outlook for the global poultry industry is still strong according to this Rabobank Poultry Quarterly Q3 report.

Policy makers can make a significant difference to ensure healthy diets for people at every stage of life. The Global Panel’s policy brief Climate-smart food systems for enhanced nutrition urges decision makers to adopt a pro-nutrition lens while protecting and promoting agriculture in the face of climate change. Ahead of the Paris climate negotiations, Climate-smart food systems for enhanced nutrition explains the challenges of meeting both agricultural and nutritional needs in the face of climate change. It identifies specific opportunities for policy change that can simultaneously enhance food and nutrition security. The panel writes:

This report by the UK’s Soil Association on cotton and climate change argues that switching to organic cotton could reduce the global warming impact of cotton production by 46% compared to non-organic cotton. Cotton has been called the world’s dirtiest agricultural commodity, owing to its heavy use of insecticides and water, high GHG emissions, and land use.

In this report WWF-UK and Food Ethics Council outline business interpretations of food security, assess the different business cases for food security and puts forward suggestions for action. The report finds that businesses want government intervention to avoid long term risk and they are in favour of bold actions to create a food system that serves citizens, the economy and planet alike. Businesses emphasise that the government needs to do more to provide a level playing field for businesses, including allowing them to collaborate more effectively.

This second annual nutrition report by IFPRI is a comprehensive summary and scorecard on both global and country level progress on all forms of nutrition. It covers nutrition status and program coverage—as well as underlying determinants such as food security; water, sanitation, and hygiene; resource allocations; and institutional and policy changes—globally (for 193 countries).  The 2015 edition highlights the critical relationship between climate change and nutrition and the pivotal role business can play.