The Climate Group has produced a new briefing about China’s 13th Five Year Plan. The plan, to be released in March 2016, provides a blueprint that will guide the country’s economic and political progress between 2016 and 2020.  Its targets and policies, will have global implications, as China moves to become the world’s largest economy.

A new report from at Cranfield University suggests that increasing the production and consumption of frozen food in the UK can play a significant role in delivering the government’s 2020 and 2050 food security targets. The report, Frozen Food and Food Security in the UK, was produced by sustainability experts at Cranfield University on behalf of the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF).

Sustainable intensification is receiving growing attention as a way to address the challenge of feeding an increasingly populous and resource-constrained world. But are we asking too much of it? Nearly 20 years after the concept was developed, this briefing revisits the term and asks what sustainable intensification is — a useful guiding framework for raising agricultural productivity on existing arable land in a sustainable manner; and what it is not -a paradigm for achieving food security overall.

The 2015 World Health Day took place on April 7th, and it focused on the theme of Food Safety. With this day in mind, the  Global Climate and Health Alliance has published a new briefing paper on climate change and food safety.

This publication provides information on using price policies to promote healthy diets and explores policy developments from around the WHO European Region. It examines the economic theory underpinning the use of subsidies and taxation and explores the available evidence.

In a recent brief for the UN Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) a group of researchers, including Tara Garnett of the FCRN, proposed that well-designed policies targeting the demand for particular foods could simultaneously improve the health of the global population and achieve environmental sustainability.

This paper finds that consumption of high-fat yoghurt and cheese are linked to reduced risks of developing type 2 diabetes – reducing these risks by as much as a fifth. High meat consumption, on the other hand, is linked to a higher risk, regardless of the fat content of the meat. These results are in line with previous studies of eating habits that indicated a link between high consumption of dairy products and a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

This short article discusses policies for achieving food security and environmental objectives in China. Rural development has been placed at the top of the policy agenda in China but recently the Chinese leadership has also included an ambition to achieve environmental sustainability. This is presented as part of the plans for an “ecological civilization”, presented at the 18th Plenary Congress of the Communist Party of China.

This paper focuses on the governance of food supplies and specifically discusses the increasing policy focus on engaging food industry in the international pursuit of sustainability. The researchers also look at policy actions aimed at achieving sustainable consumption and production of food.