A paper published in the journal Cell argues that the current rate of increase in crop yields is insufficient to meet business-as-usual anticipated growth in demand for food (it cites one projection that the world will need 85% more primary foodstuffs by 2050, relative to 2013).

This paper entitled The environmental impact of climate change adaptation on land use and water quality published in Nature Climate Change says that adaptation to climate change could have profound environmental repercussions, potentially generating further pressures and threats for both local and global ecosystems.

The China Meat Association (CMA) is now calling on the Chinese government to actively support the beef and lamb sector. Prices for beef and lamb have increased more than 10% in the past decade, fuelled by China’s runaway economic growth. As Chinese consumers’ income and standard of living improves, demand for red meat has grown.

This editorial in the guardian argues that food and hunger should be at the table in the Paris climate meeting later this year.  The Editor writes:

A new research project at University of Birmingham aims to investigate new technologies and innovative business models that could meet the world's growing demand for air conditioning and refrigeration without increasing carbon emissions. Read the full article from Business Green here.  You can also find more information on the University of Birmingham website here.

You can now view videos of all key note presentations from the Natural Capital Initiative's second “Valuing our Life Support Systems 2014” event. You can also view and download power point presentations given by key note and session speakers. The NCI report of the meeting in its entirety will be published in early spring.

The inaugural event in the ESRC series explored the political economy of food and agriculture, its influence on those working in the agri-food sector, and how issues of labour interact with other challenges facing the food system. The seminar attempted to examine the production process hidden from consumers to tell the story of those working within the agri-food sector. Furthermore it sought to understand new forms of labour and labour structures that are emerging as a response to the problems faced by the agri-food system and how far they might go towards addressing them. See the videos from the event here.

Beef has now been banned in the state of Maharashtra in India. India is a country where 80% of the population is Hindu, and where cows are revered.  The ban has generated much criticism and the hashtag #BeefBan has fast become one of the world's top trending hashtags.

This short briefing for the Global Sustainable Development report 2015 by two researchers at IASS, Potsdam, discusses scientific findings on the sustainability of biomass production and their implications for Sustainability, Development Policy and the SDGs in particular.