The Sierra Leone government has raised over $600 million to become more food self-sufficient, with rice the main target but currently relies on expensive imports. The government aims to boost production by investing in infrastructure and creating large-scale irrigation. NGOs and farmers argue this will promote agribusiness rather than supporting smallholders.

After decades of mono-cropping and overgrazing, around 65% of Africa’s farmland is now considered unproductive or degraded, leaving more than 270 million people facing chronic hunger. But while there is general agreement that food security is a priority for Africa, how to achieve it is a far more polarised debate. 

Author David Gilbert describes the story of Indonesian farming workers occupying the agribusiness plantation near their home, and how this movement led to its reclaiming of their land, and subsequent flourishing of diversified farming. It shows how emancipatory and ecologically attuned ways of living with land are possible.

Historian Jori Lewis follows the story of peanuts in colonial Senegal in the 1800s, and how the French cosmetic industry used peanut oil as a cheaper alternative to olive oil. She argues that peanut cultivation in Senegal was a proxy for slavery, which had been recently banned in France and its colonies. 

This report by the European Commission promotes behavioural insight, nudges that subtly shape the choice environment to encourage better decisions at little cost, for policy to address wicked problems like climate, inequality and health. 

This report by Changing Markets argues that dairy company Arla is hiding its true emissions through lobbying, greenwashing and creative emissions calculations to preserve its reputation and increase profits. It reports 96% of Arla's emissions are down to methane, surpassing emissions of countries like the Netherlands. 

This report by Feedback identifies industrial salmon farming’s biggest financial backers and exposes the role global financiers are playing in creating a food production system – salmon farming – that it argues is harming people’s food security, health and livelihoods, as well as extracting a huge toll on the environment.

This report by the Malabo Montpellier Panel explores strategies to boost Africa’s processing capacity and the challenges that currently hinder its growth and sustainability. It highlights successful case studies in Senegal, Kenya and Ghana. 

This paper analyses future images of young people in Finland to better understand how they assess future trajectories of food systems, and what they see as important in terms of sustainability. It found they questioned the continued growth narrative and technological transformation, consumer responsibility and local food systems as solutions to food system sustainability.