Investments in nature-based solutions such as ecosystem restoration and afforestation need to triple by 2030 to meet the world’s climate, biodiversity and land degradation targets, finds this report from the UN Environment Programme. By 2050, annual spending will need to reach US $536 billion - around four times today’s spending levels.

This report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food profiles how various food initiatives have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of demonstrating that transformative food system change is possible. Case studies include a non-profit distributor of sustainably grown food in Philadelphia, a food bank in Lagos, Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture and “solidarity kitchens” in Rio de Janeiro.

This paper proposes a “Sustainability Compass” that uses a hierarchical approach to define sustainability scores for four aspects of food systems: health, environment, economy and equity. The framework is designed to evaluate food policies, including by drawing attention to trade-offs and synergies across different goals. The paper suggests that the Compass can be used during agenda setting, policy formulation, decision-making and policy evaluation.

This modelling paper, co-authored by TABLE member Elin Röös, examines the synergies and goal conflicts that could arise from different food taxation scenarios in Sweden. It finds that while taxing foods can reduce most environmental impacts, one scenario - reducing tax on plant-based products - might cause increases in environmental impacts by encouraging higher total food consumption. It also examines the trade-offs for land use and biodiversity protection associated with limiting beef consumption through taxation.

This perspective article by Jennifer Clapp examines the effects of corporate consolidation in the global seed and agrochemical industry. Clapp argues that corporations in this sector with concentrated power can influence the wider food system in many ways, including by influencing markets, technology and governance. The global seed and agrochemical sector is dominated by just four firms - Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina-Syngenta and BASF - down from six in the early 2000s. 

TABLE's official launch event on 2 June 2021 celebrated the transition from the Food Climate Research Network into TABLE. The event centred on perhaps one of the most complex questions around food and sustainability: At what scale should the food system operate? In other words, should the future food system be more globalised or localised, and why? Please leave your comments and reflections on this question or the event in the commenting section at the bottom of this page.

Carbon credits generated through feed supplementation to reduce methane emissions from cattle farming have been approved under the CORSIA scheme, which is an international agreement on offsetting increases in carbon dioxide emissions from aviation. The feed supplement, created by Swiss company Mootral, is based on compounds from garlic and citrus and has been found to reduce methane emissions by an average of 30% in a trial on a commercial dairy farm. 

Insects are one step closer to being available as snacks or food ingredients in Europe. The European Commission’s Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed has approved a draft legal act that, once adopted by the Commission, would permit dried yellow mealworm (the larvae of the beetle Tenebrio molitor) to be sold in the European Union for consumption by people. The yellow mealworm will be the first insect to be approved under the Novel Food Regulation. 11 further applications for edible insects are waiting to be evaluated by the European Food Safety Authority. 

In this podcast from the Innovation Forum, representatives from the Rainforest Alliance, agriculture commodities trader Ecom and finance provider Norandino discuss a LandScale pilot project that is working on deforestation, resilient ecosystems and farm incomes in a coffee and cocoa growing region in Lamas Province, northern Peru.