This open access book explores the conditions that support or hinder the transition of the food system towards agroecology: rights and access to nature; knowledge and culture; systems of economic exchange; networks; equity; and discourse. 

In this report, charity Rewilding Britain argues that natural regeneration is the best method of reforesting large areas of land across the UK, and that more active methods (such as planting trees) should be reserved for cases where natural regeneration would be more difficult. The report suggests that doubling woodland cover from 13% to 26% by 2030 is both desirable and achievable. The report stresses that woodland regeneration should take place in a way that supports rural livelihoods and engages communities. 

This report from the UK’s International Institute for Environment and Development and Dutch development aid organisation Hivos discusses how citizens’ agency (i.e. ability to act freely and make independent choices) can be supported within food systems in the context of a development sector that is often strongly driven by stakeholders from the Global North.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has released the 2020 update of its dataset on agricultural emissions (accessible at FAOSTAT), with the newest figures covering the year 2018. Total agricultural emissions in 2018 were 9.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, of which 4 billion tonnes were from land use and land use change, and 3 billion tonnes of which were from livestock processes such as enteric fermentation and manure deposition. Agricultural and related land use emissions accounted for 17% of global emissions from all sectors.

This report from the UK’s Food, Farming & Countryside Commission finds that agroecological farming could produce enough healthy food to feed the expected UK population in 2050 while freeing up 7.5% of current agricultural area for uses such as woodland creation and public access. The model assumes that diets would include less meat, dairy and sugar, and more fruit, vegetables and nuts.

This paper examines three scenarios for animal-source food production in the European Union under two constraints: halting all imports of soybeans and soybean meal used as animal feed, and not using any additional land for animal feed cultivation (either inside or outside the EU). 

This paper provides an overview of the environmental impacts of pet food production at the global level. It finds that, depending on the data source used, dry pet food production accounts for 1.1-2.9% of global agricultural emissions, 0.8-1.2% of global agricultural land use, and 0.2-0.4% of agricultural water extraction.

Table members Ximena Schmidt Rivera, Sarah Bridle and Christian Reynolds have co-authored this paper, which finds that the cooking method used to prepare foods at home in the UK can account for up to 61% of total emission for some food types, and that emissions from cooking can be easily reduced. The paper is based on a survey of how UK consumers actually cook various foodstuffs, as opposed to recipe recommendations.

This paper calculates externalities - specifically, costs of climate change from greenhouse gas emissions - of categories of food produced in Germany. It finds that animal-based products (both conventional and organic) have the highest external climate costs (€2.41/kg product), followed by dairy products (€0.24/kg product for conventional and €0.19/kg product for organic), and finally plant-based products (€0.04/kg product for conventional and €0.02/kg product for organic).