This report from the International Land Coalition finds that inequality in ownership and control of land is greater than previously thought and increasing rapidly, with many smallholders, indigenous people and rural communities being squeezed onto smaller pieces of land. The report finds that 70% of the world’s farmland is controlled by the largest 1% of farms, generally acting as part of the “corporate food system”.

The journal Human Geography has released a special issue on “radical food geography praxis”. It is based on a workshop held in conjunction with the 2019 American Association of Geographers’ (AAG) Annual Meeting. 

This paper, co-authored by Table member Sofie Errendal, uses a survey of people from Loma Linda, California and Copenhagen, Denmark to investigate why people follow plant-based diets, with the aim of informing the strategy of future initiatives to promote sustainable healthy diets.  

This paper examines the global nutrition transition and argues that coordinated action is necessary to reduce household food waste, decrease consumption of animal-source foods, limit the prevalence of overweight and eliminate hunger.

In this paper, FCRN member Gesa Biermann uses a survey of German consumers to explore the different meanings and expectations attached to eating at home and eating in restaurants. The study shows that meat-eating is more common in restaurants than at home, for example 59% of flexitarian respondents ate more meat at a restaurant than at home. This is attributed to perceptions of eating meat in restaurants being an opportunity to treat oneself and celebrate special occasions. The paper suggests that to encourage plant-based eating in restaurants, the meaning of plant-based foods must become more aligned with notions of “the good life” (for example, relating to ideas about hospitality, generosity and pleasure).

This short and highly readable paper argues that “creative imagination” and positive stories about the future are necessary for generating solutions, in contrast to “purely technocratic” approaches, which fail to motivate people. It sketches out three possible scenarios for biodiversity and food production in the year 2050, noting that none are inevitable.

This paper finds that a global shift to vegan diets by 2050 could allow sequestration of 332–547 GtCO2 - equivalent to or greater than the remaining emissions budget for having a 66% of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. Meat reductions in line with the EAT-Lancet Commission’s recommendations could also lead to significant carbon sequestration.

This paper argues that the COVID-19 pandemic requires a policy response that significantly reforms the structure of the food system. It examines how policy responses to past food crises have shaped the present system, how COVID-19 is different to past food crises and which policy responses could build a more resilient future food system.

In collaboration with WWF, the UK supermarket Tesco has announced a target of increasing sales of plant-based meat alternatives by 300% by 2025, relative to a 2018 baseline. To meet this goal, Tesco plans to introduce new plant-based products, try to keep prices affordable, work with suppliers to encourage innovation and display meat replacements alongside their animal-based equivalent.