In a new series, we’ll be exploring different food system debates across the globe. Next up is West Africa, where I'm based. Latin America feels especially apt to explore this week. The region is deeply intertwined with the U.S., and is likely to be affected by Trump’s deluge of executive orders. It’s also home to two of TABLE’s partner institutions, in Colombia and Mexico.

This scoping review examines how policy coherence has been broadly defined and measured in areas related to food system transformation to inform conceptualization, definition, and measurement specific to food systems transformation and provide insights for policy and program implementation.

This analysis by Digital Food Labs identifies 28 FoodTech trends and grouped them into six megatrends shaping the future of food: the resilient farm, sustainable proteins, food as medicine, the smart supply chain, instant retail, and food automation. 

This report by FAIRR, a network of investors concerned about livestock risks, provides a framework for investors to identify and assess mitigation strategies in livestock. Investors with exposure to livestock companies need to focus on climate and nature solutions, but there is a lack of clarity on the solutions that exist, their effectiveness and the business case. This report assesses and identifies 22 different interventions. 

This paper criticises the narrative of technological solutionism. It argues that while technologies may have an important role in ensuring healthy and sustainable food systems, such efforts should be informed by a wider holistic vision and scrutinised carefully to ensure the social and cultural aspects of food are included and valued. 

Researchers explore the assumptions underlying the common farming view in England that you can only grow grass in certain regions, contributing to a limitation of livestock production. By unsettling this narrative, the article argues that policymakers can enable a transition to diverse and sustainable food production in England’s grasslands. 

The EAT-Lancet’s planetary health diet, particularly its meat reduction approach, received criticism for the plant-forward diet recommendations and potential micronutrient shortfalls. This study responds to this debate and provides recommendations that address the shortfalls. 

In early January, the TABLE team were out in force for two of the biggest farming events in the UK: the Oxford Farming Conference and the Oxford Real Farming Conference. Taking place at the same time, these two events represent very different perspectives, reflecting not only the divergence in food and farming debates, but the consensus, too. In this edition of FODDER, I talk to TABLE researchers, Ruth Mattock and Richard Kipling who attended the two conferences. 

In​ Land Power, political scientist Michael Albertus argues that modern history has been defined by land reallocation at scale. He claims that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment.