This book by Anna Murcott provides a social history of food packaging which takes a wide historical and geographic lens to examine shifts from domestic to commercial production, the emergence of associated technologies, changes in retailing, implications for policy and practice, and current concerns about over packaging.

This book reviews the most recent engineering and blockchain technology literature on the status of the sustainable food industry, the next generation of future technology and future technology for sustainable foods, and the policy, social, economic and environmental aspects in the food industry. It is aimed as a reference for students, researchers and professionals interested in future food technologies.

This book explores food production and culinary practice along with their ecological underpinnings. It focuses on the cultural context of India whilst investigating humans within the process of food production throughout the global food system. Readers will find discussions of the representations of food across media sources such as film, literature, and digital media and critiques of agricultural and food practices. It contributes to the conversation around the Anthropocene and food systems.

This report by the company SLM, which is focused on natural assets such as soil, water, air and all living organisms on the planet explores regenerative agriculture as an investment opportunity. The document provides an updated case for investing in regenerative agriculture. SLM broadly defines regenerative agriculture as a method of producing nutritious food and other products in a manner that improves soil health, climate stability, and ecosystem functionality, while also being economically sustainable for farmers. The report illustrates how investors can support the transition to regenerative agriculture by investing into farmland as part of a real asset strategy involving investment in physical assets such as natural resources whose value is based on physical properties and uses.

A new report from the UK’s biodiversity certification scheme Fair to Nature explores the topic of nature-friendly and wildlife-friendly farming. The report cites previous consumer research conducted by Fair to Nature which has demonstrated that a majority of consumers in the UK feel more positively about brands that have a certification label related to wildlife and biodiversity protection in the UK. 

Feedback, a UK and Netherlands based organisation campaigning for sustainable and ethical food, has published a report linking the Norwegian salmon farming industry to poor nutrition and livelihood outcomes in West Africa. Norway has become the world’s largest salmon farming country with a handful of companies dominating the market, including MOWI which had nearly €5 billion in turnover in 2022. 

This article investigates the current state of nutrition and sustainability of plant-based and animal-sourced products, mainly beef. It reflects upon the different metrics used in research and how they impact research results, narratives and policies. From the literature they reviewed, the authors found there to be a consensus that plant-based beef generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventionally reared beef. They found it is more difficult to make nutritional comparisons due to the variability in plant-based beef products. Comparisons mainly focus on nutritional content, water use, land use and greenhouse gas emissions, but exclude social and economic sustainability. The authors highlight the impact of funding sources on the type of metrics chosen and call for more independent analysis focusing on a wider range of metrics.

This article explores the role of trade as a potential driver of inequitable aquatic food distribution through its analysis of global aquatic food consumption patterns, trade characteristics, and impacts from 1976 to 2019. The authors find an increase in per capita consumption of aquatic foods over this time period at the global scale, a reduction in the average consumption rate of foods higher in the aquatic food chain, and improved distribution of high value aquatic foods through structural trade patterns. The authors hope to contribute to future research on the globalisation of aquatic food systems, aquaculture and the impacts of trade on food security.

A new study has combined rice grains and animal nutrients using cow cells to produce a hybrid food or “rice-based meat”. The authors contribute to a growing area of future food research exploring scaffolding technology for cell-cultured meat products and suggest rice as an alternative scaffold to more common soy or nut-based scaffolds.