This study looks at the effects of ‘mascots’ on emotions around brands among adults exposed to these mascots in childhood.

Understanding the influence of neighbourhood food environments in light of recent changes in society and rising levels of overweight and obesity has become very important. 

This paper reviews one aspect of the food sustainability challenge: the goal of producing more food – a goal that is unthinkingly accepted by some and vigorously contested by  others. The paper argues that increased food production is necessary but also emphasises that this alone, as a response to the challenge, is not sufficient.

Chocolate company Mars has decided to join Unilever and Nestlé in their commitments to a sustainable palm oil sector. Mars signed up to the Roundtable on Sustianble Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2010 but now they join other companies in taking a step further, requiring all of their suppliers to have fully sustainable and traceable palm oil supply by the end of 2015. If this is not possible they will ensure that such plans are at least put into place by the end of 2015.

UNEP’s 10 Year Framework of Programs (10YFP) is an initiative focused on sustainable consumption and production. It aims to enhance international cooperation to accelerate the shift towards this goal in both developed and developing countries. 

This EU brief looks at a recent study assessing the social environmental impacts of agricultural imports to EU from other, often less developed countries. The EU has thus picked up on an important study assessing Europen diets' contribution to excessive land-use in countries outside of the European Union. FCRN has previously highlighted this study (Balancing virtual land imports by a shift in the diet. Using a land balance approach to assess the sustainability of food consumption).

This books addresses the issues of a growing global population and food production and focuses on key social, economic and political drivers for creating a more sustainable food system. It argues that there is a need to construct a new agri-food sustainability paradigm and it brings together an integrated range of key social science insights, exploring the contributions and interventions necessary to build the new agri-food sustainability framework.

This report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) analyses the major food policy issues and developments in 2013 relating to food and hunger, areas that are crucial in the post-2015 development agenda. The report argues that more ambitious goals have to be set to address the severe problem of hunger and “hidden hunger” (micronutrient deficiencies). 

This paper by Drew Schindell from NASA's ’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies looks at climate change trends and tries to explain the much publicised and contested slowdown in global surface temperatures since 1998.