As the 2012 start date for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme gets closer, more international carriers are adding their voices to the din of criticism. The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) is the latest group to speak out, with its director general, Andrew Herdman, saying the EU has "over-reached" in introducing the scheme.

The USDA has changed the way it presents its healthy eating advice from a pyramid to a plate, on the grounds that we eat off the latter, not the former.

In 2011 the Natural Resources Initiative (NRI) completed a study on the implications of climate change for Fairtrade in agricultural products. The study was commissioned by the Fairtrade Foundation. The study indicates that climate change is projected, with high degrees of certainty, to have mainly negative impacts upon agricultural production, food security and economic development, especially in developing countries. It thus poses significant challenges for the Fairtrade movement.

This report, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, looks at the multitude of drivers which cause deforestation, and as such it includes chapters on soy, palm oil and cattle ranching.

This report, published by WWF in 2011, recognises that demand for soya beans and soya products has risen dramatically in recent decades. In just 15 years, production of the crop has doubled, and the land used to grow soya worldwide now covers an area almost the size of Egypt.

This is an interesting paper comparing different smallholder dairy systems in Peru. (Bartl K, Gómez C A and Nemecek T (2011). Life cycle assessment of milk produced in two smallholder dairy systems in the highlands and the coast of Peru, Journal of Cleaner Production, in press.) Abstract

By 2050, humanity could devour an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year - three times its current appetite - unless the economic growth rate is "decoupled" from the rate of natural resource consumption, says a new report from UNEP’s International Resource Panel. Developed countries citizens consume an average of 16 tons of those four key resources per capita (up to 40 or more tons per person in some developed countries). By comparison, the average person in India today consumes four tons per year.

The Carbon Trust has conducted a fascinating analysis of how world-wide trade and consumption is driving international carbon flows. The findings are given in a series of linked reports, one focusing on international carbon flows overall, and the others focusing on key sectors: automotive, steel, aluminium, cotton, clothing. Note that the studies look at CO2 only and not the other GHGs (eg. methane and nitrous oxide), so a discussion of agriculture does not feature (cotton is looked at in terms of energy use from nitrogen manufacture and other associated fossil fuel use).

This report (Gustavsson J, Cederberg C, Sonesson U, van Otterdijk R and Meybeck A (2011) FAO, Rome) examines food waste in the industrialised world and the developing world. It finds that: Per capita, much more food is wasted in the industrialised world than in developing countries. Per capita food waste in Europe and North-America is 95-115 kg/year, while this figure in Sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia is only 6-11 kg/year.