On 4 November 2008, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food, launched a scheme to turn 2,012 pieces of land into thriving green spaces to grow food by 2012. The Capital Growth project aims to identify suitable patches of land around London and offer financial and practical support to groups of enthusiastic gardeners or organisations who want to grow food for themselves and for the local community.

On 10 November 2008, the UK and Chinese governments signed a three year commitment to strengthen their growing partnership on agriculture. Hilary Benn, UK Environment Secretary, met Chinese Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai and signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation on Sustainable Agriculture. The Ministers also launched the Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN) which will help address the link between agriculture and climate change.

Defra have just published a study which examines the scope for applying research in animal genomics and breeding to reduce nitrogen and methane emissions from livestock .