Published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Howden S M, Soussana J-F, Tubiello F N, Chhetri N, Dunlop M, and Meinke H (2007), this article argues that at a moderate level of climate change there are many adaptation options available for agricultural systems, but under more severe climate change these adaptive measures may not be adequate. An integrated approach to dealing with climate change is needed.

The University of Bristol's Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre has undertaken a short review of domestic energy used for heating, cooking and cooling in a domestic setting has received little research attention although this is a major energy use.

The United Nations' latest Human Development report argues that the world is drifting towards a “tipping point” that could lock the world’s poorest countries and their poorest citizens in a downward spiral, leaving hundreds of millions facing malnutrition, water scarcity, ecological threats, and a loss of livelihoods.

This report, published in November 2007, says that the agricultural and rural sectors have suffered from neglect and under-investment over the past 20 years. While 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, a mere 4 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a region heavily reliant on agriculture for overall growth, public spending for farming is also only 4 percent of total government spending and the sector is still taxed at relatively high levels.