This paper maps the global potential for producing 34 varieties of seaweed and uses five scenarios to model the impacts of expanding the use of seaweed for human food (10% of diets), animal feed (10% of intake), transport fuels (50%), all three of the previous uses, or supplementing ruminant feed (0.5% of feed) to reduce enteric methane production and increase feed conversion efficiency.

This paper explores how the agricultural sector in the European Union (EU) might be affected by partial shifts in European consumers’ diets towards the EAT-Lancet reference diet. The impacts vary by sector, with the production of animal-sourced foods likely to fall and production of fruit and vegetables likely to increase. Overall, agricultural income is projected to rise as a result of the dietary shifts.

This paper critiques the narrative of soil carbon sequestration as a win-win solution offering climate mitigation as well as improving multiple “soil functions” such as fertility, biodiversity and water retention. It argues that accounting for the likely saturation of soil organic carbon over time significantly reduces the estimated potential contribution of soil carbon sequestration to climate mitigation. Furthermore, it finds that the literature does not show a general positive association between soil organic carbon sequestration and improved crop yields - rather, the effects on yields can be positive, neutral or negative depending on the situation.

This study assesses the associations between the consumption of ultra-processed foods (as defined by the NOVA classification system) and the incidence of and mortality from 34 specific types of cancer, as well as overall cancer risk, in a sample of nearly 200,000 British adults. After correcting for a wide range of confounding factors such as smoking status and physical activity levels, greater UPF intake was found to have a statistically significant association with overall cancer incidence and mortality, as well as with some (but not most) of the specific cancers assessed.

Researchers from the Agricultural Research Organization - Volcani Center in Israel have developed a genetically edited hen that lays eggs from which only female chicks hatch. The genetic editing works in such a way that the female offspring do not carry any of the edits themselves. Any male embryos in eggs carry a different chromosome that stops their development at a very early stage when the eggs are exposed to blue light. The news has been welcomed by Compassion in World Farming, which says the technology could avoid the current system of slaughtering male chicks shortly after hatching.

December 2022 saw the signing of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an international agreement on tackling biodiversity loss, at the COP15 meeting of parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The framework sets out four goals for 2050, relating to the maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems, achieving sustainable development, fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and securing equitable access for all framework parties to the financial and other resources needed to implement the framework.

This book gives an overview of current thinking on sustainable diets, including sections on environmental sustainability, health and wellbeing, education and public engagement, social policies and food environments, alternative food movements, economics and trade, measuring food sustainability, and case studies on food sovereignty around the world.

This book gives a detailed account of the history, theory, and current practices of rewilding. It includes chapters on the emergence of the rewilding movement in North America and in Europe; theoretical underpinnings such as trophic cascades, wildlife corridors and the substitution of extinct species with others that play similar ecological roles; case studies from several countries around the world including Mozambique and China; and the ethics and philosophy of rewilding.

Focusing on Norway, this book outlines how social attitudes to meat and animal farming have changed over the past 150 years. It argues that consumers have become increasingly disconnected from knowledge of how the meat they eat has been produced