Only an urgent societal transformation can deliver the emissions cuts needed to limit climate warming to 2°C or 1.5°C, according to this report from the United Nations Environment Programme. The report sets out a sector-by-sector examination of how to achieve this transformation.

This paper assesses the impacts of corporate zero-deforestation supply chain commitments (ZDCs) in Brazil. It finds that in the Brazilian Amazon, where the Soy Moratorium ZDC has been both adopted and implemented, the commitment reduced direct deforestation for soy by 57% between 2006 and 2015 in the municipalities that it covered. In the Cerrado, in contrast, none of the seven companies (covering 66% of soy production) that have adopted ZDCs there appear to have fully implemented them - if they had done so, deforestation for soy in the biome could have been reduced by 46% between 2006 and 2015, estimates the paper.

Shifting to the low-meat EAT-Lancet diet across Europe could reduce overall demand for many crops and hence provide resilience against disruptions to food supply, notably those caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to this paper. The shift could also provide environmental co-benefits through increased carbon sequestration and reduced blue water use and greenhouse gas emissions.

This paper, based on Australian dietary survey data, provides support for the “protein leverage hypothesis” - the theory that people’s appetites regulate their protein intake to be within a narrow range, and hence that if protein makes up a lower proportion of the foods they eat, people will end up consuming more calories (in the form of fats and carbohydrates) as a side effect of their appetite for protein. Hence, it argues, protein is key to understanding the high prevalence of obesity. It identifies highly processed foods as one of the food categories that has the strongest “diluting” effect on dietary protein.

The Singapore Food Agency has approved the sale of food products containing Solein®, the microbial protein-rich powder produced by Finnish startup Solar Foods. The production process runs on electricity, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen and small amounts of other nutrients. Solar Foods is also seeking regulatory approval in the United States, the UK and the European Union.

This piece from digital exhibition Apples & People explains the history of the apple in Indian cookery. It also features a short book of Indian apples recipes, which can be downloaded for free.

This memoir by Indian environmental activist Dr Vandana Shiva recounts her advocacy for diversity, indigenous knowledge, localisation, seed saving and food sovereignty.

This book outlines key issues currently facing the global food system, as well as responses to them, including corporate concentration, the planetary boundaries, food poverty, alternative proteins, urban food systems and circular food systems.

This report by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food argues that public climate finance should be directed into food system transformation because of the potential to deliver cost-effective co-benefits for climate mitigation, biodiversity, health and food system resilience. Currently, food systems receive only 3% of public climate finance despite producing one third of global emissions.