The Food Compass scoring system is an algorithm developed by researchers at Tufts University to assess the healthfulness of different food types. It has attracted some controversy on social media because of its counterintuitive rankings of some foods. This paper finds that following a diet that scores higher on the Food Compass system is linked to better outcomes on several aspects of health as well as all-cause mortality.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of food often uses mass of food as a functional unit, i.e. environmental impacts are reported per kg of food. Another common functional unit is weight of protein contained in the food, which is important for comparing different sources of protein, notably meat and its alternatives. This paper goes one step further and examines how protein quality, as opposed to protein quantity, can be accounted for in food LCAs, by using a scoring system to reflect the availability and digestibility of indispensable (i.e. essential) amino acids.

In this piece, the Good Food Institute describes government regulation of alternative proteins (including plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-derived foods) in several countries around the world (including China, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Korea, India, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the United States and the European Union).

This blog post from the Sustainable Food Trust explores the history of the term “regenerative” agriculture, including the Rodale Institute’s use of the term in the 1970s, the longer indigenous histories of many of the practices that fall under the umbrella, and the resurgence of the term regenerative since around 2015.

Hannah Ritchie, Head of Research at Our World in Data, has launched a new email newsletter called Sustainability by numbers, which discusses the numbers and data that are important for building a sustainable world. TABLE readers may be particularly interested in the issues Eating local is still not a good way to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet and Are meat substitutes really better for the environment than meat?

This book explores the ethical, environmental and social issues linked to different forms of dairy production around the world, including smallholder production and intensive feedlots. It also discusses the shift towards plant-based substitutes for dairy.

This book explores the conversations around rewilding, food, eating and identities that are currently happening across Europe. It has sections on hunting, “natural” products (such as wine) on the market, and rewilding in the context of cities and the self.

The five largest meat companies and ten largest dairy companies have combined methane emissions of over 80% of the European Union’s methane footprint, according to this report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and the Changing Markets Foundation. The report recommends that governments set legally binding GHG and methane-specific reduction targets for the agriculture sector, with the aim to keep climate warming to less than 1.5°C.

The 2022 edition of the Global Nutrition Report discusses the commitments on tackling malnutrition made by a range of stakeholders, including governments, donors, civil society, businesses and international organisations.