This investor briefing by the Changing Markets Foundation surveyed over 200 respondents from the investment community on their perceptions of how climate change may affect the meat and dairy industry. 82% agreed that climate change presents risks to the industry. 84% are concerned that a lack of climate mitigation could lead to stranded assets (investments or resources that become unprofitable, in this case due to water shortages or temperature increases; the term is commonly used to refer to fossil fuel resources that cannot be burned). 94% think that reducing methane as well as carbon dioxide emissions is important.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has released two reports. One offers insights and tools to support the more sustainable use of wild plants, animals, fungi and algae, arguing that the biodiversity crisis threatens the billions of people who benefit from the use of wild species for food, fuel or income. The other reports that there is a global focus on short-term profits and economic growth, meaning that market prices do not fully reflect the many ways in which nature is of value to people’s quality of life.

This paper summarises what we know about the links between soil pollution and human health, with a focus on cardiovascular disease. The main issues it considers are macroplastics, microplastics, deforestation, pesticides, overfertilisation and heavy metal toxins.

TABLE community member Matthew Jordon has co-authored this study, which finds that two practices linked to regenerative agriculture are linked to higher productivity: rotational grazing, where animals are frequently moved around pastures to allow areas to recover from grazing, and herbal leys, where multiple species of perennial flowering plants are grown as part of the pasture. The study focuses on sheep and cattle in temperature climates, and analyses data from 84 articles identified in the literature.

This paper assesses the extent to which national dietary recommendations for animal products could be met by livestock fed with low opportunity cost biomass (LOCB) such as food waste, grass and by-products. It finds that animal products fed with domestically available LOCB could provide between 22% (Netherlands) and 47% (Switzerland) of nationally recommended protein intakes.

This paper reviews the evidence linking different types of livestock production systems to the emergence of new infectious diseases. It concludes that there is not currently enough evidence to show whether extensive or intensive systems would better protect against future pandemics. Both systems present different types of risk: low-yield farms generally have a higher risk of interspecies contact, but tend to keep more diverse livestock at lower stocking densities; while high-yield farms have a lower risk of livestock picking up a disease in the first place as the animals are often kept indoors, but the risk of any disease being spread is higher because of greater stocking densities, lower livestock diversity and sometimes poorer health and welfare.

This paper by researchers at Oxford’s Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) programme studies how meat and health are represented in eight UK news websites. It finds a variety of both pro- and anti-meat narratives, with 50.8% of articles assessed having a neutral stance towards meat, 29.7% being anti-meat and 19.5% being pro-meat.

The concept of “less but better” meat (sometimes preferentially called less and better) has become influential in discussions about health, sustainable diets, particularly in higher-income countries. Definitions of both “less” and “better”, however, are still diverse. This paper reviews the definitions and interpretations of “less but better” meat used in 35 peer-reviewed journal articles.

A group of 33 institutional investors, holding over US$14 trillion assets, have written to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to ask for a clear global roadmap for the transition to a sustainable food system by 2050. They raise concern about the financial risks to which the food system is exposed as a result of environmental damage, and ask for clear targets on emissions reduction (including methane) within each food subsector. The letter is coordinated by the FAIRR Initiative.