This story on Apples and People - a digital exhibition telling the stories of apples from around the world and their importance to people and culture - draws links between apples and the Sustainable Development Goals, covering health and wellbeing, carbon footprints, production standards, transport, and employment on orchards.

In this article for The Counter, author Sarah Mock describes her research with farmers across the United States. In writing her book, she originally set out to prove that agriculture should be organised around small family farms, but found that few farms of this type were financially stable. Instead, she delves into why small family farms are romanticised in the United States, discussing the history of land enclosure and subsidies.

Carbon Brief has published a summary of the key outcomes from 2021’s COP26 climate conference held in Glasgow. The Glasgow Climate Pact agreed by the summit “resolves to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”. TABLE readers may be particularly interested in the summary’s coverage of the Koronivia joint work on agriculture, deforestation pledges, and the global methane pledge.

This book sets out the case for considering the wellbeing of animals as part of our responses to pandemics, climate change and other global threats, for example by reducing support for factory farming, deforestation and the wildlife trade.

This report from US think-tank The Breakthrough Institute assesses technologies and management practices that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the US beef sector. It estimates that full adoption of existing mitigation options (as special feed additives, composting manure and particular grazing patterns) by 2030 could reduce US beef emissions by 18%. 

46% of Europeans say they have reduced their meat intake, according to a survey lead by ProVeg International. The study asked over 7,500 people in ten European countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and the UK) about their attitudes towards plant-based foods and their current food consumption patterns.

This report from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation gives an overview of how agriculture and land use feature in 85 new or updated NDCs (nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement’s climate targets). As of 31 July 2021, 95% of NDCs include adaptation in agricultural sectors; 95% include mitigation measures in agriculture, land use or forestry; and 38% reference women or other marginalised groups in the agricultural sector. Mitigation measures focus primarily on forestry (79%), with 51% covering crops and 36% covering the livestock sector.

Plating Up Progress, a project run by the UK charity The Food Foundation, has published its 2021 report, which analyses how various UK food sectors are performing on health, environmental and social inclusion issues. 

This article studies the effects of a tax on sales of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and finds that it matters whether or not the tax is mentioned on the label. While a sugar tax alone had little effect on SSB sales on a university campus in San Francisco, adding the phrase “Includes SF Sugary Drink Tax” resulted in lower sales than when the tax was not mentioned.