This report from UK charity WRAP, co-authored by TABLE member Hamish Forbes, provides a comprehensive mapping of the carbon footprint of UK food and drink consumption, building up a detailed sector-by-sector analysis of where emissions arise and how that has changed from 2015 to 2019. Showing the importance of the food sector in achieving net zero targets, it finds that a 50% reduction in the UK’s food-related emissions by 2030 (compared to 2015) is possible, but only if urgent action is taken.

This report from UK NGO Eating Better offers guidance for local authorities on how to source and serve healthier, more sustainable meals, for example in schools. It focuses on meat and dairy and proposes a 25% reduction in the amount of meat (of all types) and dairy served by local authorities, as well as sourcing 25% of meat and dairy served from “better” production systems. “Better” in this case means farming that uses lower levels of antibiotics, emphasises local feed sources and promotes animal welfare. The higher costs of “better” meat and dairy can be offset by increased use of vegetables and plant protein.

This report from the Good Food Institute sets out the current state of the growing seafood alternatives industry, covering the industry’s commercial landscape, investment, sales data, and consumer insights from January 2020 to June 2021. It includes plant-based, cellular agriculture and fermentation-based forms of seafood alternatives.

This report from Dutch NGO the Changing Markets Foundation argues that a lack of attention to reducing methane emissions puts the world at greater risk of reaching climate tipping points. It analyses the climate commitments of the 18 countries with the biggest meat and dairy industries, as well as the largest meat and dairy companies worldwide, and finds that neither governments nor corporations are taking sufficient action on cutting methane emissions.

This report by the Food & Global Security Network, a project of Farmwel and FAI Farms, argues that soil health should be recognised as a security issue and therefore also addressed by defence departments within governments. It argues that agroecology and regenerative farming are viable options for producing food while mitigating the security threats of poor soil health.

This report by charity Rewilding Britain argues that large-scale rewilding in the UK can support employment in the form of localised Nature-Based Economies, which it proposes should cover 30% of the UK by 2030. These Nature-Based Economies would consist of core rewilding areas covering 5% of the land, and regenerative areas covering 25% of the land.

This paper finds that consumption of ultra-processed foods - as defined by the NOVA food classification system - has risen from 53.5% to 57.0% of calorie intake among adults in the United States, over the time period 2001 to 2018. Consumption of minimally processed foods has fallen from 32.7% to 27.4% of caloric intake over the same period. It also assesses these trends by social factors including age, sex, ethnicity, education and income.

This paper reviews the evidence around the performance of various strategies used within conservation agriculture with respect to crop production, soil and water conservation, and carbon sequestration. It finds that no-till farming leads to an average decrease of 1.9% in crop yield, while residue retention leads to an average increase of 8.2% in crop yield. 

This paper quantifies the greenhouse gas mitigation potential, cost and feasibility of land-based climate measures such as forest protection, carbon sequestration through agriculture, bioenergy, reducing food waste and shifting to healthy sustainable diets. Across 250 countries and regions, the paper finds that cost-effective measures (defined as those costing up to $100/tCO2eq.) could mitigate 8–13.8 GtCO2eq yr−1 between 2020 and 2050. For context, emissions from Agriculture, Forestry and other Land Uses (AFOLU) were ~12 GtCO2eq yr−1 between 2007 and 2016.