This report from US public policy think tank Brighter Green discusses industrial-style livestock production in Africa, which, although growing, has not yet reached the scale seen in the United States. Starting from the assumption that industrial livestock production is undesirable, the report sets out how Brighter Green engaged with academics and researchers in sub-Saharan Africa to challenge this agricultural development model.

This report from the International Fund for Agricultural Development argues that food systems need to be transformed or even “disrupted” dramatically so that everyone has access to sustainable, nutritious food. The report sees governance as key to this transformation, for example by providing incentives for agroecological and nature-based strategies, supporting smaller-scale producers, incorporating environmental costs into the pricing of food, and building partnerships between different food systems actors.

This report from conservation charity WWF-UK finds that the UK’s financial sector is heavily involved in investing in and lending to companies that trade commodities with a high risk of creating deforestation, including soy, palm and beef. It calls for stricter government regulation, including mandatory due diligence for all companies in the supply chain including financiers, hefty penalties, and stronger informed consent provisions for Indigenous communities.

This article outlines two different models for understanding the obesity pandemic: the first and most commonly accepted being the energy balance model, which argues that obesity is driven by high energy consumption, and the second, favoured by the authors, being the carbohydrate-insulin model, which suggests that obesity is instead driven by consumption of rapidly digestible carbohydrates.

This paper estimates the total greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4 and N2O) of the global food system and breaks them down into those from plant-based and animal-based foods. It finds that, in 2010, 57% of food system GHG emissions was from the production of animal-based foods, including from livestock feed, 29% was from plant-based foods, and 14% was from other sources (biomass used for purposes other than feed or food). 

This paper gives the first global review of how food security has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It finds that, in general, food availability was not disrupted significantly since food systems were able to adapt to the disruptions caused by the pandemic. However, both physical and financial access to food were negatively affected.

This feature in The Guardian newspaper profiles the work of Oritain, a firm that assesses whether the geographical origins of products such as tea, fish, beef, apples, cotton and wool match the claims made on their labels. This is possible because regions often have unique ratios of elements, which can then be detected in the product. The feature discusses how the technology has been used to detect fraud, as well as its limitations with regards to the environmental or social impacts of production.

US-based alternative protein startup Eat Just is planning to build a large-scale cultured meat plant in Qatar, with the support of the Qatar Free Zones Authority and investment from a state-backed venture capital firm. Eat Just plans to export to neighbouring regions as well as western Europe. If Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health grants approval for Eat Just’s cell-based chicken (produced by its subsidiary Good Meat), the country will become the second to permit the sale of cultured meat, following Singapore (see our summary Cultured meat approved for sale for the first time).

Ian Wright of the UK’s Food & Drink Federation, which represents food manufacturers, has warned that the just-in-time system on which the UK’s supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants have relied is “no longer working” and may not work again. In his view, the UK could face “permanent shortages” in the sense of not all products being available all the time.