This report by researchers at Wageningen University considers current food policies and practices in the EU, as well as the potential for change in the future.

A Climate Action Tracker report outlines and quantifies the main opportunities to reduce food-related non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CH4 and N2O.

This paper reviews the evidence on two widespread explanations for the importance of meat in Western history and culture: biophysical and political-economic. The first is the notion that meat eating is essential to both human nutrition and agricultural sustainability, whereas the second puts forward the argument that meat eating practices are largely determined by consumers’ relationships to the means of production and the power of government and corporations.

This book, edited by Raimund Bleischwitz, Holger Hoff, Catalina Spataru, Ester van der Voet and Stacy D. VanDeveer, explores the concept of the ‘resource nexus’.

These are two articles on a new study by researchers at the London School of Economics which showed that people who ordinarily eat meat or fish were 56 percent less likely to order dishes in a separate ‘vegetarian section’ on a menu than those same dishes when mixed with meat and fish dishes.

This article examines global overuse of freshwater resources and how more sustainable irrigation practices could impact other environmental and developmental targets in the SDGs. It finds that the main likely effects are 1) increased food prices due to lower productivity and/or production costs as water prices increase, and 2) cropland expansion and associated extra GHG emissions of 0.87 gigatonnes of carbon.

This feature in the newly launched journal Nature Sustainability focuses on the growth of urban agriculture in the US due to increased availability of unused land and innovative development of urban farms and community gardens.

The report ‘Redefining protein: adjusting diets to protect public health and conserve resources’ looks at different protein sources and their environmental, health and social impact. The authors note that ‘transitioning to diets with more plant-based ingredients is an essential action to promote health, food security, and long-term environmental sustainability. However, the impact on health and sustainability outcomes can vary depending on the types of foods with which meats are replaced.’  This report summarises and analyses the available academic literature on the impacts of whole food protein options alternative to meat, with an emphasis on legumes, nuts and seeds, eggs, seafood, and dairy.

This tool provides business users with an overview of their cradle-to-farm gate emissions. It is developed by Ecofys, the University of Aberdeen and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. They are inviting companies to use the developed methodology and set science-based targets to contribute to keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.