Compassion in World farming has released the fifth and last part in a series of blogs by Peter Stevenson, Compassion in World Farming’s Chief Policy Advisor.  An extract from his post is included below:

Food Navigator highlights new data Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) recent Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in international prices of food commodities.

A number of major US NGOs, research institutions and academics have come together to support the recommendations of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC). An open letter, signed by more than one hundred individuals and institutions has been published in major daily newspapers urging Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to adopt the DGAC’s scientific recommendations on sustainability.

The China Meat Association (CMA) is now calling on the Chinese government to actively support the beef and lamb sector. Prices for beef and lamb have increased more than 10% in the past decade, fuelled by China’s runaway economic growth. As Chinese consumers’ income and standard of living improves, demand for red meat has grown.

This editorial in the guardian argues that food and hunger should be at the table in the Paris climate meeting later this year.  The Editor writes:

Beef has now been banned in the state of Maharashtra in India. India is a country where 80% of the population is Hindu, and where cows are revered.  The ban has generated much criticism and the hashtag #BeefBan has fast become one of the world's top trending hashtags.

The inaugural event in the ESRC series explored the political economy of food and agriculture, its influence on those working in the agri-food sector, and how issues of labour interact with other challenges facing the food system. The seminar attempted to examine the production process hidden from consumers to tell the story of those working within the agri-food sector. Furthermore it sought to understand new forms of labour and labour structures that are emerging as a response to the problems faced by the agri-food system and how far they might go towards addressing them. See the videos from the event here.

This short briefing for the Global Sustainable Development report 2015 by two researchers at IASS, Potsdam, discusses scientific findings on the sustainability of biomass production and their implications for Sustainability, Development Policy and the SDGs in particular.

In a new briefing – “How TTIP undermines food safety and animal welfare”, Friends of the Earth Europe, Compassion in World Farming, IATP, Grain and the Center for Food Safety, says that TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) is likely to restrict efforts to build healthier, fairer and more sustainable food systems on both sides of the Atlantic.