Defra's Biomass Task Force Report to Government notes that biomass (fuel from forestry, energy crops and waste) could reduce the nation's carbon emissions by almost three million tonnes a year if used to provide heating. Heat generation accounts for 40 per cent of our national energy consumption. The carbon saving would be the equivalent of taking 3.25 million cars off the road. The report estimates that there could be 20 million tonnes of biomass available annually.

This report published in August 2009 by Australia's CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) estimates the amount of greenhouse gases that can be stored or mitigated by changes in rural land use in Queensland and more broadly, Australia. Key finding 1: With committed research and policy efforts, a large amount of carbon could be stored or greenhouse gases abated in Australia's rural lands and this could significantly offset our emissions over the next 40 years.

Burney J A, Davis S J and Lobell D B (2010). Greenhouse gas mitigation by agricultural Intensification, PNAS.

IFPRI (the International Food Policy Research Institute) have published a very useful series of briefing documents on what they think needs to form part of any Copenhagen deal with respect to agricultural mitigation and adaptation. Their basic argument is that agriculture is both part of the problem and of the solution, and the briefing documents look both at the technological and institutional challenges that need to be overcome.

KRAV has published a first set of general standards relating to the climate impact of agriculture and food production in their region. Specifically, the standards concern farm requirements, plant production, greenhouse production, milk production and fisheries. The standards are available for download here.

The Centre for Agricultural Strategy at Reading University undertook a new report in June 2009.

The organisation East Anglia Food Link is working under the Making Local Food Work programme, to support and develop supply chains providing local food to community food outlets in London. Early discussions with a number of producers and outlets suggest that a new local organic produce depot might fulfil a number of needs, particularly in providing viable access to London markets for producers (regional, peri-urban and urban) and ready access to local food for even the smallest community outlets.

A paper published in June 2009 , asks Can organic agriculture feed the world? and argues that it cannot. (K. W. T. Goulding and A. J. Trewavas, AgBioView, June 24 2009, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden and Institute of Molecular Plant Science, University of Edinburgh). In a recent publication, Badgley et al. (2007) claimed that organic farming, if used worldwide, would provide sufficient food for a growing world population. This claim was based on a literature survey of two kinds: