This piece is the first of a two-part blog looking at scale and production strategy.  In this essay, Mike Hamm analyzes critiques of smaller-scale and alternative production strategies from several angles.  In the second, he will discuss problems inherent in the argument that small scale can feed the U.S. population and consider a middle path of scale and production diversity. As in the previous posts (Part I, Part II) – he invites your comments, suggestions, and criticisms.This is the third blog-post in his series discussing city region food systems. The series explores the value of city-region food systems, obstacles to their development, and possible ways forward; see Part I for a post which conceptualises the issues and Part II discusses who the farmer of the future will be and how the United States might be fed in 2050.This post is written by FCRN member professor Michael W. Hamm, C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University and Director of the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems. Mike is also a Visiting Fellow of Mansfield College and the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford.

This piece is the third and last blog-post in Mike Hamm's series discussing city region food systems. The series has been exploring the value of city-region food systems, obstacles to their development, and possible ways forward.  Part I conceptualised the issues, and Part II discussed who the farmer of the future will be and how the United States might be fed in 2050. This last, Part III on scale and production strategy has been split into two so make sure you have read Part IIIA to get the full picture.This is the second of a two-part blog looking at scale and production strategy.  In the first, Mike Hamm critiqued the notion that large-scale, conventional agriculture produced largely in concentrated areas is the only way to feed the U.S. and the world.  In this piece, he critiques the notion that smaller-scale and alternative production strategies can feed the U.S. population and also considers a middle path of scale and production diversity. He invites your comments, suggestions, and criticisms.This post is written by FCRN member professor Michael W. Hamm, C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University and Director of the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems. Mike is also a Visiting Fellow of Mansfield College and the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. 

In this piece, Jon Woolven provides an industry perspective on sustainable diets and potential ways forward. Jon Woolven is the Strategy and Innovation Director at the food and consumer goods industry research and training charity IGD, and also an FCRN Advisory Board Member.

In this piece, Miguel F. Astudillo and co-authors of the work presented share insight into aquaculture-agriculture integration based on findings in a recent paper published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Miguel is a former member of the Oxford Silk Group (University of Oxford) and has been a member of the FCRN since 2011. He is currently pursuing a PhD in consequential life cycle assessment at the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec).

In this piece, Emile Frison responds to the questions posed by Corinna Hawkes’ initial post on the SDGs: "What are some specific actions we can take to increase coherence between policies designed to enhance nutrition and those designed to promote sustainability? And what are the governance mechanisms we need to implement them?" Emile is Chair of the International Scientific Committee on Sustainable Food Systems of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation; a Member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food); and Former Director General of Bioversity International. During his time at Bioversity, he developed a strategy entitled “Diversity for Well-being” focusing on the contribution that agricultural biodiversity makes to the sustainability, resilience and productivity of smallholder agriculture and to the nutritional quality of diets. You can contact Emile via member messaging here (note you will need to be logged in as a member on the FCRN website). We also welcome comments below this post are of course welcome – again, you’ll need to be logged in.For the two subsequesnt posts in the series see; Creating successful multi-stakeholder partnerships key to address the Global Goals – the experience of The Netherlands by Marcel Beukeboom who heads the Food & Nutrition Security cluster at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands and the last post in the series, Metrics Matter by Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation.

In this piece, FCRN member Marcel Beukeboom takes up where Emile Frison’s blog-post on the SDGs left off, introducing nuances in partnership development and cross-sectoral collaboration. This piece can also be read as a continuation of the first pass the parcel post by Corinna Hawkes. Marcel Beukeboom heads the Food & Nutrition Security cluster at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands and is currently co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), alternate member of the Global Agenda Council for Food Security and member of the Transformation Leaders Network of the World Economic Forum, and member of the Steering Committee of the Food & Business Knowledge Platform.You can contact Marcel via member messaging here (note you will need to be logged in as a member on the FCRN website). We also welcome comments below this post– again; you’ll need to be logged in.

In this piece, FCRN member Neil Chalmers discusses a recent paper he co-authored with Matthew Brander (University of Edinburgh Business School) and Cesar Revoredo-Giha (Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) published in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.Neil is studying a PhD titled “Demand for low carbon food products” at the University of Edinburgh. Neil was educated at the University of Stirling where he received a BA (Hons) in Economics. He then moved to Denmark and received an MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Copenhagen. His main interests are the economics of consumer behaviour and carbon policy and modelling the likely effects of agricultural and environmental policy. Neil has also completed an internship with the Scottish Agricultural College focusing on modelling policy implications for Scotland.

In this piece, FCRN member Anna Taylor takes the Pass the parcel series on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) forward after Marcel Beukeboom’s post on multi-stakeholder partnerships. You can read the first post by Corinna Hawkes here and Emile Frison’s second post here.Anna Taylor works as Executive Director of the Food Foundation since June 2015. The Food Foundation is a new independent organisation working to influence policy across the food system. She took up the post after 5 years at the UK Department for International Development (DFID) where she led the policy team on nutrition. Before joining DFID, Anna worked for a number of international organisations, including Save the Children and UNICEF. She has been at the forefront of international leadership on nutrition for several years.Note that this will be the last piece in the series on the SDGs. We will bring you another Pass the parcel series focused on another topic soon. Do get in touch if you have suggestions for a particular topic and if you would like to contribute.

In this piece, FCRN member Rafael Silva and Professor Dominic Moran review new empirical evidence on beef production and deforestation in Brazil.Rafael is undertaking a PhD titled “Modelling sustainable intensification in Brazilian agriculture” at the University of Edinburgh and Scotland’s rural College (SRUC). Rafael holds a bachelor degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics (2010) and a Masters in Applied Mathematics (2013), both from the University of Campinas, Brazil. During his Masters Rafael worked for the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and for SRUC on the Animal Change project, which focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production. Recently he was contacted by the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil to provide analysis supporting the calculation of the livestock sector’s contribution to Brazil’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDCs). His main interests are in modelling agricultural systems, particularly modelling the role of Brazilian livestock systems on deforestation and in climate change mitigation.Dominic Moran is professor of applied economics at University of Edinburgh and Scotland’s rural College (SRUC) specialising in the areas of environmental and resource economics and policy analysis in developed and developing countries.