On 16 November 2020, the LSHTM Centre on Climate Change & Planetary Health and food-sharing app OLIO hosted a discussion on the priority areas where change can contribute to a net zero future of food, such as tackling waste in the current food system and switching to healthy sustainable diets. A video recording of the event is now available.

In this paper, FCRN member Gesa Biermann uses a survey of German consumers to explore the different meanings and expectations attached to eating at home and eating in restaurants. The study shows that meat-eating is more common in restaurants than at home, for example 59% of flexitarian respondents ate more meat at a restaurant than at home. This is attributed to perceptions of eating meat in restaurants being an opportunity to treat oneself and celebrate special occasions. The paper suggests that to encourage plant-based eating in restaurants, the meaning of plant-based foods must become more aligned with notions of “the good life” (for example, relating to ideas about hospitality, generosity and pleasure).

This paper calculates externalities - specifically, costs of climate change from greenhouse gas emissions - of categories of food produced in Germany. It finds that animal-based products (both conventional and organic) have the highest external climate costs (€2.41/kg product), followed by dairy products (€0.24/kg product for conventional and €0.19/kg product for organic), and finally plant-based products (€0.04/kg product for conventional and €0.02/kg product for organic).

Table members Ximena Schmidt Rivera, Sarah Bridle and Christian Reynolds have co-authored this paper, which finds that the cooking method used to prepare foods at home in the UK can account for up to 61% of total emission for some food types, and that emissions from cooking can be easily reduced. The paper is based on a survey of how UK consumers actually cook various foodstuffs, as opposed to recipe recommendations.

This paper provides an overview of the environmental impacts of pet food production at the global level. It finds that, depending on the data source used, dry pet food production accounts for 1.1-2.9% of global agricultural emissions, 0.8-1.2% of global agricultural land use, and 0.2-0.4% of agricultural water extraction.

This paper examines three scenarios for animal-source food production in the European Union under two constraints: halting all imports of soybeans and soybean meal used as animal feed, and not using any additional land for animal feed cultivation (either inside or outside the EU). 

This report from the UK’s Food, Farming & Countryside Commission finds that agroecological farming could produce enough healthy food to feed the expected UK population in 2050 while freeing up 7.5% of current agricultural area for uses such as woodland creation and public access. The model assumes that diets would include less meat, dairy and sugar, and more fruit, vegetables and nuts.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has released the 2020 update of its dataset on agricultural emissions (accessible at FAOSTAT), with the newest figures covering the year 2018. Total agricultural emissions in 2018 were 9.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, of which 4 billion tonnes were from land use and land use change, and 3 billion tonnes of which were from livestock processes such as enteric fermentation and manure deposition. Agricultural and related land use emissions accounted for 17% of global emissions from all sectors.

This report from the UK’s International Institute for Environment and Development and Dutch development aid organisation Hivos discusses how citizens’ agency (i.e. ability to act freely and make independent choices) can be supported within food systems in the context of a development sector that is often strongly driven by stakeholders from the Global North.