This paper reviews the effects of voluntary sustainability standards - such as Fairtrade, organic and Rainforest Alliance - in the food supply chain, discussing several different crops. It argues that while standards can improve production sustainability in some circumstances, they are not alone sufficient to make the whole food system sustainable.

This paper explores the links between market power - i.e. the influence that a firm or group of firms has over customers or suppliers - and the resilience of food supply chains to shocks, focusing on the UK as an example. It finds that market power can produce both positive and negative effects on resilience. 

This paper, co-authored by TABLE’s Ken Giller, looks at trends in farming systems and land ownership to explore who the farmers of the future might be, with a focus on the future of smallholder farming. 

This paper compares the carbon footprint of broiler meat production in Europe with two uses of insect protein: either as chicken feed (in the place of soybean meal), or as food for direct consumption by humans. There is high variation in performance between insect species. On average, the carbon footprint per kg of protein produced for human consumption is lowest in the case of consuming insect protein directly as food, where the insects are fed on low-value industrial side streams. Replacing soybean meal chicken feed with insects can increase the carbon footprint, especially if the insects are fed on industrially produced composite feed as opposed to a waste stream.

This report by ActionAid USA examines corporate consolidation by US agribusinesses. It attributes the high degree of market control by a small number of multinational companies to decades of policy choices that supported corporate consolidation and larger farms. The report summarises the impacts on rural communities, such as loss of autonomy for farmers when using pricing models based on data-driven corporate recommendations. It also sets out an alternative model: a network of small-scale, localised farms and markets.

This report from the Food Systems Handbook examines the impacts of crop pests and diseases on food security and farmer livelihoods, drawing on a roundtable of experts held in August 2021. It discusses the scale of the problems, the additional impacts that climate change is likely to have, and various interventions including genetic engineering, early warning systems, integrated pest management, post-harvest storage techniques, crop diversity, and legumes to enhance the soil biome.

This report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) finds that 87% of current global government support for farming includes measures that are harmful to nature or health. It argues that redirecting - rather than eliminating - agricultural subsidies is key to making the global food system more healthy, sustainable and equitable.