Few food practices draw more intense debate than whaling. In the case of grindadráp, the traditional Faroese form of whaling, this debate plays out almost every summer in bloody images in tabloid newspapers around the world and calls for the tourist industry to boycott the islands. But beyond the headlines, this is a complex, challenging issue that raises questions about what a truly local, sustainable food future could look like. In this TABLE blog, Tamsin Blaxter, researcher and writer at TABLE, explores some of the issues around the grind, both from the perspective of animal rights and conservation, and food traditions and local identity.

Farmers are at the forefront of the transition to a sustainable food system, facing both pressure to change their practices and the risks of a warming climate and soil degradation. But what does it take for a farmer to act, when individuals often have little power to solve systemic problems?  In this blog post, Viola King Forbes discusses her research into factors that enable British farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices. She finds that subsidies and financial capital, a farming culture that values nature, family support to weather judgement from their communities, and online groups with which to share advice are all important in supporting farmers to make the changes they want. About the author: Viola King Forbes coordinates both the Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) and HESTIA programmes, and also manages the Future of Food Network at the Oxford Martin School. She graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in Geography from the University of Oxford, where she became interested in sustainable food systems and the research-policy nexus. Her undergraduate research looked at farmers’ experiences of changing their production practices and she has since worked on a farm to gain some practical experience. She is also particularly interested in wider questions about our relationship with nature and how it may be reframed in the Anthropocene, and will be starting her MPhil in Anthropocene Studies at the University of Cambridge in October 2022.