This paper summarises what we know about the links between soil pollution and human health, with a focus on cardiovascular disease. The main issues it considers are macroplastics, microplastics, deforestation, pesticides, overfertilisation and heavy metal toxins.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has released two reports. One offers insights and tools to support the more sustainable use of wild plants, animals, fungi and algae, arguing that the biodiversity crisis threatens the billions of people who benefit from the use of wild species for food, fuel or income. The other reports that there is a global focus on short-term profits and economic growth, meaning that market prices do not fully reflect the many ways in which nature is of value to people’s quality of life.

This investor briefing by the Changing Markets Foundation surveyed over 200 respondents from the investment community on their perceptions of how climate change may affect the meat and dairy industry. 82% agreed that climate change presents risks to the industry. 84% are concerned that a lack of climate mitigation could lead to stranded assets (investments or resources that become unprofitable, in this case due to water shortages or temperature increases; the term is commonly used to refer to fossil fuel resources that cannot be burned). 94% think that reducing methane as well as carbon dioxide emissions is important.

This memo from the One Health Poultry Hub explores the power dynamics that lead to corporate concentration in the livestock industries in low- and middle-income countries, using poultry in India as a case study. It uses an analytical framework that examines agricultural subsidies, financialisation, trade liberalisation and infrastructure at the global, national and subnational levels.

In this report, WWF explores what would happen if the UK were to feed livestock only on “low opportunity cost” feed sources such as grass, food waste and industrial byproducts. It argues that pressures on arable land could be reduced while producing more food overall than in a completely vegan food system; that a reduced livestock population would free up land for nature restoration; that the UK’s impacts on ecosystems in other countries would be reduced; and that space would be made for more extensive forms of grazing and mixed farming, such as agroecological farming using crop rotations. For comparison, see the Sustainable Food Trust report Feeding Britain from the ground up for a similar vision for the UK’s food system (albeit with a non-zero level of grain-fed livestock production).

This book critiques three approaches to agriculture: Malthusian (expansion of agriculture), industrialisation (dependent on external inputs), and intensification (based on labour). It argues that the world can be fed with an alternative to industrial agriculture, which tends to be overlooked.

This book examines the politics and narratives around so-called “superfoods” such as quinoa, kale and rooibos tea, discussing their links to intellectual property, marketing, venture capital and more.

This article in digital magazine Undark explores the development of Kernza, a perennial grain intended to produce food while reducing soil erosion and nitrogen loss. Despite research and development efforts, Kernza yields per hectare still remain well below annual wheat yields - a problem if perennial grains are not to lead to the expansion of farmland.