This report from UK-based think tank Chatham House assesses global policies on climate, biodiversity and food. It argues that current plans to protect the climate and nature up to 2030 are not ambitious enough, and that only a transformation of the global food system can meet goals on biodiversity and climate mitigation. It argues that immediate priority should be given to both reducing farm-level impacts of livestock rearing and reducing overall production of animal-sourced foods, thus freeing up land to restore nature and sequester carbon, particularly in higher income countries.

This report by the Canadian NGO the ETC Group profiles the world’s largest corporations in each of 11 agrifood sectors, including seeds, fertilisers, livestock genetics and food delivery. It shows that most of these sectors are dominated by just four to six large companies and argues that this “top heavy” structure threatens food sovereignty and gives large corporations outsize influence over markets, research and policy.

Inclusion of smallholders in modern (i.e. formal and globalised) food supply chains may not bring the benefits that it was expected to, according to this working paper from the International Institute for Environment and Development. Based on a literature review and stakeholder interviews, it concludes that smallholders’ access to higher-value markets probably results in only small income gains with most benefits going to the farmers who were wealthier to start with; that farmer cooperatives can be exclusionary; that despite high awareness of gender issues, there has been little progress on outcomes; and that it is difficult to quantify progress on the outcomes of environmental sustainability standards.

The WWF sets out global trends in biodiversity over the past 50 years, concluding that land use change is currently the greatest threat to nature, but that climate change could overtake land use change in impact if we cannot keep warming to 1.5°C. The relative abundance of monitored vertebrate wildlife populations has declined by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018, with particularly large declines (of 94%) in Latin America and the Caribbean. (For a definition of relative abundance, see page 9 of the Living Planet Index technical report). The report also emphasises the importance of indigenous knowledge and a rights-based approach to solving the nature, climate and pollution crises.

This primer from the Transnational Institute describes the diversity of pastoralist systems that are found around the world. Among other topics, it explains the similarities and differences between pastoralists and peasants; explores the ways in which pastoralists have inaccurately been blamed for desertification; argues that anti-livestock narratives should not conflate pastoralism and industrial livestock farming; and asks to what extent animal-sourced foods are important for nutrition.

This book brings together a range of issues in the field of urban food governance, covering the history of the field, its frames, theories and concepts, practices in case studies including the United States, Brazil and Tanzania, different scales and actors, and envisaged futures for urban food governance.

This book tells the story of the rainforests that once covered parts of Britain, with only small fragments now remaining. Author Guy Shrubsole explores why this ecosystem is little known by the public and even by environmentalists, and asks what can be done to bring it back.

In the UK, average prices for a representative “basket” of food and non-alcoholic beverages have risen by 14.6% in the 12 months to September 2022, driven in particular by increases in the prices of bread and cereals, meat, milk, cheese and eggs. The statistics are from the UK’s Office for National Statistics.

The New Zealand government has announced proposals to introduce farm-level taxes for agricultural emissions, with the aim of incentivising farmers to adopt climate mitigation measures. The plans involve pricing long-lived greenhouse gases and biogenic methane separately; farmers who meet certain thresholds for livestock numbers or fertiliser use will pay a bill that depends on their farm areas, livestock numbers and production, and nitrogen fertiliser use; incentive payments (funded by the tax) will be made to farmers who adopt a range of emissions reduction measures; additional payments will be made to farmers who sequester carbon through managing indigenous vegetation. A consultation on the proposals is open until 18 November 2022.