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Routledge Handbook of Rewilding

This book gives a detailed account of the history, theory, and current practices of rewilding. It includes chapters on the emergence of the rewilding movement in North America and in Europe; theoretical underpinnings such as trophic cascades, wildlife corridors and the substitution of extinct species with others that play similar ecological roles; case studies from several countries around the world including Mozambique and China; and the ethics and philosophy of rewilding.

Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Diets

This book gives an overview of current thinking on sustainable diets, including sections on environmental sustainability, health and wellbeing, education and public engagement, social policies and food environments, alternative food movements, economics and trade, measuring food sustainability, and case studies on food sovereignty around the world.

COP15 reaches global biodiversity deal

News and resources

December 2022 saw the signing of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an international agreement on tackling biodiversity loss, at the COP15 meeting of parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The framework sets out four goals for 2050, relating to the maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems, achieving sustainable development, fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and securing equitable access for all framework parties to the financial and other resources needed to implement the framework.

Gene-edited hens can avoid production of male chicks

News and resources

Researchers from the Agricultural Research Organization - Volcani Center in Israel have developed a genetically edited hen that lays eggs from which only female chicks hatch. The genetic editing works in such a way that the female offspring do not carry any of the edits themselves. Any male embryos in eggs carry a different chromosome that stops their development at a very early stage when the eggs are exposed to blue light. The news has been welcomed by Compassion in World Farming, which says the technology could avoid the current system of slaughtering male chicks shortly after hatching.

Urban agriculture in and around Barcelona: why and how?

The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona is a microcosm of the current international movement towards increasing urban food self-sufficiency, with the aim of promoting both supply chain resilience and social justice. In this blog post, Haley Parzonko reflects on the challenges and opportunities facing the urban agriculture movement in and around Barcelona.

Series 4: Vegan or flexitarian - which diet is healthier?

In the quest for sustainable healthy diets, it is common to hear recommendations to reduce the amount of animal-sourced foods consumed in high-income countries. But what level of reduction is optimal for human health? For the best nutritional and health outcomes, should we be eating low-meat “flexitarian” diets, or entirely plant-based diets? In this Letterbox exchange, nutrition researcher Flaminia Ortenzi and physician Dr Tushar Mehta share their perspectives on the relative health and nutritional impacts of purely vegan diets compared to those that contain low levels of animal-sourced foods. Flaminia focuses on the nutrient density of different foods, while Tushar discusses data on the health outcomes of different diets.

Ep37: Philip McMichael on the "Corporate food regime"

Podcast episode

Are we living in a Corporate Food Regime?

Transcript - Episode 37

Essay: Feeding the nation, the village, or the world

Over the past decades, Colombia’s dominant agricultural vision has been that of becoming a food powerhouse: a nation that could “feed the world”. However, while Colombia’s exports of some tropical produce have increased, this expansion overseas has not led to improvements in the living conditions of the millions of people in rural areas who still experience poverty and food insecurity and malnutrition. Agrarian movements have long sought to put forward alternative visions of the food system under the narratives of i) feeding the nation and ii) feeding the village. These alternative visions are based on a more localised approach to agriculture and food consumption that values aspects such as people’s proximity to food production, protection of local environmental resources, urban-rural links and the importance of promoting rural and urban well-being through healthy diets. This essay explores the tensions between these alternative visions of food provisioning. It is written by Dr Felipe Roa-Clavijo, Assistant Professor at the School of Government of Universidad de Los Andes.