The war in Ukraine has propelled the use of minerals as fertilisers in food production to the centre of a global debate about food security. Potash and phosphate rock surged in price after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. As a result western mining companies have been rapidly expanding into fertiliser production. 

Transforming the food system has become a mainstream conversation, but food systems interventions are diverse and generated by varied perspectives on the meaning of equitability and justice. For some, greater equity is gained through increased production or monetary support through aid, for others it requires redistribution of wealth and power or even the complete socio-economic transformation of society. This paper outlines four discourses of food system change; productionism, redistributionism, anti-capitalism and AID: donor rescue and compares the implications of these discourses for food system outcomes.

This article examines the dynamics of transition away from an animal product based food system and evaluates the potential for novel plant based products to supplant meat and dairy. The authors found that public funding for the novel products is smaller than that for animal products by factors of 1,200 in the EU and 800 in the US.

Successful programmes in both Global North countries (such as United States and Sweden) and Global South countries (including Paraguay and South Africa) demonstrate that public food procurement programmes have the potential to promote food security, stimulate biodiversity, revitalise local economies, foster sustainable production systems and more. However, these programmes can be hindered by a neoliberal government committed to financial austerity and the free market.