The journal Food and Nutrition Security has produced a special issue on the question: “can science and good governance deliver dinner?’  The guest editor Voster Muchenje provides this overview of its rationale and contents for the FCRN:

This paper presents two ways of including environmental and nutritional aspects in the sustainability assessment of diets. Three diets were assessed using these two methods: a diet issued from the National Food Agency as a recommended diet reflecting food preferences in Sweden (SNÖ), a diet corresponding to current average food consumption in Sweden according to the latest food intake survey (Riksmaten) and a Low Carbohydrate-High Fat (LCHF) diet, which is a popular life-style diet in Sweden currently.

2015 marks the tenth year of the Global Hunger Index (GHI), which measures the state of hunger at the global, regional, and national level.  This report states that even though tremendous progress has been made towards eliminating global hunger, there is still a long way to go.

In advance of the World Food Day CARE, Food Tank, and CCAFS have released the report Cultivating Equality: Delivering Just and Sustainable Food Systems in a Changing Climate. The report focuses on the need to tackle inequity and gender inequality to end hunger and malnutrition in the face of climate change.

Voters in Berkeley approved the first excise tax in the U.S. on sugar-sweetened beverages in 2014. This study analyses the effect it has had in its first year on retail prices. Sales tax and excise duty tax are two different taxes that are levied by the government.  A sales tax is imposed at the point of sale. It is payable by the consumer, and is collected by the retailer who then passes it onto the state.

An international research project co-led by the University of East Anglia suggests that international agencies have overestimated Chinas carbon emissions for more than 10 years. The research team re-evaluated emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production from 1950-2013 and their results suggest that China produced 2.9 gigatonnes less carbon between 2000-2013 than previous estimates of its cumulative emissions.

This report by Ipsos MORI and the British Behavioural Insights Team (who work on behavioural change and nudge-type policies) looks at how our behaviour is largely influenced by what we think others are doing.  The international study based on research from 6 countries (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, France and Germany) shows that people in the UK often overestimate the bad behaviours of other people. It says that British people often think more people are avoiding tax than is really the case, and that they think that more people eat more than the recommended daily amount of sugar than really do.

Agriculture for Impact has just released an online database on Sustainable Intensification  in African agriculture. The database explores innovations and practices from the fields of ecology, genetics and socio-economics to build environmentally sustainable, equitable, productive and resilient ecosystems that improve the well-being of farms, farmers and families.