Food systems

The UK’s food system is under pressure.

Considering the contemporary global landscape of interlocking environmental, economic and political challenges - labelled as a polycrisis - the paper takes issue with an influential narrative of technological solutionism. Both within the rapidly digitalizing agricultural sector that is reshaping industrial farming and across the novel foods category engaged in scaling protein production, there is a tendency to proclaim new technologies as providing singular remedies to existential problems.  While conceding that new technologies may have an important role to play as we navigate uncertainty in striving for healthy, sustainable diets, this commentary argues that such efforts ought to be informed by a wider vision embracing complexity and scientific humility and capable of scrutinising the purpose of such innovations while ensuring the inclusion of valued social and cultural attributes of food. Ultimately, challenging dominant narratives of technological solutionism requires civil society to develop alternative discourses that speak to human and ecological wellbeing above purely technocratically defined objectives.

Scholars have proposed agroecology as a promising method for promoting sustainable and socially just agricultural production systems. However, the extent to which agroecological practices will generate the yields required to ensure sufficient food globally remains unclear. This notion is particularly true in the context of Africa, where agricultural productivity is low but levels of hunger and malnutrition are high. To address this knowledge gap, this article undertakes a systematic review of empirical studies to assess the overall status of agroecology-related research in Africa. Using descriptive and meta-analytical methods, we evaluate empirical evidence on the effect of agroecological practices on land and labour productivity. Our analysis of 501 peer-reviewed articles reveals that the body of agroecology-related literature in Africa has been growing in the past 10 years from approximately 10 to more than 70 studies per annum before and after 2014, respectively, with a strong focus on East Africa, particularly Kenya. The majority of the reviewed studies relate to but do not mention agroecology in the title or abstract. Thus, solely relying on studies that use the term may introduce bias and overlook valuable research contributions to the field. The meta-analysis could identify 39 agronomic studies with 392 observations in which agroecological practices were compared to monocrop systems (defined as plots where similar plants grow alongside each other simultaneously and sequentially from one season to the next) with or without inputs as the control groups. The meta-analysis indicates that agroecological practices are associated with a positive and significant difference in land productivity, compared to that for monocrop systems especially so when monocrops are grown without inputs. However, the size and direction of yield differs by practice, crop, climatic factor, soil property and type of control.

We take an in-depth look at how we can work towards flourishing local food systems that build communities, increase food security for all, and provide a fair return to farmers and growers.

This paper examines a Slow Food–sponsored project to recreate and promote Serpa Velho, a hard aged cheese historically produced in the Alentejo region of Portugal. The authors examine the historical ...

Abstract Self-help and mutual aid have been at the heart of the consumer cooperative movement and its response to food insecurity since its inception. Yet how these terms are conceptualized and practiced in contemporary food co-ops often has more to do with their individual histories, ideologies, and the values of those involved than it does the history of the cooperative movement. Drawing on ethnographic examples from two London-based food co-ops with different backgrounds, this article explores how each enacts ideals of aid and exchange. It argues that the context of austerity creates “awkwardnesses” between and within personal values and organizational structures in the face of inequality, leading to blurred boundaries between different models of aid and exchange and the forms of moral accounting that these entail.

Abstract. This book chronicles the history of food. It starts with the Columbian Exchange, a term coined in 1972 by the historian Alfred Crosby to refer to

“Eat local” is a common recommendation to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet. How does the impact of what you eat compare to where it's come from?

As an apparent counterpoint to globalization, food system localization is often assumed to be a good, progressive and desirable process. Such thinking…

Visions of food sovereignty have been extremely important in helping to galvanize broad-based and diverse movements around the need for radical changes in agro-food systems. Yet while food sovereig...

The steep and stark environmental decline was not supposed to happen under the common agricultural policy

The terms food security and food sovereignty originally emerged as separate terms to describe different things. The former is a concept that describes a conditi...

The decision in June 2016 by the UK to leave the EU found government departments responsible for domestic agriculture without detailed plans for a post-Brexit national agricultural policy. In Februar...

A proposed agriculture bill fails to fix it The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has exposed fundamental weaknesses in UK society. Some fragile systems, such as social care, remained in the spotlight as the pandemic developed, but others attracted only fleeting attention—including the food system.1 Obesity, driven to a considerable extent by a food system that encourages consumption of cheap, energy dense products, quickly emerged as a leading risk factor for covid-19 mortality,2 but this was not the only interaction between food and covid-19. The early stages of the pandemic saw empty supermarket shelves and rationing of basic commodities. Closure of schools and loss of free school meals left many already disadvantaged children facing severe food insecurity. The UK’s food supply is fragile at the best of times. The country imports 47% of its food, including 84% of its fresh fruit,3 and depends critically on a just-in-time supply chain, with little capacity to withstand shocks.4 The Agriculture Bill 2019-21, the first new legislation on food and farming …

Nature Food - The social impacts of food supply chains on people, animals and communities need to be integrated into sustainable dietary transformations. Here the social dimension of sustainable...

This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the market systems and governmental policies that link natural resources and the environment to food.

A special feature on reforming land for sustainable food

A landmark film narrated by Jeremy Irons. Find out more at seedsoffreedom.infoThe story of seed has become one of loss, control, dependence and debt. It's be...

5 episodes

Marcus Rashford has spoken eloquently about what happens when the government does not provide adequate support for food-insecure families. Children we interviewed said the same thing.

Unhealthy diets are a major contributor to the global burden of disease, and food systems cause substantial environmental destruction. To lay out how to achieve healthy diets for all, within planetary boundaries, the landmark EAT–Lancet Commission proposed the planetary health diet, which includes a range of possible intakes by food group and substantially restricts the intake of highly processed foods and animal source foods globally. However, concerns have been raised about the extent to which the diet provides adequate essential micronutrients, particularly those generally found in higher quantities and in more bioavailable forms in animal source foods.

Agronomy for Sustainable Development - In Western Africa, agro-sylvo-pastoral systems are dominant and food demand is booming. To meet this demand, many farmers intensify the production with...

We know industrial farming needs to change. But regenerative agriculture may not be the transformation our global food system needs.

Agroecology is an ecological and social approach to agriculture offering solutions for (1) production, (2) marketing and (3) consumption of food.

In this episode I talk to Sir Patrick Holden, head of The Sustainable Food Trust and 50-year farmer and sustainable food activist. You'll hear us talk about his latest research into how the UK could feed itself using fertiliser/pesticide-free sustainable agriculture (with no grain-fed animals!), the

As climate and food-security pressures intensify, the world’s most populous continent sees clear opportunities to reimagine meat — just as it did for affordable solar panels.