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Some efforts to preserve or rewild natural habitats are shifting harmful land use to other parts of the world – and this could drive an even steeper decline in the planet’s species, according to a

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.

Massive political efforts are needed to tackle the root causes of hunger – conflict, poverty, inequality. Technology alone is not sufficient.

The Food Museum and EA Sustain present a special series of talks in conjunction with our ‘Forty Farms’ exhibition, discussing the sustainability of our food industry with experts, writers, photographers, producers and more.

New research finds meat production methods which are better for animals aren't always better for the planet, and vice-versa. How can we balance the trade-offs?

Nature Microbiology - AMR, One Health and the environment

The use of antibiotics in raising livestock is complex. We could be moving towards a less-than-ideal result due to poor understanding, over-simplistic messaging and a rush for competitive advantage.

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - Pharming animals: a global history of antibiotics in food production (1935–2017)

The biophilia hypothesis has been influential in explaining humans' attraction to nature. Here, we critically evaluate recent research on biophilia, focusing on automatic and instinct-like responses to nature. We explore how biophilia-based interventions may contribute to inequality and propose cultural evolution as a parsimonious alternative to biophilia.

Dartmoor’s iconic landscape, with its expansive moors, granite tors, and biodiverse peatlands, is more than just visually stunning—it is an important upland ecosystem that supports an array of habitats that play an essential role in carbon sequestration. Among these unique areas is the Swincombe valley in the heart of Dartmoor, which has long been a

Mental health problems induced, in part, by climate change are becoming increasingly common as the world warms

Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.

Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh, India, is a key cotton‐growing area in one of the most closely watched arenas of the global struggle over genetically modified crops. In 2005 farmers adopted India’s first genetically modified crop, Bt cotton, in numbers that resemble a fad. Various parties, including the biotechnology firm behind the new technology, interpret the spread as the result of farmer experimentation and management skill, alluding to orthodox innovation‐diffusion theory. However, a multiyear ethnography of Warangal cotton farmers shows a striking pattern of localized, ephemeral cotton seed fads preceding the spread of the genetically modified seeds. The Bt cotton fad is symptomatic of systematic disruption of the process of experimentation and development of management skill. In fact, Warangal cotton farming offers a case study in agricultural deskilling, a process that differs in fundamental ways from the better‐known process of industrial deskilling. In terms of cultural evolutionary theory, deskilling severs a vital link between environmental and social learning, leaving social learning to propagate practices with little or no environmental basis. However, crop genetic modification is not inherently deskilling and, ironically, has played a role in reinvolving farmers in Gujarat in the process of breeding.

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.

This book provides a systems perspective and understanding to comprehensively address the complexities of agroecological systems and their transitions.

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.

In the suburb of Oosterwold, a living experiment in urban agriculture, the 5,000 inhabitants find different creative ways to fulfil the unique stipulation

The long read: Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to Bulgaria

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

Set up to conserve traditional seeds, the Genetic Resources Research Institute is now helping smallholders diversify with crops resilient to the rapid changes in climate

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...

A 10-part series exploring the social, economic and political barriers to meaningful global climate action.