In the news
Why the UK has such cheap food - BBC News, 01 October 2018
Britons spend an average of 8% of their total household expenditure on food to eat at home. This is less than any other country apart from the US and Singapore, according to data from market research firm Euromonitor. Food spending varies considerably around the world. Greeks spend 16%, while Peruvians spend 26%. Nigerians spend the most on food in relative terms - 59% of their household budget.
There are fears that prices could rise if supplies are disrupted immediately after Brexit and duties are increased on EU imports, which account for about 30% of the food eaten in the UK.
Read the full BBC article here
'Nature-based' greenhouse gas removal to limit UK climate change - BBC News, 12 September 2018
Planting millions of acres of trees and energy crops as well as restoring wetlands and coastal habitats could help the UK become carbon neutral by 2050.
A new report says that these and other, newer technologies will be needed, even with stringent CO2 emissions cuts. The authors say Brexit could be an opportunity for farmers to switch to carbon-removing crops and practices. The plan is costly, the scientists say, but necessary and achievable. While the UK has been a world leader in setting legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector, industry and transport, scientists believe that these efforts alone won't be enough to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century.
Read the full BBC article here
Unilever launches new green beauty brand - Ecovia, 17 August 2018
Unilever is targeting ethical and environmentally conscious millennials with the launch of its new Love Beauty and Planet (LBP) brand this week.
The new beauty range is Unilever’s first new personal care brand in 20 years and was inspired by the firm’s Sustainable Living Plan. As well as vegan-friendly formulas and a promise all ingredients will come from certified sustainable sources by 2020, LBP also uses bottles made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic which are in turn 100 per cent recyclable. Currently only 50 per cent of bathroom product packaging is recycled in the UK.
Read the full article here
Fighting the vanilla thieves of Madagascar - BBC News, 16 August 2018
A barefoot farmer is making his way through a forest. Quiet drops of rain tumble steadily through the night, picked out in the light from his torch. The rusty machete he holds isn’t for cutting down vines or chopping away stubborn branches - it is a defence against thieves.
Lots of other men - farmers like him - are out in the rain, patrolling the forest. For the past three months, they have left their homes every night and made the long journey into the plantations to protect their crop.
But this is not an illegal coca plantation, or anything like it. In fact, these farmers are growing a crop whose name is a byword for something boring.
The men need weapons to guard against robbers who roam the countryside looking for one thing - Madagascan vanilla.
Read the full article here
Farming ideas to make a fortune: inside Brazil's food security festival - The Guardian, 14 August 2018
As confetti showers a theatre inside Rio de Janeiro’s normally sedate Museum of Tomorrow, electronic pop music pounds and dozens of young people crowd the stage to dance enthusiastically, hugging each other and waving flags as their audience films the festivities on their phones.
But this is not a religious event, or a disco. It’s an unusual conference that has attracted several hundred young people from across the world to pitch and discuss ideas on how to feed the world’s booming population with agriculture startups – and make their fortunes doing so.
Read the full article from The Guardian here
UK plants its first gene edited crop - Cornell Alliance for Science, 31 May 2018
Scientists at Rothamsted Research have sown one of the world’s first experimental field trials of a genome edited crop in an effort to develop more nutritious plants that can be sustainably grown.
The trial — the first to be conducted on genome edited (GE) plants in the United Kingdom — will be conducted on two lines of Camelina plants, a flowering annual in the mustard family whose seeds are useful in oil production.
Read the full article here
A further article, published in The Telegraph, provides more information here
How plastics made from plants could be the answer to the world's waste problem - The Conversation.com, 23 Feb 2018
Plastics are incredibly useful materials with extremely diverse properties, allowing a multitude of different applications that benefit our lives. But, with marine plastic debris estimated to reach 250m tonnes by 2025, governments across the globe are starting to think about how to overcome this significant problem.
It is clear then that plastic waste is a complicated problem – spanning economics, sustainability, social pressures and recycling infrastructure in both developed and developing countries. But while it’s widely known that plastics can be an issue for the environment, what isn’t often known is that the persistence of plastics in the environment is actually closely linked to how they are made.
Read the full article here
Should we burn trees for energy? - CIFOR Forests News, 16 Jan 2018
"This whole issue of wood for energy is quite interesting and it’s been a topic on the international agenda for a long time. In the carbon accounting system of the European Commission, it’s considered that if you burn wood to produce energy, it’s carbon neutral. If you burn coal, you have to declare a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
There are several issues. One is the fact that it’s not carbon neutral – or it’s a bit more complicated than it looks."
Read the full Forests News interview with CIFOR's Robert Nasi here
Farmland could turn into meadows after Brexit, says Michael Gove - The Guardian, 04 January 2018
In a speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, Gove will make his clearest statement to date that the current subsidy regime – which largely rewards ownership of land – will be replaced by a scheme focused on supporting environmental benefits such as tree planting, wildlife and improving water quality.
Read the full article here
Cocoa industry and governments unveil frameworks for action on deforestation - Sustainable Brands, 17 November 2017
At COP23, the largest cocoa-producing countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, announced far-reaching frameworks for action with leading chocolate and cocoa companies, including Cargill, General Mills, Hershey, Mars, Mondelēz International and Nestlé, to end deforestation and restore forest areas.
Read the press release here and read about the commitments made here
The hidden cost of UK food - Sustainable Food Trust, 21 November 2017
A new report by the Sustainable Food Trust finds that UK citizens pay twice as much for food as they realise. The Hidden Cost of UK Food finds that, for each £1 spent on food in the shops, consumers incur extra hidden costs of £1. These extra costs are not paid by the food businesses that cause them, nor are they included within the retail price of food. Instead they are passed on to society in a range of hidden ways – meaning that UK consumers are, in effect, paying twice for their food.
Read the report here and download the full article here
Environmentally-minded young people waste most food - Natural Products Global, 23 October 2017
While Millennials, people born in the 1980s and 1990s, are often environmentally-minded their good intentions are being thwarted by their busy, complicated lifestyles. But a failure to recognise that being green begins at home, is also contributing to high waste levels among the young.
Read more here
Resilient chocolate: preparing cocoa farmers for climate change - Rainforest Alliance, 20 September 2017
Climate change threatens many of our favorite foods, but perhaps none quite as beloved as chocolate. Periodic threats of a global cocoa shortage never fail to elicit widespread consumer panic among chocoholics. But for the millions of small-scale farmers in the tropics who depend on cocoa crops to support their families, the impacts of our warming climate threaten their livelihoods and their very way of life.
Read more here
Will sustainable packaging soon go mainstream? - Raconteur, 21 September 2017
With green and clean credentials, sustainable packaging is ready to make the leap from niche to mainstream.
Sustainability in packaging remains a bit of a riddle. Sustainable packaging is not in short supply and neither is there a lack of demand, yet it is not mainstream. It is manifest in many different materials, suited to a range of applications and popular with a broad demographic, but still not considered commercial.
Read more here
How sustainable food systems could end global hunger - The Telegraph, 04 August 2017
The world’s farming and food systems are not currently fit for purpose. Around 800 million people go to bed hungry each night and even more – about one in three of the planet’s six billion population – suffer some form of malnutrition, lacking crucial nutrients in their diets. Without urgent attention these numbers will only get worse. The world’s population is forecast to exceed nine billion people by 2050, even as climate change shrinks production capacity each year.
The answer lies not in handouts of free food but in building local systems of production and distribution that can withstand shocks such as war, drought and disease so that nutritious, sustaining produce is always available.
Read more here
Biomass crop acts as refuge for brown hare - BBC News, 09 May 2017
An exotic grass planted on farmland could have unexpected benefits for wildlife, scientists say. Elephant grass (Miscanthus) planted as a biomass crop is a valuable habitat for the brown hare, according to research. A study suggests the grass can support hare populations when planted at the right scale. Numbers of brown hares have declined in the UK over past decades, though they are still common in some areas. Dr Silviu Petrovan of the conservation science group at the University of Cambridge carried out the research. "What we strongly suspect is that these areas of Miscanthus are very good at replacing lost diversity in the farmland," he told BBC News.
Read more here
Coffee order: would you like environmental sustainability with that? - The Guardian, 08 May 2017
It’s one of our favourite habits, but those who enjoy a daily cup of coffee may not be aware of its very significant downside. Each year billions of non-biodegradable coffee cups, lids and disposable pods pile up in landfill, creating a growing environmental issue.
Australians use an estimated one billion disposable coffee cups annually, but these cups are not recyclable in most states.
Read more here
Consumers being misled by labelling on 'organic' beauty products, reports show - The Guardian, 24 April 2017
Many brands use the word Organic on labels when their products are not certified as such, warns Soil Association. According to the Soil Association’s recent market report, sales of organic health and beauty products swelled by more than 20% in 2016, with the market now worth about £61.2m in the UK.
But the industry has put money into marketing products it claims are “green” rather than spending money on formulating environmentally friendly, toxin-free products that are not harmful to the skin, the Soil Association warns.
Read more here
Food trade drains global water sources at 'alarming' rates - BBC News, 30 March 2017
The global market for foodstuffs is depleting water sources in many parts of the world quicker than they can naturally be refilled.
The complex trade is increasing pressure on non-renewable groundwater, mainly used for irrigating crops such as rice, wheat and cotton.
The US, Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia and China are among the top 10 users of unsustainable water in agriculture. However, they are also among the top importers of crops grown with these dwindling resources.
Read more here, and access the full article published in Nature here
The struggle for sustainable food transportation - Sustainable Food Trust, 09 March 2017
This is a fine-grained issue that (like piles of produce at the supermarket) has been picked over extensively. Harvard’s Gary Adamkiewicz says, “The short answer is that buying local food is a good principle, but not a universal rule.” He cites the Environmental Working Group’s research on pollution caused by production compared to ‘post-farmgate pollution’, which includes pollution from transportation. It’s about what you eat. In almost all cases, pollution from production dwarfs post-farmgate pollution. But in some cases, shipping does matter.
Read more here
Will 2017 be the year we get serious about sustainable food? - The Guardian, 03 January 2017
Americans love to eat. Each person devours, on average, 1,996 lbs – or nearly a ton – of food per year. The enormous effort to satisfy that big appetite creates significant environmental impacts, from fertilizers leaching into our water supplies and overfishing to massive die-offs of bees from pesticides and habitat loss.
Our eating habits come with tremendous social costs, too. More than 70% of the adults in the US and about a third of children are overweight. The medical cost of treating people who are grossly overweight, or obese, reached $147bn within the past decade.
Increasingly, businesses from farms to retailers are under pressure to reduce the environmental and social impact of growing produce and processed food. Here are five challenges we face in 2017 and beyond.
Read more here
Will EU exit mean higher food prices and staff shortages? - The Guardian, 03 July 2016
Britons have enjoyed nearly two years of cheaper groceries as struggling supermarkets battle for shoppers but the historic vote to leave the EU could spell higher prices in store. The drop in the value of the pound is already reverberating through the food industry as farmers, producers and retailers face up to rising input and sourcing costs.
Read more here
Farmers forecast food price rises and job losses in life after the EU - The Guardian, 02 July 2016
As England’s largest agricultural jamboree, the Royal Norfolk Show normally functions as a shop window for the country’s farming prowess. But this year it also offered a glimpse of the problems facing a post-Brexit nation. In the showground, amid displays of fresh fruit, vegetables and prize-worthy bulls, the talk was of how farmers would find the workers to harvest their crops in a world cut off from Brussels and free movement of labour.
Read more here
Brexit will cause UK food prices to rise, farmers warn - The Independent, 26 June 2016
Food prices are set to rise as a result of the UK voting for Brexit, the National Farmers Union has warned. NFU president Meurig Raymond said the referendum result was a “political car crash”, and warned that the UK’s dependence on imports combined with a weakened pound would mean the country could expect to see the price of food go up. Mr Raymond told the Guardian: “Sadly, we only produce 60% of the food we consume. We’ve seen our self-sufficiency fall dramatically, so we are very dependent on imported food. “A weaker pound will mean higher imported food value. I would say to government … [it] could easily be held to ransom by other parts of the world if there is a climatic disaster or if currency is weak.”
Read more here
Coffee could be 'drastically affected' by climate change by end of century - The Independent, 10 May 2016
Coffee is at risk of running out by the end of the century as a result of intensive farming and climate change, scientists have warned. Eighty scientists have published a report warning that two-thirds of land used to grow coffee beans in African could be "unviable" by 2100 unless new plantations are created. Countries such as Ethiopia could be particularly affected, with others outside of Africa such as Brazil already struggling with drought as a result of changes in the climate.
Read more here and access the full State of the World's Plants report here.
A birthday gift for David Attenborough - how about the Great Barrier Reef? - The Guardian, 08 May 2016
Of all his amazing experiences, the television legend recalls his first dive on the reef as the most memorable. But it’s dying before our eyes.
“Suddenly, this amazing world with a thousand things you didn’t know existed is revealed right in front of you, all wonderful colours and shapes. On land, the rainforest is comparable – but the difference is, you can walk for a day and see absolutely nothing. ‘Where are all these bloody monkeys they are always on about?’ But on a reef you see everything immediately.”
Greenpeace is campaigning to protect the Great Barrier Reef from new coalmines – huge mines that would threaten the reef directly through dredging and dumping, and indirectly by adding significantly to dangerous climate change.
Read the full article here
Patrick Holden: 'cheap' food is costing the Earth, and our health - The Ecologist, 07 April 2016
The post war drive for food security through industrial farming and ever-cheaper food has, ironically, put both our health and the future of farming at risk. Food prices have been kept artificially low, while the true costs of food production have been obscured - and are increasingly unaffordable.
"When we unravel the hidden costs of food and farming, we find that our food systems are generating diets which we pay for many times over in hidden ways", he says. "They are making us sick and degrading the environment, which is vital to the future of our food security and health. Everyone has a right to good food that is affordable and nutritious, but the belief that making food cheap was the most important goal, facilitated damage to our natural environment and public health."
Read the full article here
Courtauld Commitment 2025 to transform food and drink industry - WRAP, 16 March 2016
Courtauld 2025 is an ambitious voluntary agreement that brings together organisations across the food system – from producer to consumer – to make food and drink production and consumption more sustainable. At its heart is a ten-year commitment to identify priorities, develop solutions and implement changes at scale – both within signatory organisations and by spreading new best practice across the UK.By targeting hotspots of resource use, we will cut the waste and greenhouse gas emissions associated with food and drink by at least one-fifth per person in ten years and improve water stewardship, with cumulative savings of around £20 billion.
Read more here and find out which businesses and organisation have become signatories here
Climate deadline looms for African food crops - BBC News, 07 March 2016
Researchers have produced a timescale of how projected climate change is set to alter the face of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Climate change is widely expected to have a destabilising effect on food production systems, the authors observe, and previous studies have concluded that adaptation "will be required if food production is to be increased in both quantity and stability to meet food security needs during the 21st Century".
Read more from the BBC here, or read the full Nature Climate Change article here
Climate change is wreaking havoc on our mental health, experts say - Toronto Star, 28 February 2016
Climate change is causing chaos in the environment and beyond; experts are warning we're "not even close to being prepared" for the damage it does to our mental health.
Read more here
France becomes first country to ban food waste by supermarkets - Corporate Knights, 12 February 2016
French supermarkets have been prohibited from throwing away or intentionally spoiling unsold food under a new bill passed unanimously in February by the country’s senate. Supermarkets larger than 400 square metres will be required to donate the excess to charities and food banks, or face a fine of €3,750. The legislation also takes aim at food destruction, stopping shops from bleaching or securing excess food in locked dumpsters to keep it away from food foragers.
Read more here
Cheap and easy food? Think about the true cost - The Guardian, 03 February 2016
EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Iannou’s new easyFoodstore will most likely be lauded by the government. But no society on earth can ultimately afford food this cheap. If we factor in the hidden costs to society, from public health to climate change, it doesn't constitute a bargain.
Read more here
Trees can help UK farming cut emissions - BBC news, 05 January 2016
Increasing yields produced in UK fields and using the spare farmland to plant trees and restore wetlands could greatly reduce emissions, says a study published in journal Nature Climate Change yesterday. Combining this approach with strategies to cut food waste and meat consumption could help the farming sector cut its emissions by 80% by 2050, it adds.
Read more on this from the BBC here, or read the full Nature Climate Change article here
My big idea for 2016: put community at the heart of our business - The Guardian, 28 December 2015
Companies and NGOs must not forget that many of the solutions we need to create a more sustainable world reside at a very local level. We may participate in a hyper-connected digital world but our lives are still grounded in locality.
Read more of this article by Mike Barry, director of sustainable business, M&S, here
The 'age of human' may not become the age of destruction - The Guardian, 17 December 2015
Our access to clean air, water, soil and photosynthesis is a gift from the web of living things around the planet. When we understand that all humans share these fundamental realities and that we all have a responsibility to ensure their availability for everyone, then everything is possible.
Read more of this article, by David Suzuki, here
Innovative finance has a major role to play in tackling climate change - The Guardian, 04 December 2015
Green bonds have been described as a game changer in the fight against global warming. With more than $50bn (£33bn) in green bonds expected to be issued this year – and more than $532bn mobilised in wider mitigation and adaptation projects – delegates at this week’s climate talks in Paris will surely sing their praises. The success of the green bond can be credited to its easy re-imagining of a mainstream financial tool. Its wide adoption has revealed an appetite among diverse investor groups to put money into climate-friendly projects – from resilient infrastructure to energy efficiency – that offer a return for both the investor and the planet.
Read more here
COP21 needs to tackle the cow in the room - businessGreen, 03 December 2015
While all eyes have been on the Volkswagen emissions scandal, there is a cow in the room which must not be ignored if we are to address greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. Agriculture accounts for one third of all emissions, with farming responsible for 66 per cent of the UK's nitrous oxide emissions and 46 per cent of UK methane emissions. In fact, agricultural pollutants are the number one cause of air pollution, even in urban areas. The COP21 summit will therefore need to address agricultural emissions if farming and food production are to make a positive contribution to tackling climate change.
Read more here
Supporting cocoa smallholders to transcend the boundaries of climate change - Olam Group, 25 November 2015
Climate change poses a multitude of risks to business. From the effects on agricultural commodity production, to the cost of rising fuel taxes, to human health threats caused by extreme weather events. As a result, businesses are increasingly building a climate change agenda into their own risk management strategies. But how can a company such as Olam, which sources cocoa from thousands of smallholder farmers, ensure that the climate change risks to its complex cocoa supply chain are minimised?
Learn more about this here, from our own climate expert, Martin Noponen.
Read more here
How Peru is looking to its ancient past for water management - Ecosystem Market Place, 25 November 2015
Peru is searching for new solutions to its water woes by looking back 1,000 years to pre-Incan mountain canals that absorb water during the wet season so it trickles down during dry months. The recent discovery is a major driver in the government’s decision to funnel $26 million of Lima’s water fees into green infrastructure programs.
Read more here
How to stop deforestation? Make 'good stuff' cheaper - Reuters, 30 Sept 2015
Brazil has reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 82 percent. It is often lauded internationally as an example of how political will, legislation and the right incentives combined can stop forests being cut down. But even there, the battle is not won, as deforestation spiked in 2013, mainly in areas where agricultural expansion is happening. In fact, in the last decade, around two thirds of global deforestation has been driven by the production of agricultural commodities: palm oil, timber and paper products, soya, beef and leather, and to a lesser extent biofuels. As a result, some of the world's biggest companies that produce and trade those commodities have "got it", realising that destroying rainforests doesn't make sense for their business in the long term.
Read more here
The search for the best carbon-neutral house - Yale environment 360, 20 August 2015
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has invited teams from colleges across the country to design and build solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. To earn the highest marks, each team is aiming to build a home that costs less than $250,000. The houses must produce at least as much energy as they consume, and be engineered to not only embrace energy efficiency and sustainable design, but also to meet the diverse needs of their future inhabitants, from food production to storm protection. This article from Yale environment 360 shows pictures of the great designs and gives an overview of some of their features.
Read more here
California State Board of Food and Agriculture to discuss incentives for greenhouse gas reductions on farms - California dept. of Food and Agriculture, 30 July 2015
“Programs that are being offered within the state are giving farmers and ranchers the opportunity to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to reducing the overall impacts from climate change,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “In addition to building drought and climate resiliency on our farms, the solutions incentivized by these programs are practical and timely.”
Read more here
The Green Supply Chain Revolution - Original Beans, 27 April 2015
The key to more sustainable business lies in the supply chain, knows Philipp Kauffmann. In this insightful video & interview with Pricewaterhouse Coopers Netherlands the founder & CEO of Original Beans talks about the economic power shift in the cocoa industry and the absolute necessity of making it more sustainable.
Read more here
Motorsport is undergoing a full-throttle green revolution - The Telegraph, 25 April 2015
Technology developed to make Formula One cars more efficient could reduce carbon emissions in supermarkets and bus routes across the developed world.
Read more here
Small farmers under threat from collapse in food prices - The Telegraph, 04 April 2015
Traditional British farming will soon be replaced by international investors and creation of mega farms to feed China.
Centuries of traditional small family farming in Britain is under threat from a collapse in the price of food and European red tape, industry leaders have warned.
Read more here
Forget carbon offsetting, insetting is the future - The Guardian, 09 January 2015
Rather than planting trees at arm’s length, businesses from hotel groups to construction firms are embedding sustainable activities directly into their supply chains.
Read more here
The business cost of climate change: what the science says - The Guardian, 14 July 2014
Massive loss from extreme weather in recent years abound, and new research indicates climate risks aren’t leaving any time soon.
Read more here
Britons spend an average of 8% of their total household expenditure on food to eat at home. This is less than any other country apart from the US and Singapore, according to data from market research firm Euromonitor. Food spending varies considerably around the world. Greeks spend 16%, while Peruvians spend 26%. Nigerians spend the most on food in relative terms - 59% of their household budget.
There are fears that prices could rise if supplies are disrupted immediately after Brexit and duties are increased on EU imports, which account for about 30% of the food eaten in the UK.
Read the full BBC article here
'Nature-based' greenhouse gas removal to limit UK climate change - BBC News, 12 September 2018
Planting millions of acres of trees and energy crops as well as restoring wetlands and coastal habitats could help the UK become carbon neutral by 2050.
A new report says that these and other, newer technologies will be needed, even with stringent CO2 emissions cuts. The authors say Brexit could be an opportunity for farmers to switch to carbon-removing crops and practices. The plan is costly, the scientists say, but necessary and achievable. While the UK has been a world leader in setting legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector, industry and transport, scientists believe that these efforts alone won't be enough to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century.
Read the full BBC article here
Unilever launches new green beauty brand - Ecovia, 17 August 2018
Unilever is targeting ethical and environmentally conscious millennials with the launch of its new Love Beauty and Planet (LBP) brand this week.
The new beauty range is Unilever’s first new personal care brand in 20 years and was inspired by the firm’s Sustainable Living Plan. As well as vegan-friendly formulas and a promise all ingredients will come from certified sustainable sources by 2020, LBP also uses bottles made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic which are in turn 100 per cent recyclable. Currently only 50 per cent of bathroom product packaging is recycled in the UK.
Read the full article here
Fighting the vanilla thieves of Madagascar - BBC News, 16 August 2018
A barefoot farmer is making his way through a forest. Quiet drops of rain tumble steadily through the night, picked out in the light from his torch. The rusty machete he holds isn’t for cutting down vines or chopping away stubborn branches - it is a defence against thieves.
Lots of other men - farmers like him - are out in the rain, patrolling the forest. For the past three months, they have left their homes every night and made the long journey into the plantations to protect their crop.
But this is not an illegal coca plantation, or anything like it. In fact, these farmers are growing a crop whose name is a byword for something boring.
The men need weapons to guard against robbers who roam the countryside looking for one thing - Madagascan vanilla.
Read the full article here
Farming ideas to make a fortune: inside Brazil's food security festival - The Guardian, 14 August 2018
As confetti showers a theatre inside Rio de Janeiro’s normally sedate Museum of Tomorrow, electronic pop music pounds and dozens of young people crowd the stage to dance enthusiastically, hugging each other and waving flags as their audience films the festivities on their phones.
But this is not a religious event, or a disco. It’s an unusual conference that has attracted several hundred young people from across the world to pitch and discuss ideas on how to feed the world’s booming population with agriculture startups – and make their fortunes doing so.
Read the full article from The Guardian here
UK plants its first gene edited crop - Cornell Alliance for Science, 31 May 2018
Scientists at Rothamsted Research have sown one of the world’s first experimental field trials of a genome edited crop in an effort to develop more nutritious plants that can be sustainably grown.
The trial — the first to be conducted on genome edited (GE) plants in the United Kingdom — will be conducted on two lines of Camelina plants, a flowering annual in the mustard family whose seeds are useful in oil production.
Read the full article here
A further article, published in The Telegraph, provides more information here
How plastics made from plants could be the answer to the world's waste problem - The Conversation.com, 23 Feb 2018
Plastics are incredibly useful materials with extremely diverse properties, allowing a multitude of different applications that benefit our lives. But, with marine plastic debris estimated to reach 250m tonnes by 2025, governments across the globe are starting to think about how to overcome this significant problem.
It is clear then that plastic waste is a complicated problem – spanning economics, sustainability, social pressures and recycling infrastructure in both developed and developing countries. But while it’s widely known that plastics can be an issue for the environment, what isn’t often known is that the persistence of plastics in the environment is actually closely linked to how they are made.
Read the full article here
Should we burn trees for energy? - CIFOR Forests News, 16 Jan 2018
"This whole issue of wood for energy is quite interesting and it’s been a topic on the international agenda for a long time. In the carbon accounting system of the European Commission, it’s considered that if you burn wood to produce energy, it’s carbon neutral. If you burn coal, you have to declare a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
There are several issues. One is the fact that it’s not carbon neutral – or it’s a bit more complicated than it looks."
Read the full Forests News interview with CIFOR's Robert Nasi here
Farmland could turn into meadows after Brexit, says Michael Gove - The Guardian, 04 January 2018
In a speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, Gove will make his clearest statement to date that the current subsidy regime – which largely rewards ownership of land – will be replaced by a scheme focused on supporting environmental benefits such as tree planting, wildlife and improving water quality.
Read the full article here
Cocoa industry and governments unveil frameworks for action on deforestation - Sustainable Brands, 17 November 2017
At COP23, the largest cocoa-producing countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, announced far-reaching frameworks for action with leading chocolate and cocoa companies, including Cargill, General Mills, Hershey, Mars, Mondelēz International and Nestlé, to end deforestation and restore forest areas.
Read the press release here and read about the commitments made here
The hidden cost of UK food - Sustainable Food Trust, 21 November 2017
A new report by the Sustainable Food Trust finds that UK citizens pay twice as much for food as they realise. The Hidden Cost of UK Food finds that, for each £1 spent on food in the shops, consumers incur extra hidden costs of £1. These extra costs are not paid by the food businesses that cause them, nor are they included within the retail price of food. Instead they are passed on to society in a range of hidden ways – meaning that UK consumers are, in effect, paying twice for their food.
Read the report here and download the full article here
Environmentally-minded young people waste most food - Natural Products Global, 23 October 2017
While Millennials, people born in the 1980s and 1990s, are often environmentally-minded their good intentions are being thwarted by their busy, complicated lifestyles. But a failure to recognise that being green begins at home, is also contributing to high waste levels among the young.
Read more here
Resilient chocolate: preparing cocoa farmers for climate change - Rainforest Alliance, 20 September 2017
Climate change threatens many of our favorite foods, but perhaps none quite as beloved as chocolate. Periodic threats of a global cocoa shortage never fail to elicit widespread consumer panic among chocoholics. But for the millions of small-scale farmers in the tropics who depend on cocoa crops to support their families, the impacts of our warming climate threaten their livelihoods and their very way of life.
Read more here
Will sustainable packaging soon go mainstream? - Raconteur, 21 September 2017
With green and clean credentials, sustainable packaging is ready to make the leap from niche to mainstream.
Sustainability in packaging remains a bit of a riddle. Sustainable packaging is not in short supply and neither is there a lack of demand, yet it is not mainstream. It is manifest in many different materials, suited to a range of applications and popular with a broad demographic, but still not considered commercial.
Read more here
How sustainable food systems could end global hunger - The Telegraph, 04 August 2017
The world’s farming and food systems are not currently fit for purpose. Around 800 million people go to bed hungry each night and even more – about one in three of the planet’s six billion population – suffer some form of malnutrition, lacking crucial nutrients in their diets. Without urgent attention these numbers will only get worse. The world’s population is forecast to exceed nine billion people by 2050, even as climate change shrinks production capacity each year.
The answer lies not in handouts of free food but in building local systems of production and distribution that can withstand shocks such as war, drought and disease so that nutritious, sustaining produce is always available.
Read more here
Biomass crop acts as refuge for brown hare - BBC News, 09 May 2017
An exotic grass planted on farmland could have unexpected benefits for wildlife, scientists say. Elephant grass (Miscanthus) planted as a biomass crop is a valuable habitat for the brown hare, according to research. A study suggests the grass can support hare populations when planted at the right scale. Numbers of brown hares have declined in the UK over past decades, though they are still common in some areas. Dr Silviu Petrovan of the conservation science group at the University of Cambridge carried out the research. "What we strongly suspect is that these areas of Miscanthus are very good at replacing lost diversity in the farmland," he told BBC News.
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Coffee order: would you like environmental sustainability with that? - The Guardian, 08 May 2017
It’s one of our favourite habits, but those who enjoy a daily cup of coffee may not be aware of its very significant downside. Each year billions of non-biodegradable coffee cups, lids and disposable pods pile up in landfill, creating a growing environmental issue.
Australians use an estimated one billion disposable coffee cups annually, but these cups are not recyclable in most states.
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Consumers being misled by labelling on 'organic' beauty products, reports show - The Guardian, 24 April 2017
Many brands use the word Organic on labels when their products are not certified as such, warns Soil Association. According to the Soil Association’s recent market report, sales of organic health and beauty products swelled by more than 20% in 2016, with the market now worth about £61.2m in the UK.
But the industry has put money into marketing products it claims are “green” rather than spending money on formulating environmentally friendly, toxin-free products that are not harmful to the skin, the Soil Association warns.
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Food trade drains global water sources at 'alarming' rates - BBC News, 30 March 2017
The global market for foodstuffs is depleting water sources in many parts of the world quicker than they can naturally be refilled.
The complex trade is increasing pressure on non-renewable groundwater, mainly used for irrigating crops such as rice, wheat and cotton.
The US, Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia and China are among the top 10 users of unsustainable water in agriculture. However, they are also among the top importers of crops grown with these dwindling resources.
Read more here, and access the full article published in Nature here
The struggle for sustainable food transportation - Sustainable Food Trust, 09 March 2017
This is a fine-grained issue that (like piles of produce at the supermarket) has been picked over extensively. Harvard’s Gary Adamkiewicz says, “The short answer is that buying local food is a good principle, but not a universal rule.” He cites the Environmental Working Group’s research on pollution caused by production compared to ‘post-farmgate pollution’, which includes pollution from transportation. It’s about what you eat. In almost all cases, pollution from production dwarfs post-farmgate pollution. But in some cases, shipping does matter.
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Will 2017 be the year we get serious about sustainable food? - The Guardian, 03 January 2017
Americans love to eat. Each person devours, on average, 1,996 lbs – or nearly a ton – of food per year. The enormous effort to satisfy that big appetite creates significant environmental impacts, from fertilizers leaching into our water supplies and overfishing to massive die-offs of bees from pesticides and habitat loss.
Our eating habits come with tremendous social costs, too. More than 70% of the adults in the US and about a third of children are overweight. The medical cost of treating people who are grossly overweight, or obese, reached $147bn within the past decade.
Increasingly, businesses from farms to retailers are under pressure to reduce the environmental and social impact of growing produce and processed food. Here are five challenges we face in 2017 and beyond.
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Will EU exit mean higher food prices and staff shortages? - The Guardian, 03 July 2016
Britons have enjoyed nearly two years of cheaper groceries as struggling supermarkets battle for shoppers but the historic vote to leave the EU could spell higher prices in store. The drop in the value of the pound is already reverberating through the food industry as farmers, producers and retailers face up to rising input and sourcing costs.
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Farmers forecast food price rises and job losses in life after the EU - The Guardian, 02 July 2016
As England’s largest agricultural jamboree, the Royal Norfolk Show normally functions as a shop window for the country’s farming prowess. But this year it also offered a glimpse of the problems facing a post-Brexit nation. In the showground, amid displays of fresh fruit, vegetables and prize-worthy bulls, the talk was of how farmers would find the workers to harvest their crops in a world cut off from Brussels and free movement of labour.
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Brexit will cause UK food prices to rise, farmers warn - The Independent, 26 June 2016
Food prices are set to rise as a result of the UK voting for Brexit, the National Farmers Union has warned. NFU president Meurig Raymond said the referendum result was a “political car crash”, and warned that the UK’s dependence on imports combined with a weakened pound would mean the country could expect to see the price of food go up. Mr Raymond told the Guardian: “Sadly, we only produce 60% of the food we consume. We’ve seen our self-sufficiency fall dramatically, so we are very dependent on imported food. “A weaker pound will mean higher imported food value. I would say to government … [it] could easily be held to ransom by other parts of the world if there is a climatic disaster or if currency is weak.”
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Coffee could be 'drastically affected' by climate change by end of century - The Independent, 10 May 2016
Coffee is at risk of running out by the end of the century as a result of intensive farming and climate change, scientists have warned. Eighty scientists have published a report warning that two-thirds of land used to grow coffee beans in African could be "unviable" by 2100 unless new plantations are created. Countries such as Ethiopia could be particularly affected, with others outside of Africa such as Brazil already struggling with drought as a result of changes in the climate.
Read more here and access the full State of the World's Plants report here.
A birthday gift for David Attenborough - how about the Great Barrier Reef? - The Guardian, 08 May 2016
Of all his amazing experiences, the television legend recalls his first dive on the reef as the most memorable. But it’s dying before our eyes.
“Suddenly, this amazing world with a thousand things you didn’t know existed is revealed right in front of you, all wonderful colours and shapes. On land, the rainforest is comparable – but the difference is, you can walk for a day and see absolutely nothing. ‘Where are all these bloody monkeys they are always on about?’ But on a reef you see everything immediately.”
Greenpeace is campaigning to protect the Great Barrier Reef from new coalmines – huge mines that would threaten the reef directly through dredging and dumping, and indirectly by adding significantly to dangerous climate change.
Read the full article here
Patrick Holden: 'cheap' food is costing the Earth, and our health - The Ecologist, 07 April 2016
The post war drive for food security through industrial farming and ever-cheaper food has, ironically, put both our health and the future of farming at risk. Food prices have been kept artificially low, while the true costs of food production have been obscured - and are increasingly unaffordable.
"When we unravel the hidden costs of food and farming, we find that our food systems are generating diets which we pay for many times over in hidden ways", he says. "They are making us sick and degrading the environment, which is vital to the future of our food security and health. Everyone has a right to good food that is affordable and nutritious, but the belief that making food cheap was the most important goal, facilitated damage to our natural environment and public health."
Read the full article here
Courtauld Commitment 2025 to transform food and drink industry - WRAP, 16 March 2016
Courtauld 2025 is an ambitious voluntary agreement that brings together organisations across the food system – from producer to consumer – to make food and drink production and consumption more sustainable. At its heart is a ten-year commitment to identify priorities, develop solutions and implement changes at scale – both within signatory organisations and by spreading new best practice across the UK.By targeting hotspots of resource use, we will cut the waste and greenhouse gas emissions associated with food and drink by at least one-fifth per person in ten years and improve water stewardship, with cumulative savings of around £20 billion.
Read more here and find out which businesses and organisation have become signatories here
Climate deadline looms for African food crops - BBC News, 07 March 2016
Researchers have produced a timescale of how projected climate change is set to alter the face of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Climate change is widely expected to have a destabilising effect on food production systems, the authors observe, and previous studies have concluded that adaptation "will be required if food production is to be increased in both quantity and stability to meet food security needs during the 21st Century".
Read more from the BBC here, or read the full Nature Climate Change article here
Climate change is wreaking havoc on our mental health, experts say - Toronto Star, 28 February 2016
Climate change is causing chaos in the environment and beyond; experts are warning we're "not even close to being prepared" for the damage it does to our mental health.
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France becomes first country to ban food waste by supermarkets - Corporate Knights, 12 February 2016
French supermarkets have been prohibited from throwing away or intentionally spoiling unsold food under a new bill passed unanimously in February by the country’s senate. Supermarkets larger than 400 square metres will be required to donate the excess to charities and food banks, or face a fine of €3,750. The legislation also takes aim at food destruction, stopping shops from bleaching or securing excess food in locked dumpsters to keep it away from food foragers.
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Cheap and easy food? Think about the true cost - The Guardian, 03 February 2016
EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Iannou’s new easyFoodstore will most likely be lauded by the government. But no society on earth can ultimately afford food this cheap. If we factor in the hidden costs to society, from public health to climate change, it doesn't constitute a bargain.
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Trees can help UK farming cut emissions - BBC news, 05 January 2016
Increasing yields produced in UK fields and using the spare farmland to plant trees and restore wetlands could greatly reduce emissions, says a study published in journal Nature Climate Change yesterday. Combining this approach with strategies to cut food waste and meat consumption could help the farming sector cut its emissions by 80% by 2050, it adds.
Read more on this from the BBC here, or read the full Nature Climate Change article here
My big idea for 2016: put community at the heart of our business - The Guardian, 28 December 2015
Companies and NGOs must not forget that many of the solutions we need to create a more sustainable world reside at a very local level. We may participate in a hyper-connected digital world but our lives are still grounded in locality.
Read more of this article by Mike Barry, director of sustainable business, M&S, here
The 'age of human' may not become the age of destruction - The Guardian, 17 December 2015
Our access to clean air, water, soil and photosynthesis is a gift from the web of living things around the planet. When we understand that all humans share these fundamental realities and that we all have a responsibility to ensure their availability for everyone, then everything is possible.
Read more of this article, by David Suzuki, here
Innovative finance has a major role to play in tackling climate change - The Guardian, 04 December 2015
Green bonds have been described as a game changer in the fight against global warming. With more than $50bn (£33bn) in green bonds expected to be issued this year – and more than $532bn mobilised in wider mitigation and adaptation projects – delegates at this week’s climate talks in Paris will surely sing their praises. The success of the green bond can be credited to its easy re-imagining of a mainstream financial tool. Its wide adoption has revealed an appetite among diverse investor groups to put money into climate-friendly projects – from resilient infrastructure to energy efficiency – that offer a return for both the investor and the planet.
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COP21 needs to tackle the cow in the room - businessGreen, 03 December 2015
While all eyes have been on the Volkswagen emissions scandal, there is a cow in the room which must not be ignored if we are to address greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. Agriculture accounts for one third of all emissions, with farming responsible for 66 per cent of the UK's nitrous oxide emissions and 46 per cent of UK methane emissions. In fact, agricultural pollutants are the number one cause of air pollution, even in urban areas. The COP21 summit will therefore need to address agricultural emissions if farming and food production are to make a positive contribution to tackling climate change.
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Supporting cocoa smallholders to transcend the boundaries of climate change - Olam Group, 25 November 2015
Climate change poses a multitude of risks to business. From the effects on agricultural commodity production, to the cost of rising fuel taxes, to human health threats caused by extreme weather events. As a result, businesses are increasingly building a climate change agenda into their own risk management strategies. But how can a company such as Olam, which sources cocoa from thousands of smallholder farmers, ensure that the climate change risks to its complex cocoa supply chain are minimised?
Learn more about this here, from our own climate expert, Martin Noponen.
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How Peru is looking to its ancient past for water management - Ecosystem Market Place, 25 November 2015
Peru is searching for new solutions to its water woes by looking back 1,000 years to pre-Incan mountain canals that absorb water during the wet season so it trickles down during dry months. The recent discovery is a major driver in the government’s decision to funnel $26 million of Lima’s water fees into green infrastructure programs.
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How to stop deforestation? Make 'good stuff' cheaper - Reuters, 30 Sept 2015
Brazil has reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 82 percent. It is often lauded internationally as an example of how political will, legislation and the right incentives combined can stop forests being cut down. But even there, the battle is not won, as deforestation spiked in 2013, mainly in areas where agricultural expansion is happening. In fact, in the last decade, around two thirds of global deforestation has been driven by the production of agricultural commodities: palm oil, timber and paper products, soya, beef and leather, and to a lesser extent biofuels. As a result, some of the world's biggest companies that produce and trade those commodities have "got it", realising that destroying rainforests doesn't make sense for their business in the long term.
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The search for the best carbon-neutral house - Yale environment 360, 20 August 2015
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has invited teams from colleges across the country to design and build solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. To earn the highest marks, each team is aiming to build a home that costs less than $250,000. The houses must produce at least as much energy as they consume, and be engineered to not only embrace energy efficiency and sustainable design, but also to meet the diverse needs of their future inhabitants, from food production to storm protection. This article from Yale environment 360 shows pictures of the great designs and gives an overview of some of their features.
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California State Board of Food and Agriculture to discuss incentives for greenhouse gas reductions on farms - California dept. of Food and Agriculture, 30 July 2015
“Programs that are being offered within the state are giving farmers and ranchers the opportunity to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to reducing the overall impacts from climate change,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “In addition to building drought and climate resiliency on our farms, the solutions incentivized by these programs are practical and timely.”
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The Green Supply Chain Revolution - Original Beans, 27 April 2015
The key to more sustainable business lies in the supply chain, knows Philipp Kauffmann. In this insightful video & interview with Pricewaterhouse Coopers Netherlands the founder & CEO of Original Beans talks about the economic power shift in the cocoa industry and the absolute necessity of making it more sustainable.
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Motorsport is undergoing a full-throttle green revolution - The Telegraph, 25 April 2015
Technology developed to make Formula One cars more efficient could reduce carbon emissions in supermarkets and bus routes across the developed world.
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Small farmers under threat from collapse in food prices - The Telegraph, 04 April 2015
Traditional British farming will soon be replaced by international investors and creation of mega farms to feed China.
Centuries of traditional small family farming in Britain is under threat from a collapse in the price of food and European red tape, industry leaders have warned.
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Forget carbon offsetting, insetting is the future - The Guardian, 09 January 2015
Rather than planting trees at arm’s length, businesses from hotel groups to construction firms are embedding sustainable activities directly into their supply chains.
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The business cost of climate change: what the science says - The Guardian, 14 July 2014
Massive loss from extreme weather in recent years abound, and new research indicates climate risks aren’t leaving any time soon.
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