Feeding ourselves is the first and fundamental task of economic life. How the world produces food is both a problem and a potential answer to both poverty and climate change.
Different ways of growing food and getting it onto people’s plates can either worsen inequality and climate breakdown or work to reduce them. The scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that changing how the world farms to focus more on plant-based food has the some of the best potential to bring both climate benefits and meet people’s needs. But what people choose to eat, and the best ways for rural people to support themselves, vary hugely from place to place.
Recent decades saw a big shift towards heavily industrialised and more meat-based farming – a model with a major carbon footprint not primarily concerned with ensuring that everyone gets enough, good food to eat. But better ways of growing and distributing food, and more sustainable diets, are spreading rapidly; and traditional ways of producing food are being championed too.
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Resource
Book: The Politics of Green TransformationsBook published in 2015 that explores how 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' green transformations work, and the roles played by different kinds of alliances among...
Report
How did we do that? The possibility of rapid transitionA booklet which collects stories of rapid transitions to show what we can learn from history and the present day about how people adapt to rapid change.
Report
Climate & Rapid Behaviour Change. What do we know so far?“We’ve shown in the past that surprising changes are possible in how people behave, in smoking, driving, antibiotics, and sexual health. We now know...
Story of change
How China brought its forests back to life in a decadeOver recent decades most countries around the world have been cutting down their trees at alarming rates. Since the 1990s, however, China has bucked this...
Story of change
The vegans have landedThe numbers of people following a plant-based diet have soared over the last 10 years. In the UK, polling by the Vegan Society indicates that around 1% of...
Story of change
Growing our way out of crisis: how to dig for victoryThe scandal of food waste is generating headlines and highlights a broken relationship with what we eat. But interest in growing our own is increasing,...
Story of change
The Attenborough effect and the downfall of plasticsA pilot whale carrying her dead calf across the ocean for days. A baby albatross bringing up a plastic bag. Millions worldwide watched these events unfold...
Story of change
When everything changed: the US & UK economies in World War IIBoth the United States and the United Kingdom has within living memory gone through a period of very rapid transition in terms of a huge reduction in the...
Story of change
The post-Cold War Cuban food experimentWith the rising awareness of the speed and scale of action needed to prevent climate breakdown, is a nervousness about our ability to meet the challenge....
