Blogs

European Parliament prepares for the upcoming Sustainable Food Policy

May 7th 2014

In autumn 2013, a group of Members of the European Parliament established a cross-party Steering Group on Sustainable Food. On 2 of April this group – operating under the name EU Food Sense – organised a Sustainable Food conference in Brussels together with Feeding the 5000. The conference came at an important time, with the… read more

Food Vision: Innovative protein – what’s bugging you?

I recently had the opportunity to represent the LiveWell team at Food Vision, a high-level gathering of professionals – leaders in R&D, marketing and business strategy – with an interest in food innovation. The conference welcomed excellent speakers who covered various topics ranging from industry collaboration to customer engagement to the search for sustainable protein… read more

The importance of food diversity

May 6th 2014

Your dinner plate probably doesn’t include goosefoot, hopshoots, vervain, beremeal, medlars, Saltcote Pippin apples or Shetland black potatoes. But it could. These plants were once common British fare, and they grow here still. We simply don’t eat them. Nor do we eat the majority of the 30,000 edible plants growing on the planet today. For… read more

How the European food chain reminded the EU to get its act together

April 30th 2014

In 2009, Rockstrom et al. reminded us that not only does the Earth have physical boundaries; humankind is operating outside the ‘safe operating space’ needed to ensure a stable living environment. Unfortunately for policy-makers, even though we increasingly understand how we overstretch the web of rubber bands called Earth, we still find it hard to… read more

Have a colourful plate

April 29th 2014

The old adage ‘variety is the spice of live’, at first appearance seems to be alive and well in our food system. When I pop down to the local shop there is a mind boggling array of cereals, crisps, ready meals and “foodie favourites”. There are meals and cooking sauces from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South… read more

Childhood obesity – a global health crisis

April 24th 2014

Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic that is not just affecting adolescents and adults but children as well. Behavioural factors play a larger role in this increase, with a number of children eating more, or consuming large amounts of food high in fat, sugar and salt. In short, there’s an imbalance between calories consumed and… read more

Top tip: best reads about the IPCC report

A cheat sheet on the food-related findings of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)   The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released at the end of March 2014. Two sections within the AR5 address issues relating to climate change, food… read more

Tackling climate change, one bite at a time

March 31st 2014

At a time when the world’s most eminent climate scientists produce their report on the climate change impacts, adaptation and resilience, we’re reminded why climate change represents such a serious threat to species, habitats and communities which WWF has spent 50 years working to protect. Recognising those threats, here at WWF-UK, we have several programmes… read more

Sugar is big business

March 11th 2014

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched new draft guidelines on sugars intake. Here, the WHO highlights the benefits of reducing sugar intake ‘to below 5% of total energy intake per day’. This is the equivalent of six teaspoons a day. The statement is a welcome move by the WHO, especially at a time where… read more

Connecting the dots – New Meat Atlas

February 24th 2014

Friends of the Earth’s Meat Atlas has caused a stir in the press, and rightly so. It’s perhaps one of the most comprehensive analyses of the impact of the modern meat industry. It looks at the sector from many perspectives: from the problems animal rearing causes the climate, to concern over the overuse of antibiotics… read more