Only a decade ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments threatened humans by harbouring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans like Ebola, HIV and dengue. Today, a number of researchers think it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases like COVID-19 to arise. These viruses have profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike…

As the UK exits the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, foundations associated with the Farming the Future collective have been exploring new ways to deploy investment capital from their endowments to supplement their grantmaking in order to help finance a more rapid transition to agroecology. As part of this, the New Economics Foundation and Croatan Institute have been working collaboratively on a new initiative called “Redirecting Finance,” to explore obstacles and opportunities associated with bank…

The new crop of farm support schemes – from Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS) to productivity and Animal health and welfare are all getting finalised and piloted after some delay. The ELMS will be piloted in England in 2021 and so details should be available on what Defra will be paying for, who is eligible, how the payments and scheme will work on the ground, and how ‘whole farm’ the scheme will be. Do they…

There are many efforts made to promote better nutrition in Africa, with the hope that it will improve health concerns ranging from chronic malnutrition that causes mental and physical impairment, to non-communicable diseases to cancer. However the focus of these efforts is often very narrow and addresses the symptoms rather than the cause. They do not look at the underlying problems in industrial farming and the widespread use of chemicals to grow food and then…

The foundation of any agroecological food system is secure land title, especially for farmers and pastoralists displaced from ancestral lands and vulnerable to land grabs. This session will explore land rights and access to land for agroecological producers. We will explore indigenous and peasant experiences, especially from the perspective of youth interested in pursuing a farming livelihood. The session will feature a moderated conversation between La Via Campesina and the International Indian Treaty Council, two…

Grasslands are an essential habitat. They are home to thousands of species, many of which are threatened and endangered. Grasslands also help to sequester carbon, reducing emissions,storing water and mitigating flood risk. Yet, many of our global grasslands have been destroyed. Decades of development, industrial agriculture or overgrazing have led to swathes of healthy, biodiverse grasslands being lost. Almost half of all temperate grasslands and 16 percent of tropical grasslands have been converted to agricultural…

This panel will explore the implications of technology--both high and low--on how we grow, harvest, distribute, and consume food. Farmers today are using image recognition technologies to detect signs of bacteria or fungus—such as color change, wilting, or spots—to identify pests and plant diseases. Predictive ordering algorithms are modernizing food retail and helping to cut food waste in half. Natural language processing applications can read tweets and restaurant reviews in order to identify sources of…

Agriculture and the food system accounts for nearly one third of all greenhouse gases, but the vast majority of this is from the energy intensive production and distribution of a few internationally traded commodities. Whereas farmers operating agro-ecological systems around the world produce food and resources for their communities while reducing cO2 emissions from agriculture and sequestering carbon at the same time.

Many governments now accept the need for net zero but there is…

New research has found that for every pound spent buying organic food through a farmers’ market or veg scheme, almost £3 more is generated in benefits to farmers and growers, their workers, local suppliers, citizens and the environment. We show how buying food is an agricultural act with far-reaching consequences.

One of the main problems with our food system is that the price you pay often doesn’t reflect all the factors that have gone into…