In The Accidental Seed Heroes, Adam Alexander meets a range of seed innovators, who are not only championing traditional varieties but also breeding delicious new ones that will help create a sustainable future for our planet.

This report by the Malabo Montpellier Panel explores strategies to boost Africa’s processing capacity and the challenges that currently hinder its growth and sustainability. It highlights successful case studies in Senegal, Kenya and Ghana. 

CEO of the premium fruit and vegetable wholesaler, Natoora, Franco Fubini, argues flavour can lead us to a better food future. By looking to flavour, he claims we can unpick the industrialisation of our food production, restore nutrition and seasonal diversity to our plates and the craft of growing back to our landscapes.

This book makes the case for an urgent move away from industrial agriculture towards regenerative farming and the promotion of plant-based diets. It features renowned experts such as Vandana Shiva, Jennifer Clapp, Olivier De Schutter and Henry Dimbleby as they discuss the routes in policy and practice to transform the food system. 

This report by the Perennial Green Manures project shows its experiments with a system of providing nitrogen to crops by use of trees and shrubs grown in 'bioservice areas'. It argues it increases farm resilience by providing shelter and habitats, but also produces nitrogen-rich foliage which is applied to cropland. This could have benefits over fertiliser nitrogen and traditional organic methods in reducing greenhouse gases. 

This report by the Breakthrough Institute argues for a more interventionist approach to decarbonising the food system by the US government, making up for the shortfall in private investment. In order for new food and agricultural innovations to provide climate benefits, the federal government must invest, the report says. 

There has been much media spotlight on the World Bank’s entry into the meat debate with its new report calling on governments in wealthier countries to shift subsidies from high-emitting red meat and dairy to lower-emitting poultry, vegetables and fruits. POLITICO said the report was bound to make conservatives apoplectic, while Climate Home News analysed why the meat has become a “political hot potato”. TABLE’s explainer, Meat, metrics and mindset, and the podcast Meat: The Four Futures explores the meat debate and why it’s about more than science, it’s about emotions.

This book by Access Agriculture, a non-profit organisation supporting agroecology and organic farming supported by the European Commission and the FAO, details youth engagement in agriculture as a critical area in Africa and India. The book provides an introduction of the importance of young entrepreneurs in agriculture and follows with a substantial number of case studies and stories from young entrepreneurs from many African nations and Indian states. 

As part of the Cycle to Farms project, political scientist Aisha Hassan and agribusiness professional Lukas Paltanavičius are cycling 7,000 km from farm to farm in the EU, the Middle East, and Africa. Their aim is to document regenerative agriculture practices and share their findings with policymakers. They are in the process of making a documentary.