Covid-19 and sustainable food systems: a shared learning resource

Uncertainty, pragmatism and the futilities of control

• Great article by Andy Sterling on uncertainty and futures (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• This blog https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/articles/relinquishing-the-quest-for-certainty-in-the-social-sciences-or-learning-from-the-coronavirus-crisis/, by Jane Wills, introduces a new edited book about pragmatism and argues we should ditch the quest for certainty (in social science and the COVID-19 crisis) (accessed 09.05.2020).
• Multiple uncertainties that are hard to predict and plural prespectives re. preparedness  https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/a-natural-disaster-on-top-of-a-pandemic-preparedness-in-the-face-of-cascading-uncertainties/ (27.06.2020).
• COVID-19 and the Futility of Control, Issues in Science and Technology (Andy Stirling and Ian Scoones) (care rather than control may be a better way of managing disease) https://issues.org/covid-19-and-the-futility-of-control-in-the-modern-world/ (via @GarethEnticott) (30.07.2020).
  

Post-normal pandemics

• Post-normal science is an important concept to understand the Covid-19 response (generally and in relation to food system planning). This article is excellent  (accessed: 11.04.2020). It also links to the article below by Steve Hinchliffe in legitimising a more inclusive mix of expert and lay perspectives to manage the crisis. If you are on Twitter, give Silvio Funtowicz a follow.
• Science for a Proper Recovery: Post-Normal, not New Normal (great piece by Jerome R. Ravetz in Issues in Science and Technology, spelling out why Covid-19 is post-normal; nice link to resilience thinking too (system robustness)) https://issues.org/post-normal-science-for-pandemic-recovery/ (20.06.2020).
• Pandemics: why a new science is needed (useful review of On Pandemics: Deadly Diseases from Bubonic Plague to Coronavirus) https://steps-centre.org/blog/pandemics-why-a-new-science-is-needed/ (08.07.2020).
• Science for the Post-Normal Age (Funtowicz and Ravetz's seminal 1993 paper, republished with a new COVID-related foreword) https://commonplace.knowledgefutures.org/pub/6qqfgms5/release/1?access=ysble07x (30.08.2020).
• Translations from the STEPS centre, Post-Normal Pandemics (thanks @SFuntowicz for sharing):
  • Italian https://www.recentiprogressi.it/articoli.php?archivio=yes&vol_id=3347&id=33181;
  • Spanish http://democraciasur.com/2020/04/06/pandemias-postnormales/;
  • Portugese https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341426139_Pandemias_pos-normais (30.08.2020).
• Podcast @ShobitaP & @Jackstilgoe (thanks @SFuntowicz for sharing). Episode 6: COVID Knowledge, Technology, and Politics: Dispatches from Around the World https://shobitap.org/the-received-wisdom/2020/4/19/episode-6-covid-knowledge-technology-and-politics-dispatches-from-around-the-world (30.08.2020).
  

Modelling, social science and animal health links

• What Happens Next? COVID-19 Futures and playable simulations https://ncase.me/covid-19/ (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• This article by Steve Hinchliffe gives a useful overview of models, including their use in Covid-19, and the need for social science (accessed: 10.04.2020). We should not problematise the models per se, but combine models, which offer ‘a reality-based social heuristic’, with ‘on the ground’ field experiences. Links to past work on foot and mouth, H1N1 Swine flu and Ebola. For other links to Covid-19 and animal health management (FMD, bTB and One Health) follow Gareth Enticott on Twitter.
• This short article by Hinchliffe and Law on the social aspect of models/R0 is also useful (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• Blog by Brigitte Nerlich discusses the R number re Covid-19 (link also to FMD) https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/05/15/what-r-we-talking-about-pandemics-and-numbers/ (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Zoonoses: beyond the human–animal–environment interface (recognises the role of social drivers and calls for cross-speciality, interdisciplinary, international collaborations (via @SJHinchliffe01)) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31486-0/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email (06.07.2020).
• Bias in ‘the science’ on coronavirus? Britain has been here before, The Guardian (argues we've forgotten lessons from the BSE crisis about the need for scientific transparency) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/23/bias-science-bse-coronavirus-crisis (23.07.2020).
• UN report on zoonotic diseases. Argues we are currently treating symptoms but not the environmental cause of pandemics - we need a one-health approach and better surveillance of disease threats and associated food systems to prevent future outbreaks https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/preventing-future-zoonotic-disease-outbreaks-protecting-environment-animals-and (20.07.2020).
• Science paper calls for investment to protect wildlife and prevent disease spillovers. Notes significant investment in One Health biosecurity plans to prevent farmed animal spillovers. Need investment also in wildlife trade spillovers, as well as reducing deforestation https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6502/379 (25.07.2020).
• Missed Opportunities? Covid-19, Biosecurity and One Health in the United Kingdom (new paper with @GarethEnticott and me in Frontiers in Veterinary Science) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00577/full (past lessons from animal health outbreaks in the UK have been ignored; Covid-19 represents a failure of One Health) (29.08.2020).

Disaster resilience

• This paper by Riyanti Djalante et al https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:7614/n1-s2.0-S259006172030017X-main.pdf examines responses to COVID-19 at the global, regional and national levels, and how we can apply disaster resilience strategies  (04.05.2020).

Human infectious disease and global population

• This paper, written before Covid-19, is useful in linking global food production and emerging human infectious diseases. It argues that the risk of pathogen spillover increases as food production expands and given projections will thus require proactive management (e.g. more effective biodiversity conservation) (accessed: 11.04.2020).

Past (and future?) studies of pandemics, including networked disease

• The STEPS Centre has a great list of resources on past research on epidemics and pandemics. I’ve cited two of them above, but the full list is here (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• This is another very useful article by the STEPS team, outlining five lessons from past pandemics, including the need to address the political economy and ecology of the food system https://steps-centre.org/blog/five-lessons-from-past-global-influenza-outbreaks-for-covid-19/ (accessed 04.04.2020)
• Intelligencer interview with Mike Davis https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/coronavirus-next-pandemic-mike-davis-avian-flu-covid.html (04.05.2020), reflecting on his famous avian flu book (Monster at the Door), the current pandemic and future ones (he's not very optimistic re the future!).
• This Foreign Affairs article argues we must learn from the COVID-19 failure before the next outbreak arrives https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-05-21/coronavirus-chronicle-pandemic-foretold?amp&__twitter_impression=true (accessed: 23.05.2020).
• LSE blog about what past pandemics can tell us about public trust in science. Key finding: formative-year epidemic exposure has a consistently negative and significant effect on trust in scientists (but interestingly not the importance of disease-related science research) https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/06/01/what-past-epidemics-tell-us-about-public-trust-in-science-and-scientists/ (06.06.2020).
• Bruno Latour interview in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/bruno-latour-coronavirus-gaia-hypothesis-climate-crisis (Gaia and COVID as a problem from within (network theory)) (14.06.2020).
• COVID-19, Crystal Balls, and the Epidemic Imagination ('epidemic intelligences—how health authorities imagine crises, and which crystal balls they use to enact them' (past public health cases from Brazil and Argentina) http://www.americananthropologist.org/2020/07/02/covid-19-crystal-balls-and-the-epidemic-imagination/ (04.07.2020).
• Excellent Boston Review article examining the uneven temporalities of epidemics (thanks @SJHinchliffe01) http://bostonreview.net/science-nature/jeremy-greene-dora-vargha-how-epidemics-end (04.07.2020).
• ‘Beyond the pandemic’ – a new series of evidence-based opinion articles by researchers at Cambridge University https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/BeyondThePandemic_introduction (30.07.2020).
• The Virocene Epoch (interesting paper by Jude Fernando; argues COVID-19 has ushered in a new planetary epoch—the Virocene [better than Anthropocene?]) (thanks @EMelanieDuPuis for sharing) https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23748 (29.08.2020).

The irrelevance of the SDGs?

• This piece argues the SDGs are irrelevant in the Covid-19 pandemic, which although they weren't devised to deal with a pandemic, argues are failing too re. preparedness as countries retreat to national planning https://www.globalstudies.ugent.be/the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-the-irrelevance-of-the-sdgs/2/ (accessed 09.05.2020).
• See also this (more positive) article by David Nabarroand and Joe Colombano https://4sd.info/wp-content/uploads/200526-COMPLEXITY-AND-FRAGILITY-REALIZING-THE-SDGS-IN-THE-FACE-OF-COVID-19-.pdf (14.06.2020).
• To counter the above, good piece about how Just Sustainabilities, embedded within the SDGs framework, can help to re-orientate and clarify thinking, both during and in post-Covid-19 ‘new normal’ times (via Julian Agyeman) http://www.lead-journal.org/content/a1609.pdf (06.09.2020).

Contexualising Coronavirus Geographically

• Editorial by Matt Sparke and Dimitar Anguelov introducing a TiBG special virtual issue "aimed at providing online access to articles that can contribute to the work of coming to geographical terms with the COVID‐19 pandemic2" https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tran.12389?campaign=woletoc (geographies of infection, vulnerability, resilience, blame, immunization, interdependency, care) (19.08.2020).
• Geo-visualising the pandemic https://blog.geographydirections.com/2020/05/07/geo-visualising-the-pandemic-how-geography-is-helping-to-tell-complex-stories-with-data/ (16.05.2020).
• July 2020 Issue of Dialogues in Human Geography examines the geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic (40+ commentaries, & free to view). https://journals.sagepub.com/home/dhg (11.06.2020); here's the introduction to the special issue by DiHG editors https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2043820620936050 (08.07.2020).
• Journal of Economic and Social Geography [TESG] Special Issue: The Geography of the COVID‐19 Pandemic https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14679663/2020/111/3 (15.07.2020).
• Maps and data on Covid-19: global data https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases ; European dashboard (cases by country) https://covid-statistics.jrc.ec.europa.eu/QlikDashboard?sheet=multidim (24.07.2020).
• Covid realities: using mapping and photography to think about space and place remotely (to capture lived experiences of food) https://covidrealities.org/researching-poverty/researching-remotely/(24.08.2020).

The Slowdown Papers

• Series of observations on COVID-19 re. cities, systems, technologies, infrastructures, etc. (inspiring resource - thanks Julie Smith for sharing; includes pieces about gardening, green spaces and soil) https://medium.com/slowdown-papers/latest (26.09.2020).

Metaphors

• Brigitte Nerlich has written some interesting blog posts about coronavirus. In particular, the blog about metaphors is useful (but see also the image and music ones): http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/03/17/metaphors-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/; http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/04/10/being-on-a-journey-while-staying-at-home-more-about-corona-metaphors/ (both accessed 10.04.2020); and reflection on 'pandemic blogging' https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/07/24/pandemic-blogging-taking-stock/ (25.07.2020).
• A short history of the 'bubbles' metaphor (originated in New Zealand apparently) http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/07/06/bubbles-a-short-history/(07.07.2020).
• Fire metaphors and why they work well for Covid-19 http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/07/31/a-fire-raging-why-fire-metaphors-work-well-for-covid-19/ (01.08.2020).
• Matilda Gillis article on the shortcomings of war metaphors in legislative responses to Covid-19 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17521483.2020.1801950 (08.08.2020).
• Dimmer switches and circuit breakers, Making Science Public blog https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/09/25/dimmer-switches-and-circuit-breakers/ (26.09.2020).
  

The psychology of 'together apart'

• Free e-book looking at how we live 'together apart' for the foreseeable (psychology and behaviour change perspectives - not just individual behavioural science, also collective, social structures, etc.) https://socialsciencespace.com/2020/05/addressing-the-psychology-of-together-apart-free-book-download/ (20.062020); this paper reviews collective psychology https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjso.12393 (06.09.2020).

Academic expertise - across disciplines and beyond 'science'

• Article by Dominic Abrams, the British Academy’s vice-president for social sciences, in The Guardian  https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/29/to-solve-the-problems-of-this-pandemic-we-need-more-than-just-the-science (29.04.2020).

The fruit and vegetable harvest, labour shortages and automation

• One of the big impacts is a lack of labour to pick the fruit and vegetable harvest, due to a normal reliance on European seasonal pickers. Useful link on this theme include this article from BBC business (accessed: 10.04.2020); and this from Sky news (accessed: 11.04.2020)
• The Guardian reports on recruitment of hospitality staff to solve agricultural labour shortages in this article (accessed: 11.04.2020); of Romanian workers being flown in to to further reduce the shortage (20.04.2020); and a very low uptake of applications to the British veg. and fruit pickers scheme (04.05.2020) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/27/112-50000-uk-applicants-fruit-pickers-take-jobs-amid-farmers/
• Uncertainty in food supply, including labour shortages, could fast track automation in agriculture? https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/uncertainty-in-food-supply-drives-interest-in-fast-tracking-automation/ (09.05.2020).
• Lincolnshire students urged to help pick fruit and veg - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-52605547 (accessed 16.05.2020).
  
• Useful Financial Times article (thanks to Gareth Enticott for sending it) about horticulture's dependence on Eastern European workers https://www.ft.com/content/860d8651-455b-4012-8f60-8b1ba7afca32 (20.06.2020).

Feed The Nation campaign

• Concordia is running a new Land Army-style ‘Feed The Nation’ campaign (20.04.2020)
• Concordia coordinated a similar campaign in 1943 to recruit volunteers to feed the nation (volunteers were famously described as ‘The Land Army’). The new scheme needs 80,000 workers. The challenge will be to find the right people (particularly in terms of skills, because picking fruit and vegetables is skilled and increasingly specialist work).
• Useful list of agencies that link workers with farms (20.04.2020).

Pick For Britain

• There's now a dedicated 'Pick For Britain' website https://pickforbritain.org.uk/ for potential workers to visit to find out more re what it is like to work on fruit and veg farms, etc. (accessed 16.05.2020).

Labour shortages (New Zealand dairy, Costa Rican coffee)

• Worker shortage crisis in New Zealand's dairy sector https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12335334 (30.05.2020).
• Costa Rican coffee may go unharvested as pandemic creates migrant worker shortage https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-costa-rica-coffee/costa-rican-coffee-may-go-unharvested-as-pandemic-creates-migrant-worker-shortage-idUSKBN2411W9 (04.07.2020).

Workers' rights

• https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/rights-workers-eu-food-supplies-risk-200407070604903.html (20.04.2020)
• Valuing life differently https://www.socialeurope.eu/valuing-life-differently-migrants-and-the-coronavirus-crisis (accessed: 09.05.2020). Good piece on migrant workers and regimes of segregation on farms in the Netherlands and Germany.
• Agricultural worker conditions in a settlement in the Andalusian province of Huelva, southern Spain https://qceablog.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/no-one-left-behind-the-rhetoric-and-reality-of-keeping-our-supermarkets-stocked/ (06.06.2020).
• This Civil Eats article reports on the precaurious situation for undocumented migrants working in restaurant chains in the US https://civileats.com/2020/05/28/undocumented-restaurant-workers-have-held-the-industry-together-now-they-stand-to-lose-the-most/ (06.06.2020).
• Migrant workers in Canada https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-essential-workers-are-heroes-so-why-are-we-ignoring-migrant-farm/?utm_medium=Referrer:+Social+Network+/+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links (14.06.2020).
• Article about Asda's Kober Ltd meat processing plant in West Yorkshire - useful material on worker conditions (thanks for sharing @GarethEnticott) https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/coronavirus-covid-19-asda-kober-cleckheaton-meat-factory-processing-plant-cases-safety-452466?ito=twitter_share_article-top (27.06.2020).
• Workers at 2 Sisters tell of fear and terror at coronavirus struck factory - Wales Online  https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/coronavirus-chicken-factory-anglesey-wales-18469347 (28.06.2020).
• COVID-19 in Iowa: Letter warns meatpacking workers of excess absences https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2020/06/17/covid-19-iowa-letter-warns-meatpacking-workers-excess-absences/3202317001/(28.06.2020).
• Link between migrant worker exploitation and Covid-19 meat processing outbreaks ‘must be addressed’ https://unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2020/june/link-between-migrant-worker-exploitation-and-covid-19-meat-processing-outbreaks-must-be-addressed/ (04.07.2020).
• Inside a UK factory hit by coronavirus outbreak where workers can't afford time off sick https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/inside-uk-meat-processing-plant-22292920 (04.07.2020).
• British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) report offers solutions to workforce challenges and is calling on the Home Office to include Butchers on the Shortage Occupation List https://britishmeatindustry.org/industry-news/new-bmpa-report-offers-solutions-to-workforce-challenges/ (04.07.2020).
• Claims about COVID-19 in meat plants and worker exploitation are ‘false and misleading’ – BMPA http://www.pig-world.co.uk/news/claims-about-covid-19-in-meat-plants-and-worker-exploitation-are-false-and-misleading-bmpa.html (04.07.2020).
• 200 farm workers quarantined in Herefordshire outbreak, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/12/coronavirus-200-farm-workers-quarantined-herefordshire-outbreak; see also this BBC News article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-53381802#
  (13.07.2020).
  
• Ottawa didn’t enforce rules for employers of migrant farm workers during pandemic, The Globe and Mail https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-ottawas-enforcement-regime-failed-migrant-workers-during-the/ (14.07.2020).
  
• ‘There's a direct relationship’: Brazil meat plants linked to spread of Covid-19, The Guardian ('The focus was cows not employees') https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/15/brazil-meat-plants-linked-to-spread-of-covid-19 (15.07.2020).
• Agricultural workers of the Primex pistachio plant in San Joaquin Valley ask the California attorney general for support https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/07/coronavirus-workers-pistachio-plant/ (27.07.2020).
  
• Meatpacking and food processing workers in the US are fighting back (lawsuits and civil rights complaints), Eater https://www.eater.com/21350087/meatpacking-food-processing-workers-coronavirus-lawsuit-civil-rights-complaint-covid-19 (04.08.2020).
  
• 'We pick your food': migrant workers speak out from Spain's 'Plastic Sea', The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/sep/20/we-pick-your-food-migrant-workers-speak-out-from-spains-plastic-sea (migrants pick food on farms in Almería which ends up on UK supermarket shelves; essential worker status but poor housing and lack of PPE) (21.09.2020).

Agri-food labour in the US (meat processing, harvested crops)

• The debate about farm labour and workers' health and safety over the need to supply meat to US consumers during Covid-19 was reported in various articles last weekend. Here's a couple of articles I found useful. One from Cival Eats rejecting Tyson Foods claims the food chain is breaking https://civileats.com/2020/04/30/as-tyson-claims-the-food-supply-is-breaking-its-workers-continue-to-suffer/ (04.05.2020) and this one in The Guardian ttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/30/trump-executive-order-meat-processing-workers-coronavirus about Trump's executive order to keep meat plants open, plus Financial Times report https://www.ft.com/content/2c7e1a34-2cd7-4b80-ae2d-a8549f565423 (both accessed 04.05.2020).
• Battling Coronavirus in an Iowa Meat Plant - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/business/economy/coronavirus-tyson-plant-iowa.html (accessed: 16.05.2020). [See processing thread for other articles].
• Harvesting crops in California’s eastern Coachella Valley during Covid-19 (worker perspectives) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/28/undocumented-farmworker-us-immigration-california (06.06.2020).
• Immokalee, Florida is 'America’s tomato capital', and has one of the highest coronavirus infection rates. It has 25,000 agricultural labourers / farm workers (mostly Latino and Haitian immigrants) https://thecounter.org/immokalee-florida-farmworkers-covid-19-cases-coronavirus-testing-contact-tracing/ (13.06.2020).
• Analysis of meat and poultry processing facilities in different countries shows the influence of the working environment, plus a low-paid workforce, who may be under pressure to keep working https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/what-explains-the-high-rate-of-sars-cov-2-transmission-in-meat-and-poultry-facilities-2/
• New outbreak data from @CDPHE shows growth in COVID-19 cases throughout food processing in the US https://covid19.colorado.gov/data/outbreak-data (20.06.2020).
• Coronavirus outbreaks on apple and cherry farms in Washington county (how to keep farmworkers safe) https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-hits-nations-key-apple-cherry-farms-11594027802 (07.07.2020).
• BuzzFeedNews investigation into how workers all along the food chain are affected by Covid-19 (key message: power dynamics put agri-food workers at risk despite being deemed “essential”) https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertsamaha/july-4th-barbecue-food-coronavirus (10.07.2020).
• Speeding up poultry lines in a pandemic puts workers’ lives in danger, Civil Eats (puts workers in danger of injury and increases risk of COVID-19 infection because workers have to stand very close to one another) https://civileats.com/2020/07/17/speeding-up-poultry-lines-in-a-pandemic-puts-workers-lives-in-danger/ (20.07.2020).
  
• Frontline film "Covid's Hidden Toll" - examines the impact of C-19 on vulnerable immigrants and undocumented workers in US agri-food and the lack of mandatory protection for farmworkers https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/covids-hidden-toll/ (accessed: 22.07.2020).
  
• 'Everyone tested positive': Covid devastates agriculture workers in California's heartland https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/08/california-covid-19-central-valley-essential-workers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other (thanks @GarethEnticott) (10.08.2020).
• Michigan orders farms and meatpacking plants to test workers for Covid-19 https://thecounter.org/covid-19-michigan-food-farming-worker-testing/ (15.08.2020).
• 'An extraordinary summer of overlapping crises for California’s farmworkers', National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/extraordinary-summer-crises-california-farmworkers/ (06.09.2020).
• 15 Stories About How the Pandemic is Impacting Food and Farm Workers, Civil Eats https://civileats.com/2020/09/07/15-stories-of-the-challenges-food-and-farm-workers-are-facing-during-the-pandemic/ (common message: food and farmworkers are essential but critically under-supported) (09.09.2020).
  
• Dispatches from America's workforce: @TheCounter's interviews with workers on the front line of the Coronavirus https://mailchi.mp/newfoodeconomy/no-one-wants-filet-mignon-right-now-2057874?e=f9ec7abfab (09.09.2020).

Humanitarian crisis in ag. commodity chains (Fairtrade Foundation)

• The crisis behind ag. commodities - economic and humanitarian impacts feared under new working conditions https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/fairtrade-environment-ethics-health/crisis-behind-commodities (accessed: 16.05.2020).

• Will COVID-19 change our relationship with meat?, Thomson Reuters Foundation Long Reads https://longreads.trust.org/item/pandemic-climate-eat-green-food-COVID-19 (COVID19 as the tipping point in our relationship with meat?; sales data from the US and Asia show increased demand for plant-based alternatives during the pandemic) (25.09.2020).
• Obesity and COVID-19: A renewed call to address a growing crisis (World Bank blog) https://blogs.worldbank.org/health/obesity-and-covid-19-renewed-call-address-growing-crisis (25.09.2020).
  
• Broken Plate report, Food Foundation https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FF-Broken-Plate-2020-DIGITAL-FULL.pdf (need to change the food environment; the UK’s poorest households struggle to afford to meet the Eat Well Guide. Mean price of fruit & veg – £9.39 per 1,000kcal, while the price of food & drinks that are high in sugar, salt and/or fat is £3.54 per 1,000kcal i.e. healthy foods are roughly three times as expensive as less healthy food per kilocalorie) (21.09.2020).
• Coffee, coronavirus and the uncertain future of high street cafe culture https://blog.geographydirections.com/2020/09/09/coffee-coronavirus-and-the-uncertain-future-of-high-street-cafe-culture/ (10.09.2020).
• UK organic food and drink sales boom during lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/03/uk-organic-food-and-drink-sales-boom-during-lockdown (organic food and drink sales grew by 6.1%; growth reaches highest rate since 2016; high demand for organic bananas, chicken, eggs and wine) (03.09.2020).
• How will the COVID-19 pandemic shape the future of meat consumption? (Sophie Attwood and Cother Hajat, Public Health Nutrition; 'one possible opportunity to emerge from the current pandemic may be a shift away from over-consumption of meat') https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/how-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-shape-the-future-of-meat-consumption/1E58577A80363EF5DD3AE7E2C47ED860# (30.08.2020).
• Obesity increases the risk of death from Covid-19 by nearly 50% (new study) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/26/obesity-increases-risk-of-covid-19-death-by-48-study-finds (26.08.2020).
• This British Medical Journal paper raises concerns Covid-19 has exacerbated nutritional problems associated with food insecurity, including obesity, undernourishment, nutrient deficiencies, and mental health; also notes a lack of quantitative data on nutritional problems families are facing during lockdown https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3193 (22.08.2020).
• Joanna Blythman, The Grocer: Our underlying epidemic is chronic junk diets. It’s time to eat real food https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/our-underlying-epidemic-is-chronic-junk-diets-its-time-to-eat-real-food/647463.article (19.08.2020).
• Linked to the FSA lived experience report below, see also this excellent piece by Caitlin Connors, summarising some of the main findings from their research (reality of food insecurity, the impact of income loss ... ) https://medium.com/@BrightHarbour/when-a-pandemic-hits-and-the-fridge-is-empty-food-in-the-time-of-covid-19-68e149094c80 (17.08.2020).
• Interesting Covid-19 and food consumer data from FSA https://www.food.gov.uk/research/research-projects/the-covid-19-consumer-research (thanks Anna_K_speaking for sharing) (includes qualitative lived experience of food insecurity and quantitative research on the impact of Covid-19 on food insecurity for people) (15.08.2020).
• Turning the Tables. New Demos report https://demos.co.uk/project/turning-the-tables-making-healthy-choices-easier-for-consumers/ (key argument: before lockdown, 20m people couldn't afford healthy food. "During COVID-19 we've seen the spotlight on poor diets and how they're affecting the nation" (thanks @ReedMtweet for sharing). (10.08.2020).
• Kantar data shows that for the 12-week period up until 12 July, consumer spending on lamb across all GB retailers increased by 19.2% to £139.6 million, when compared to the same period in 2019 https://meatpromotion.wales/en/news-industry-info/british-shoppers-finding-new-lockdown-love-for-lamb  (via @GarethEnticott) (08.08.2020).
• Kantar data shows spikes in sales of core dairy items through the peak of lockdown  https://www.dairyuk.org/blog/dairy-sales-soar-lockdown/ (Milk Your Moments campaign) (08.08.2020)
• GB household beef purchases, AHDB dashboard (beef sales are up: e.g. volumes are up 16.1% year on year) https://ahdb.org.uk/beef/consumer-insight-gb-household-beef-purchases (06.08.2020); see also this Meat Management piece https://meatmanagement.com/strong-increase-in-retail-beef-sales/ (Livestock and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland - references Kantar data re. consumer spend on beef in the UK) (06.08.2020).
• Bloomberg article argues the pandemic has finally halted demand for animal protein (esp. beef), using FAO meat production data as a proxy [not convinced but at least some data to support headlines linking meat consumption trends to Covid-19 - need more robust data] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-30/good-news-for-climate-change-as-world-loses-its-taste-for-meat (01.08.2020).
• The silent pandemic: How lockdown is affecting future health (according to COVID Symptom Study app data, almost a third (29%) of survey participants gained weight since March 2020 (1.6 participants in the UK took part) https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/lockdown-weight-gain (via @ReedMtweet) (01.08.2020).
• Excellent blog by Corinna Hawkes on why limiting food marketing is an important step towards healthy food systems, in a context of inherent uncertainty (arguments are not black and white, but we still need to act) https://www.thebetterfoodjourney.com/blog/acting-despite-uncertainty-restricting-food-marketing-to-kids (29.07.2020).

Obesity Strategy

• New Obesity Strategy. Excess weight puts individuals at risk of worse outcomes from COVID-19. Measures include crackdown on unhealthy food promotions in retail, a ban on TV and online advertising before 9pm and a public campaign https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-obesity-strategy-unveiled-as-country-urged-to-lose-weight-to-beat-coronavirus-covid-19-and-protect-the-nhs (27.07.2020).
• As part of the new Obesity Strategy, useful Public Health England report on the relationship between excess weight and Covid-19 (UK and international data) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/excess-weight-and-covid-19-insights-from-new-evidence (27.07.2020)
• Guardian commentary in response to the Obesity Strategy https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/09/poverty-causes-obesity-low-income-families-need-to-be-better-off-to-eat-well ("If obesity is linked to poverty – which is what the evidence suggests – then the way to reduce obesity is to reduce poverty.") (10.08.2020).
• To fight obesity, we must first raise incomes | Letters | Society | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/12/to-fight-obesity-we-must-first-raise-incomes (accessed: 15.08.2020).

• Obesity increases risks of coronavirus-related hospitalisation, intensive care and death (new study; Public Health England call for government action on obesity) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/25/public-health-england-calls-for-action-on-obesity-in-covid-19-fight?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1595657397 (25.07.2020).
• Consumer co-operatives: Solve the food crisis by bringing farmers and communities closer together (useful article from South Africa) https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-19-consumer-co-operatives-solve-the-food-crisis-by-bringing-farmers-and-communities-closer-together/ (21.07.2020).
  
• Pandemic to spark biggest retreat for meat eating in decades, Bloomberg News https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-07/pandemic-set-to-spark-biggest-retreat-for-meat-eating-in-decades (11.07.2020).
  
• Covid-19 Consumer Tracker Waves 1 and 2 (FSA and Ipsos) (Covid-19 has changed how consumers access food; reports continued trend towards more localised food purchasing behaviours) https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/covid-19-consumer-tracker-report.pdf (08.07.2020).
• COVID-19 as a catalyst for collaboration in the consumer goods sector https://nutritionconnect.org/resource-center/blog-36-turbocharging-collaboration-covid-19-catalyst-collaboration-consumer-goods (08.07.2020).
• Snacking and family meals increase in lockdown (60% of young people thought more shared family meal times were positive for health and wellbeing but inequality gaps re. access to nutritious food) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53238366 (04.07.2020).
• UberEats lauches new meal sharing tool https://www.perthnow.com.au/lifestyle/food/ubereats-lauches-new-meal-sharing-tool-on-app-ng-b881561041z (04.07.2020).
• COVID-19: safeguarding food systems and promoting healthy diets (presents 10 priority actions) https://www.glopan.org/resources-documents/covid-19/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=COVIDBRIEF (04.07.2020).
• Is the UK on the brink of a revolution in how we buy food? (shorter chains, digitalisation and new buying habits) https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/food_revolution (28.06.2020).
• Changes in dietary behaviours during the COVID-19 outbreak confinement in the Spanish COVIDiet Study. Data show adoption of healthier dietary habits/behaviours in the studied population, via a higher adherence to the MedDiet https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/6/1730/htm (28.06.2020).
• The effects of Covid-19 on the alcohol industry (Marion Nestle) https://www.foodpolitics.com/2020/06/the-effects-of-covid-19-on-the-alcohol-industry (20.06.2020).
  
• How Covid19 has changed our relationship with food https://www.1843magazine.com/food/panic-at-the-supermarket-how-covid19-rewrote-the-shopping-list (20.06.2020).
• This piece notes that food companies are using clever ways to sell us 'junk food' during the pandemic https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/may20_junk_food_marketing_covid/ (30.05.2020).
• Financial Times article reports an increase in sales of ultra-processed foods  https://www.ft.com/content/2a8b011a-60e0-4bd7-bdac-c22c6a210ea5 (30.05.2020).
• Consumer price inflation data for March-April 2020 show a slight drop in food prices overall but veg prices rose (via Food Foundation) https://foodfoundation.org.uk/covid_19/cpi-aprils-data/ (accessed 23.05.2020).
• Jonathan Safran Foer article in The New York Times linking Covid-19 to wider questions about animal agriculture and meat consumption http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coronavirus/the-coronavirus-and-a-world-without-meat/ar-BB14pRur?ocid=ientp (accessed 23.05.2020).
• Boons, F.A. et al. (2020). Covid-19, changing social practices and the transition to sustainable consumption and production. Version 1.0; (May 2020). Manchester: Sustainable Consumption Institute. http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=49196 (accessed 09.05.2020).
• Consumers in Florida are shopping online https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/sunday/farmers-florida-coronavirus.html (14.06.2020).
• Obesity and Covid-19: the role of the food industry, BMJ editorial (argues the pandemic shows why addressing obesity is now even more urgent - obesity is an independent risk factor for severe illness and death from Covid-19) https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2237 (13.06.2020).
• Useful blog by Corinna Hawkes https://nutritionconnect.org/news-events/healthy-diets-human-resilience-age-covid-19 (29.04.2020) arguing for healthy diets to build human resilience in the new Covid-19 reality. the 'new normal' is one that rejects unhealthy food environments.
• COVID-19 and Obesity/NCDs - World Obesity Federation resources page https://www.worldobesity.org/resources/resource-library/covid-19-obesity-resources (23.05.2020).
  
• Dietary impacts (US perspective) https://time.com/5827315/coronavirus-diet/ (accessed 04.05.2020)
• There was quite a lot of articles about panic buying in supermarkets (early phase of the pandemic). Most were relating it to individual consumer actions/behaviours. This article is one of the more interesting, recognising it not to be a consumer problem but a food system problem.
• Stephen Reicher’s reponse to this article, linking it to psychologisation, is also useful:
  

• Consumer behaviour evolution linked to the usual spending out of home (Kantar Worldpanel):
  
  

Dairy farming crisis and milk waste

• Covid-19 has severely impacted the food service and hospitality supply chains and this has had a knock-on impact on the demand for milk, with dairy farms forced to dispose of unwanted milk on their farms. Various articles on this theme, including:
  • https://www.nfuonline.com/news/coronavirus-updates-and-advice/coronavirus-news/coronavirus-nfu-seeks-crisis-meeting-with-defra-secretary-to-save-uks-iconic-dairy-sector/
  • https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1248129263724724225 (10.04.2020)
  • https://www.fginsight.com/news/dairy-industry-sees-thousands-of-litres-of-milk-dumped-due-to-covid-19s-impact-on-supply-chains--107550 (09.04.2020)
  • Reduction in milk outputs from farms - https://www.fginsight.com/news/muller-farmers-told-to-cut-production-by-3-per-cent-immediately-107555 (09.04.2020)
  • https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dairy-industry-to-join-together-to-manage-milk-supply (20.04.2020)
  • Useful AHDB podcast on how Covid-19 is impacting UK dairy markets https://audioboom.com/posts/7569431-covid-19-special-the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-dairy-industry (04.05.2020); shows the differential impact between retail and food service sales.
  • This AHBD link looks at impacts to key dairy regions (globally) https://ahdb.org.uk/news/how-are-the-key-dairy-regions-coping-with-coronavirus (16.05.2020).
  • Useful blog by CCRI PhD student, Théo Lenormand, about the milk crisis and COVID-19, including data/analysis from his MSc research in South Pembrokeshire https://rgrg.co.uk/covid-19-crisis-short-part-3-short-of-milk-short-of-cash (11.06.2020).
  • Arla Foods CEO Peder Tuborgh discusses Covid-19 and the outlook for the global dairy industry https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/07/10/we-will-be-ready-when-we-get-back-to-the-new-normal-arla-ceo.html?&qsearchterm=peder%20tuborgh (11.07.2020).

Milk Your Moment Campaign and positive dairy sales

• Kantar data shows spikes in sales of core dairy items through the peak of lockdown  https://www.dairyuk.org/blog/dairy-sales-soar-lockdown/ (08.08.2020).

Vending machines, direct selling and networked dairy farm models

• For some time small dairy producers have been experimenting with vending machines, including this example and this (14.03.2020)
• Direct selling/short chains: selling milk from the farm http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/milk-fresh-from-the-farm/ (23.05.2020).
• For a more global / international dairy perspective, see McKinsey and Company  (20.04.2020).
• Interesting article in The Conversation about how small, networked dairy farms in New Jersey are a model for a more resilient food system https://theconversation.com/new-jerseys-small-networked-dairy-farms-are-a-model-for-a-more-resilient-food-system-137881 (06.06.2020).
• Vending machines help Welsh dairy farms, Farmers Weekly https://www.fwi.co.uk/farm-life/feedthenation-vending-machines-help-welsh-dairy-farms (30.07.2020).
  

Hardship fund for dairy farmers

• The launch of the fund, which allows dairy farmers to supply for up to £10,000 in cash payments, was reported by the BBC,6th May 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52567858# (accessed 09.05.2020).
• Does Defra's Dairy Response Fund address the problems faced by farmers during C-19? Some farmers were ineligible yet suffered large income falls according to this EFRA Committee letter to Defra https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/2063/documents/19673/default/ (25.07.2020).

Artisan cheese producers

• Similar to milk, due to impacts on food service/restaurants, many artisan cheese producers are suddenly without a buyer for their product. (accessed: 11.04.2020)
• Mary Quicke has written an open letter to food lovers in Britain about the impact on her family cheese making business (accessed: 14.3.2020)
• Coping with Covid-19 - Struggles and resilience of small-scale cheesemakers in Italy https://www.arc2020.eu/coping-with-covid-struggles-and-resilience-of-small-scale-cheesemakers-in-italy/(accessed: 29.04.2020)
  
• Covid-19 and the battle to save Britain’s farmhouse cheeses, Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/32f8475e-da43-4f50-ad36-0078c3bb463c (04.08.2020).
  
• Excellent article by Jenny Linford about the impact Covid-19 on British artisan cheese producers (and wholesalers) https://jennylinford.co.uk/british-cheese-crisis/ (most sell to food service supply chains, so sudden and sustained impacts) (thanks @ReedMtweet) (17.08.2020).
  

Farmers as ‘hidden heroes’

• One of the early narratives to emerge in the Covid-19 response was farmers as ‘hidden heroes’ who would ‘feed the nation’. This article in Farmers Weekly reports how “Defra minister George Eustice … described farmers as “hidden heroes”, as the government considers extra help to feed the nation during the coronavirus pandemic”(accessed: 11.04.2020).
• The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee writes to George Eustice, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of its inquiry into COVID-19 and food supply (24.04.2020): https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/52/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/146126/covid19-coronavirus-and-food-supply-mps-seek-assurances-from-secretary-of-state/

Valuing and supporting farmers

• James Rebanks argues we need to value British farmers more. (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• Some tips on how we can support farmers are provided by SUSTAIN (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• Eat steak not mince! Call to support British meat producers. Interview with Minette Batters (NFU) in The Telegraph covers this and the general message is to 'buy British' and support British farmers https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/03/eat-steak-not-mince-keep-beef-industry-afloat-nfu-president/ (accessed: 04.05.2020).
• Finanical Times article https://www.ft.com/content/b94b85cf-1321-4ec8-aae5-22a128440eba (accessed: 04.05.2020) on the European steak, chips and cheese glut (encouraging consumers to eat more of these products - in the UK, the glut is steak; chips in Belgium; cheese in France; not sure this is the 'sustainable diet' to aim for, but there you go)
• Waitrose promotion to buy/eat more steak https://www.farminguk.com/news/waitrose-launches-biggest-ever-steak-promotional-push_55541.html and support British livestock farmers (accessed: 04.05.2020).
• Pig farmer perspective (Pig World) http://www.pig-world.co.uk/news/npa-highlights-importance-of-keeping-supply-chain-moving-during-covid-19-epidemic.html (accessed: 09.05.2020).
• County farms - public land for public goods. Blog by Graham Willis, CPRE https://www.ateamfoundation.org/blog-1/2020/6/23/emergency-response-fund (27.06.2020).
• Fibres of the future? Covid-19 caused wool prices to plummet as low as 15p p/kg. This articles reports on a fledgling movement that connects sheep farmers with local weavers to value British wool. https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/farming-local-sourcing-ethical-business/fibres-future (04.07.2020); see also this blog (the worth of wool) https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/the-worth-of-wool/ (25.07.2020).
• UK levy boards (Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) and AHDB) hail the success of their lockdown red meat campaigns, which were launched to help farmers find new markets when food service chains suddenly closed https://www.farminguk.com/news/lockdown-lamb-and-beef-marketing-hits-million-mark_56176.html (26.07.2020).
• UK beef exports, April 2020 - FarmingUK News (UK fresh and frozen beef exports suffered a 15 percent drop in April due to impacts of the Covid-19 crisis) https://www.farminguk.com/news/coronavirus-uk-beef-exports-suffer-april-slump_55923.html (28.06.2020).

Consumer spending (lamb, beef, dairy and meat-free products)

• Consumer spending on lamb across all GB retailers increased by 19.2% to £139.6 million (12-week period up until 12 July compared to the same period in 2019) https://meatpromotion.wales/en/news-industry-info/british-shoppers-finding-new-lockdown-love-for-lamb  (via @GarethEnticott) (05.08.2020); see also this Western Telegraph article https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/farming/18685021.lambs-lockdown-love-story/ (01.09.2020).
• GB household beef purchases, AHDB dashboard (beef sales are up: e.g. volumes are up 16.1% year on year) https://ahdb.org.uk/beef/consumer-insight-gb-household-beef-purchases (04.08.2020); see also this piece in Agriland https://www.agriland.co.uk/farming-news/retail-figures-show-27-increase-in-uk-retail-beef-sales/ (27% increase in UK beef sales) (29.08.2020); and this one in Farming UK (same consumer panel data) https://www.farminguk.com/news/beef-sales-boost-as-families-turn-to-roasts-and-steaks_56468.html (09.09.2020).
• Spikes in sales for core dairy items through the peak of lockdown  https://www.dairyuk.org/blog/dairy-sales-soar-lockdown/ (01.08.2020).
• How the coronavirus lockdown has impacted sales of meat-free products, AHDB (based on Kantar data for the four weeks ending 19 April 2020; growth of meat-free products slowed ) https://ahdb.org.uk/news/consumer-insight-how-the-coronavirus-lockdown-has-impacted-sales-of-meat-free-products (29.08.2020).
  

Unwanted potatoes (food hospitality supply chain closure)

• The closure of takeaways, restaurants and food service has left farmers with unwanted potatoes (including comment from AHDB) https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-potato-farmers-face-supply-crisis-after-fish-and-chip-shops-close-2020-5?r=US&IR=T (23.05.2020).

#FeedTheNation

• Farmers Weekly has an awareness campaign [#FeedTheNation ] 'to show the public how farmers are working tirelessly to produce the food we all need to live and stay healthy' https://www.fwi.co.uk/feedthenation (various articles on the main page, including farm shops, veg box schemes and vending machines) (22.08.2020).
• Eat Out to Help Out scheme benefits farm shops with restaurants and cafés (some have now opted out), Farmers Weekly https://www.fwi.co.uk/farm-life/feedthenatin-eat-out-scheme-benefits-farm-shops-and-cafes (22.08.2020).

'Self-sufficiency day' (August 21)

• If we only ate UK-grown food, we'd have run out today. Covid-19 shows that UK's home production must increase and food security must be central to 'building back' (@Minette_Batters @NFU 'self-sufficiency day' campaign) https://www.nfuonline.com/news/media-centre/press-releases/food-security-must-be-key-part-of-green-recovery-from-covid-19/ (22.08.20).
• Here's a selection of other articles linked to the NFU self-sufficiency day campaign. The headlines are slightly alarmist and the self-sufficiency figures are not new, but give a sense of how Covid-19 is creating a new food security discourse in the UK https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8631679/Britons-run-food-Friday-country-solely-reliant-homegrown-produce.html; see also https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/farmers-union-warnings-over-self-sufficiency-day-1-6795904 (22.08.2020) and https://www.farminguk.com/news/self-sufficiency-britain-would-run-out-of-food-by-end-of-week-_56336.html (22.08.2020).
• See also this article in Countryside: What does British food self-sufficiency mean? https://www.countrysideonline.co.uk/back-british-farming/back-british-farming-our-latest-activity/what-does-british-food-self-sufficiency-mean/ (29.08.2020).

Covid-19, gender and agriculture

• Excellent blog by Hannah Budge and Sally Shortall: Covid-19, gender, agriculture, and future research https://sites.psu.edu/geareblog/2020/08/19/covid-19-gender-agriculture-and-future-research/ (20.08.2020).

Rural and farmer vulnerability

• Essential and vulnerable: implications of Covid-19 for farmers in Ireland https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1059924X.2020.1814920 (14.09.2020).
  

Farm diverisifcation

• Covid-19 impacts on diversified farm businesses (NFU survey of 224 South West of England farmers and growers with diversified enterprises; tourism and accommodation-based business were the hardest hit, with positive sales for farm businesses offering direct sales (box sales, etc.) https://www.nfuonline.com/about-us/our-offices/south-west/south-west-news/survey-shows-effects-of-coronavirus/(09.09.2020).

Covid-19 and UK-EU trade talks (Brexit)

• Excellent Financial Times piece which shows how Covid-19 has highlighted food security issues and tensions for the UK and these are now playing out in UK-EU trade talks https://www.ft.com/content/1db1dfcc-09b4-4c6a-94a8-0442b037d557 (06.06.2020).

Agri-food support packages

• Here's the list of exceptional measures introduced to help the agri-food sector through Covid-19 crisis https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_788, including private storage aid to assist the dairy sector (04.05.2020).
• Here's a related article https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/payments-schemes/coronavirus-eu-proposes-e80m-meat-and-dairy-aid-package (04.05.2020) and EU press release on transnational measures (including farmer and fisher support) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_20_582
• This article examines the US relief package (farm aid) for farmers impacted by Covid-19 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/30/congress-relief-package-farmers-155687; see also https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/us/politics/virus-trump-aid-farmers.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage (14.06.2020).
• NBC News: Small farmers left behind in Trump administration COVID-19 relief package https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/small-farmers-left-behind-trump-administration-s-covid-19-relief-n1236158 (the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program has favoured large, industrialised farms over smaller, diversified ones) (12.08.2020).
  

Farming Health Hub: COVID-19 Support and Advice

• The Farming Health Hub works with the public, private and voluntary sector to provide support, advcie and guidance to farming and rural communities http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/research/microsites/centreforruralpolicyresearch/pdfs/Farming_Health_Hub_COVID_-_19_Support_and_Advice.pdf. The list of organisations are mostly from Cornwall, but include national links too. Great initiative/resource. (accessed 09.05.2020).

Demand for lifestyle and amenity farms

• Demand for lifestyle and amenity farms picks up post lockdown, FarmingUK News https://www.farminguk.com/news/demand-for-lifestyle-and-amenity-farms-picks-up-post-lockdown_56171.html (25.07.2020).
  

Covid-19 is a demand rather than a supply shock?

• Short-term Agricultural Outlook report. Suggests Covid-19 is a demand rather than a supply shock, with European ag. sectors resilient to the crisis and food service re-opening likely to make a big difference https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/short-term-outlook-good-production-prospects-many-agricultural-sectors-overall-sector-should-benefit-reopening-foodservice-2020-jul-06_en (06.07.2020).

Digitalisation of agriculture and rural economies

• COVID-19 crisis could ‘kick off digital revolution in agriculture’ (but some important more critical comments too re ownership of these new forms of agri-tech) https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/covid-19-crisis-could-kick-off-digital-revolution-in-agriculture/ (20.06.2020).
• Artificial Intelligence in the Agri-Food System: Rethinking Sustainable Business Models in the COVID-19 Scenario https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4851?utm_source=releaseissue&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=releaseissue_sustainability&utm_term=titlelink42 (04.07.2020).
• Digitising the Solidarity Economy – Desira http://desira2020.eu/2020/04/30/article-digitising-the-solidarity-economy/ (04.07.2020).
• Gianluca Brunori: How will COVID-19 affect the digitalization of rural areas? https://page.agr.unipi.it/2020/06/12/blog-series-prof-gianluca-brunorihow-will-covid-affect-the-digitalisation-of-rural-areas/ (20.06.2020).
• Digitalisation and agritourism in Garfagnana, Italy http://desira2020.eu/2020/07/24/article-digitalisation-and-agritourism-in-garfagnana-italy/ (28.07.2020).
  
• This article by @JenSheridan on the Open Food Network in Australia (how it started and Covid-19 impacts: 'existing Open Food Network shops’ turnover increased threefold, sign-ups increased tenfold, and turnover through the platform overall increased tenfold across our local and global networks') https://www.dumbofeather.com/articles/the-open-food-network/ (28.08.2020).
• Farm robots given Covid-19 boost, Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/0b394693-137b-40a4-992b-0b742202e4e1 (may need subscription to read; highlights the potential of farm robots to work at the plant level (precision ag.)) (01.09.2020).
  

Small-scale farmer incomes / resilience (global)

• Impact of Covid-19 on small-scale farmer incomes (examples from Bangladesh, Kenya, Ghana and Asia) and how supply chains can support them https://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2020/04/coronavirus-is-jeopardizing-the-incomes-of-small-scale-farmers/ (accessed: 06.05.2020).
• Excellent article about COVID-19 and Syrian livelihoods in agriculture (thanks @GarethEnticott for sending it). The virus may not have reached displaced communities in the Middle East, but its domino effects have https://www.routedmagazine.com/covid-19-syrian-communities (27.06.2020).
• Small-scale farmers can help build resilient food systems in a post–COVID-19 world https://www.ifad.org/en/web/latest/blog/asset/41903536 (10.07.2020).
• Covid-19: A gamechanger in attracting youth to agribusiness (commentary from owner of Soilless Farm Lab, Nigeria) https://medium.com/enabling-sustainability/covid-19-a-gamechanger-in-attracting-youth-to-agribusiness-2b2fd0ee13e6 (18.07.2020).
• Digital models from Kenya’s small-scale agriculture could help South Africa's pandemic-stricken farmers https://africa.com/digital-models-from-kenyas-small-scale-agriculture-could-help-sas-pandemic-stricken-farmers/ (30.08.2020).

• Sustainable Fish Cities - SUSTAIN: How can we help our fishing fleet through coronavirus? accessed 20.04.2020).
• You can source fresh fish directly through this innovative website (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• Much of the catch from British waters is sold to continental markets, while British consumers tend to eat fish from other waters. COVID-19 is impacting markets and reports suggest fishers are turning to food banks as their businesses collapse. E.g. Scottish fishermen turn to food banks
• Fish flourish under lockdown — but fishermen flounder – POLITICO https://www.politico.eu/article/so-long-and-thanks-say-all-the-fish-that-roam-free-because-of-the-coronavirus/ (accessed: 16.05.2020).
  
• Excellent resource/maps of fishmongers selling fresh local fish in the UK http://fishonfriday.org.uk/sales-locations/ (14.06.2020).
• Small boats and female workers hardest hit by Covid-19 fisheries impact https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/08/small-boats-women-workers-hardest-hit-covid-19-fisheries-impact (14.06.2020).
• Direct selling fresh fish (Pesky Fish) https://www.peskyfish.co.uk/ ; see also Ready Fish Box https://www.readyfishbox.co.uk/about (20.06.2020).
• Good article about the significant impacts Covid-19 (and climate change) are having on fishers in the US. A new order which will boost offshore aquaculture and a relaxation of fishery regulations threatens wild fisheries https://civileats.com/2020/06/25/fishermen-hope-for-change-as-the-seafood-industry-faces-a-crisis/ (28.06.2020).
• A San Diego pier-to-plate seafood market is a lifeline for fishermen, Civil Eats https://civileats.com/2020/07/02/a-san-diego-pier-to-plate-seafood-market-is-a-lifeline-for-fishermen/(07.07.2020).
  
• COVID-19 implications for seafood and nutrition (global overview of production and trade impacts on aquatic food systems and nutritional impacts; rightly notes that fishing is sidelined in discussions, with the emphasis on agriculture), Nutrition Connect https://nutritionconnect.org/resource-center/blog-39-covid-19-implications-seafood-and-nutrition-keep-eye-production-and-trade (01.08.2020).
  

Global supply chains and market systems

• This World Economic Forum perspective argues for the need to protect global supply chains that rely on the sea/fisheries https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/global-supply-chains-are-under-imminent-threat-from-the-covid-19-pandemic/
• Lancet Planetary Health: COVID-19 reveals vulnerability of small-scale fisheries to global market systems https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(20)30128-5/fulltext (27.06.2020).
• Labour vulnerability in the UK fishing industry https://neweconomics.org/2020/06/beneath-the-surface (04.07.2020).

• Will Covid-19 lead to long-term food shortages and price rises? (accessed 13.06.2020).
• Food shortages because of a lack of transport (20.04.2020).
• This article by Tim Lang, in the early stages of the crisis, called for food rationing in the UK (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• The Lang, Millstone and Marsden article in The Independent is also useful, calling for a national food plan to manage the crisis rather than over-reliance on market responses  https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/food-coronavirus-wake-food-system-uk-government-a9480811.html (accessed 04.05.2020), plus here's a link to their letter sent to George Eustice and Duncan Selbie on 1st April 2020 https://foodresearch.org.uk/download/15003/.
• This letter by Caroline Lucas to the Secretary of State at DEFRA is also well worth a read (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• Excellent article on COVID-19 and food inequalities in Emerald Open Access https://emeraldopenresearch.com/articles/2-11 by Madeleine Power, Bob Doherty, Katie Pybus and Kate Pickett, with commentaries by Peter Jackson, Rachel Loopstra, Alex Murdock, Diane Holt and Andrew Williams (29.04.2020).
• The Food Foundation are reporting on household food security during the crisis. One week in, they commissioned a YouGov poll which indicated that 1.5m people were worrying about hunger (accessed 11.04.2020) and also here (20.04.2020) and here from the Food Foundation (11.04.2020).
• This article, in the Financial Times, reports data from their second YouGov poll, which indicates that 3 million households in the UK are now food insecure (20.04.2020).
• Here's the third Food Foundation poll https://foodfoundation.org.uk/vulnerable_groups/new-poll-data-more-than-five-million-people-in-households-with-children-have-experienced-food-insecurity-since-lockdown-began/ and shows that more than five million people in households with children are experiencing food insecurity (04.05.2020); findings also reported in this Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/03/exclusive-fifth-of-uk-homes-children-hungry-lockdown (04.05.2020).
• Here's the fourth YouGov poll from the Food Foundation https://foodfoundation.org.uk/vulnerable_groups/new-food-foundation-data-food-insecurity-and-debt-are-the-new-reality-under-lockdown/ (accessed 23.05.2020). Nearly five million adults in the UK (4.9 million1) (9%) are still experiencing food insecurity; 1.7 million1 (12%) children live in these households; four million adults borrowing money; ethnic minorities most at risk of food poverty.
• See also this article reporting data from April 2020 (first month of lockdown) that showed record numbers used food banks due to inadequate social security safety net measures https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/03/record-numbers-used-uk-food-banks-in-first-month-of-lockdown (06.06.2020); and here's the link to the Independent Food Aid Network work, comparing Feb-April 2019 and Feb-April 2020 data https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/c181ce8c-2309-43a0-8fbf-05193a0a2d4c/INDEPENDENT%20FOOD%20BANK%20EMERGENCY%20FOOD%20PARCEL%20DISTRIBUTION%20IN%20THE%20UK_FINAL.pdf.
• Unprecedented demands on food banks in the UK https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/01/uk-food-banks-face-record-demand-in-coronavirus-crisis and  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-lockdown-help-the-hungry-campaign-food-poverty-warning-experts-a9490536.html (04.05.2020).
• The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee also launched an online survey (9 April 2020), inviting the public to share their experiences of accessing food during the outbreak. For full details see https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/52/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/145887/mps-launch-online-survey-into-coronavirus-and-access-to-food/  (24.04.2020).
• Here's the response to the EFRA survey https://twitter.com/CommonsEFRA/status/1260875577084588033 (16.05.2020). Some interesting responses e.g. support that retail chains (supermarkets) adapted quite well considering pressure on the system.
• This article in The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/help-the-hungry-national-food-service-coronavirus-covid-19-a9483171.html?fbclid=IwAR2VYrLOrQxf7ptz7NKLmz-FWKQvitDTth4AuncfEQXu5Oh4uulZvWxPNMo reports on a campaign to establish a National Food Service (accessed: 29.04.2020; thanks to Peter Jackson for sharing).
• Tim Lang's (2020) Feeding Britain https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/308/308380/feeding-britain/9780241442227.html is a useful and timely reference point too as a we try to make sense of the pandemic.
• Link to food charities grant fund https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-apply-for-the-food-charities-grant-fund (16.05.2020).
• Coping with a tsunami of need and the Government’s £16m aimed at food charities https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/blog/between-the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Important article in The Guardian (15.05.2020) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/15/food-banks-warning-government-poor-families-coronavirus making it clear that food banks' alone can't deal with the scale of the food insecurity problem in the UK - people need basic income not free food! (accessed: 16.05.2020) (see also the article by Valerie Tarasuk and Lynn McIntre, from Canada, in the global food access thread, which makes a similar point re. basic income support).
• Kath Dalmeny, Sustain, spelling out what we need to make sure vulnerable households get the food they need - a national food plan! https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/community/a-national-food-plan-is-the-only-way-to-ensure-the-uk-feeds-the-vulnerable/604795.article (16.05.2020).
• This article in The Grocer, by Ian Wright (CEO of FDF), urges government to appoint a 'minister for hunger' https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/people/industry-urges-government-to-appoint-minister-for-hunger/605025.article (accessed 23.05.2020).
• Uneven UK approach for Covid-19 doesn’t guarantee children’s right to food https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/28/uk-children-england-going-hungry-schools-shut (30.05.2020).
• New Food article by Chris Elliott arguing Covid-19 has exposed inequalities in the UK food system (food poverty) https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/111558/a-tale-of-two-food-systems/ (06.06.2020).
• Wicked Leeks article. Refugees and asylum seekers are the hidden vulnerable, struggling to access basic support/food during the crisis https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/inequality-health/hidden-vulnerable (11.06.2020).
• This Examiner article describes the pressure a food bank in Huddersfield is experiencing, as well as the generosity and kindness of people to help others during the crisis. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/huge-pressure-covid-19-put-18391011 (11.06.2020).
• Government data reveals up to 7.7m adults reduced or missed meals and 3.7 used food banks in the first months of UK lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/26/millions-went-hungry-during-first-months-of-uk-lockdown-figures-show-coronavirus (27.06.2020).
• Government attacked for ignoring expert advice on nutrition in food parcels, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/21/government-attacked-for-ignoring-expert-advice-on-nutrition-in-food-parcels (28.06.2020).
  
• The Conquest of Bread (comments on the national food strategy and the need to take control of our food system in the UK) https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/06/the-conquest-of-bread (28.06.2020).
• One in four adults struggling to afford food during coronavirus pandemic. Households struggling to pay bills and put food on table due to loss of earnings (data from Feeding Britain and Northumbria University’s Healthy Living Lab) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-hunger-food-banks-poverty-a9575121.html (28.06.2020).
• From panic buying to food banks: how Britain fed itself in the first phase of coronavirus, The Guardian (good overview; devolvement of responsilbity to supermarkets and the food industry by government) https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jun/21/from-panic-buying-to-food-banks-how-britain-fed-itself-in-the-first-phase-of-coronavirus (28.06.2020).
• Food access in the Liverpool City Region (Policy Brief by Grace Patterson and Jonathan Rushton) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/publicpolicyamppractice/covid-19/PB015.pdf (27.06.2020).
• Good article about food poverty by John Harris, The Guardian: 'There's another pandemic stalking Britain: hunger' https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/28/pandemic-britain-hunger-boris-johnson (04.07.2020).
• Food charity organisations call for the Scottish Government to end reliance on food banks (direct monetary relief not free food) https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/blog/calling-on-the-scottish-government-to-end-reliance-on-food-banks (04.07.2020).
• Online donations to foodbanks showing signs of ‘compassion fatigue’ https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/online-donations-to-foodbanks-showing-signs-of-compassion-fatigue-research-finds.html (04.07.2020).
• Rethink food and farming essay by Henry Dimbleby. Sets out a vision of a future foodtopia (diversity) and pressures on supplies during lockdown https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000kfx7 (04.07.2020) or https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08k0jj0 (07.07.2020).
• See also this Food, Poverty, Health and the Environment Committee session with Henry Dimbleby, Tuesday 10 March 2020. Before the UK lockdown. Useful food system context, especially changes needed to address diet and health inequalities https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/3dcb8ee0-9a59-4877-ad9a-9d2c8134da34 (07.07.2020).
• Lords Committee: time to fix the failures in food https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/408/food-poverty-health-and-environment-committee/news/147210/time-to-fix-the-failures-in-food-says-lords-committee/ (07.07.2020).
  
• Record numbers of people in Britain can’t afford food – lifting lockdown won’t change that (New Statesman) https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/welfare/2020/07/record-numbers-people-britain-can-t-afford-food-lifting-lockdown-won-t (07.07.2020).
  
• Food we can trust - making it happen. Transcript of FSA Chief Executive Emily Miles' address to the Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum (argues Government needs to tailor regulatory effort to the reality the food system is a network) https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/food-we-can-trust-making-it-happen-address-to-the-westminster-food-nutrition-forum (08.07.2020).
  
• Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) data on food banks, published 9.7.20. (177% increase in the number of emergency food parcels distributed, comparing May 2019 to May 2020). https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/0f6e2f2c-8b8a-4149-8eab-053693cc3104/INDEPENDENT%20FOOD%20BANK%20EMERGENCY%20FOOD%20PARCEL%20DISTRIBUTION_FEB-MAY_2019_20_FINAL_PUBLISHED_9.7.20..pdf (09.07.2020).
• New Children's Right2Food Charter (updated in light of the problems exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown) https://foodfoundation.org.uk/new-childrens-right2food-charter-young-people-across-the-uk-call-for-government-action-on-childrens-food-insecurity/ (13.07.2020).
• Cases of child malnutrition in England double in last six months, The Guardian (almost 2,500 children admitted to hospitals in England suffering malnutrition in 2020) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/12/cases-of-child-malnutrition-double-in-last-six-months (13.07.2020).
• Hungry for Change Report, Bite Back 2030 (significant changes in young people’s eating habits and attitudes to food since lockdown; experiences different depending on socio-economic background) https://biteback2030.com/real-story/hungry-change-giving-children-food-system-works-them (15.07.2020).
  
• UK food and drink industry post-Covid recovery proposals (three areas of focus: the balance of trade and resilience; move to healthier diets; and integrity gains (CO2, environment, and animal welfare)) https://nifda.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Building-a-Path-to-Recovery-260520.pdf (15.07.2020).
• Why food banks shouldn’t be responsible for fighting poverty (Sufra Food Bank NW London) https://www.sufra-nwlondon.org.uk/2020/07/14/why-food-banks-shouldnt-be-responsible-for-fighting-poverty/ (15.07.2020).
  
• Meals on wheels for the 21st century, Sustain (report examines meals on wheels services in London before, during and after Covid-19) https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/meals_on_wheels_for_21st_century/# (16.07.2020).
• The UK’s food strategy cannot be left to the market, Financial Times (@Tesco's CEO calls for a food strategy which doesn't leave it to private regulation; need regulations and other measures to deliver a healthy, sustainable, resilient food system)  https://www.ft.com/content/acfd1251-24e9-478b-b8db-c6cc70d64b39 (18.07.2020).
• What is the National Food Strategy going to do? (blog by Ben Reynolds, Sustain) (good points about building farm and retail diversity) https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/jul20_what_is_the_national_food_strategy/ (22.07.2020).
  
• Food Supply Chains and Production ... What has Covid-19 Taught us? Excellent virtual Royal Welsh Agricultural Show 2020 discussion with Bob Doherty, Kevin Morgan, David Morris and Gwyneth Ayers (useful analysis re. what we can learn from Covid-19 in terms of food system resilience and warnings too about post-Brexit trade impacts) https://royalwelsh.digital/food-supply-chains-and-production-global-outlook-with-a-local-strategy-what-has-covid-19-taught-us/(22.07.2020).
  
• Policy Scotland: Issues in recovery – food insecurity and learning loss. Key quote: “By ensuring income is maximised first, the number of people seeking assistance from food banks can and could be significantly reduced” https://policyscotland.gla.ac.uk/evidence-round-up-food-insecurity-and-learning-loss/ (24.07.2020).
• How are London councils responding to rising food insecurity during lockdown and as it lifts?, Sustain https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/jul20_london_council_covid_response/ (28.07.2020).
  
• Food banks report ‘unprecedented demand’ during Covid crisis as unemployment predicted to rise to 10% by the end of 2020, ITV News https://www.itv.com/news/2020-07-28/food-banks-report-unprecedented-demand-during-covid-crisis-as-unemployment-predicted-to-rise-to-10-by-the-end-of-2020 (29.07.2020).
  
• Five ideas to put sustainable food at the heart of a green recovery (blog by Ruth Wescott, Sustain) https://greenallianceblog.org.uk/2020/07/29/five-ideas-to-put-sustainable-food-at-the-heart-of-a-green-recovery/ (30.07.2020).
  
• How local authorities can support recovery and resilience (outlines different ways local authorities can help different groups facing financial insecurity to access food) https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/food-and-covid-19-report/  (thanks @Anna_K_speaking for the link) (30.07.2020).
• Bob Doherty and Madeleine Power discuss how Covid-19 has exposed inequalities in the UK food system, Emerald Podcast Series https://podfollow.com/emerald-podcast-series/episode/39db682bbc0c715584c6d6bdff62e4cc12b305fc/view (30.07.2020).
  
• Useful article by Sabine Goodwin, Independent Food Aid Network, on food bank demand during Covid-19, the food strategy and EFRA report recommendations and why we need income-based solutions to address foor poverty https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/blog/as-covid-19-pop-up-food-banks-prepare-for-the-long-haul-what-now-for (04.08.2020).
• Chelsea Marshall explains IFAN's work in Scotland to promote a cash-first response to food insecurity https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/blog/promoting-cash-first-responses-at-local-level-ifan-s-work-in-scotland (06.08.2020).
• Eat Out To Really Help Out wants you to use discount to support foodbanks, The Big Issue https://www.bigissue.com/community-partnerships/eat-out-to-really-help-out-wants-you-to-use-discount-to-support-foodbanks/ (10.08.2020).
  
• BBC One - Panorama, Has Lockdown Changed What We Eat? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lq2j/panorama-has-lockdown-changed-what-we-eat (too early to answer their question but worth a watch and interesting that Panorama dedicate a programme to food as part of their analysis of Covid-19 impacts) (12.08.2020).
  
• Report by Hannah Lambie-Mumford, Rachel Loopstra and Katy Gordon: Mapping Responses to the risk of rising food insecurity during the Covid-19 crisis in the UK http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/First-project-report-Mapping-responses-to-the-risk-of-rising-food-insecurity-.pdf (12.08.2020).
  
• Food insecurity and Covid-19 in Stoke-on-Trent (blog by Alison Briggs) https://breadlineresearch.coventry.ac.uk/2020/07/22/food-insecurity-and-covid-19-in-stoke-on-trent/ (12.08.2020).
  
• Auckland City Mission (food bank): 175% rise in demand for food parcels between March and June 2020 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300077507/coronavirus-auckland-city-mission-faces-175-rise-in-demand-for-food-parcels (15.08.2020).
• Covid-19 and food consumer data from FSA https://www.food.gov.uk/research/research-projects/the-covid-19-consumer-research (thanks Anna_K_speaking for sharing) (includes qualitative lived experience of food insecurity and quantitative research on the impact of C-19 on food insecurity for people) (15.08.2020).
• Linked to the FSA lived experience report above, see also this excellent piece by Caitlin Connors, summarising some of the main findings from their research (reality of food insecurity, the impact of income loss ... ) https://medium.com/@BrightHarbour/when-a-pandemic-hits-and-the-fridge-is-empty-food-in-the-time-of-covid-19-68e149094c80 (17.08.2020).
• UK's poorest 'skip meals and go hungry' during coronavirus crisis, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/12/coronavirus-lockdown-hits-nutritional-health-of-uks-poorest (article is based on data from the latest FSA report (above) tracking consumer behaviour during Covid-19) (15.08.2020).
• Feeding the food insecure in Britain: learning from the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, Food Security SI paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-020-01080-5 (15.08.2020).
• Great piece from Sufra (Food Bank and Kitchen, SW London), including photos from their Instragram page (#MoreThanAFoodBank): Why Food Banks Shouldn’t Be Responsible For Fighting Poverty https://www.sufra-nwlondon.org.uk/2020/07/14/why-food-banks-shouldnt-be-responsible-for-fighting-poverty/ (15.08.2020).
  
• The pressure points in Britain’s food supply chain (useful graphics from The Economist; hopefully folks can access) https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/08/16/the-pressure-points-in-britains-food-supply-chain (08.08.2020).
  
• British Medical Journal paper raises concerns Covid-19 has exacerbated nutritional problems associated with food insecurity, including obesity, undernourishment, nutrient deficiencies, and mental health; also notes a lack of quantitative data on nutritional problems families are facing during lockdown https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3193 (22.08.2020).
• Food Foundation has been tracking food prices during Covid-19 https://foodfoundation.org.uk/covid_19/11011-2/ . (CPI data shows a fall in retail prices of fruit and veg in July compared to June) (22.08.2020).
• 'Self-sufficiency day' (August 21):
  • If we only ate UK-grown food, we'd have run out today. Covid-19 shows that UK's home production must increase and food security must be central to 'building back' (@Minette_Batters @NFU 'self-sufficiency day' campaign) https://www.nfuonline.com/news/media-centre/press-releases/food-security-must-be-key-part-of-green-recovery-from-covid-19/ (22.08.20).
• Eight in 10 poorer UK families feel worse off since lockdown (new report from Child Poverty Action Group and the Church of England (online survey of 264 low-income families and 21 household interviews) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/25/eight-in-10-poorer-uk-families-feel-worse-off-since-lockdown-survey (26.08.2020).
• The Lockdown Chef - Volunteering In a Pandemic, Jellied Eel https://www.sustainweb.org/jelliedeel/articles/aug20-the-lock-down-chef/ (29.08.2020).
• How digital helps Alexandra Rose Charity supply food vouchers during COVID-19 https://www.thecatalyst.org.uk/blog/how-digital-helps-alexandra-rose-charity-supply-food-vouchers-during-covid-19 (30.08.2020).
• Calls to raise child benefit in UK to help struggling families, The Guardian (Child Poverty Action Group; families forced to use benefit to pay household bills, including food) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/31/calls-to-raise-child-benefit-in-uk-to-help-struggling-families (01.09.2020).
  
• IFAN’s latest figures collated from Scotland’s independent food banks https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/e790b418-8c4c-4e86-b123-81e16690c017/IFAN%20Scotland%20Independent%20Food%20Bank%20Food%20Parcel%20Distribution%20Report_FEB_JULY_19_20_8.9.20..pdf (108% rise in food distributed in July compared to the same month last year; the main reason for food bank use related to the benefits system (not sufficient to afford food and/or linked to payment delays) (09.09.2020).
• Food Foundation household food security data (new YouGov poll (sixth poll), 24th August to 1st Sept 2020) https://foodfoundation.org.uk/new-food-foundation-data-sept-2020/ (14% of UK families with children have experienced food insecurity in the past 6 months) (10.09.2020).
• Covid-19 Weight Gain Is Flip Side of Covid Food Crisis in Richer Nations, Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-08/weight-gain-is-flip-side-of-covid-food-crisis-for-richer-nations (why we need to support people on low incomes with interventions to eat better/healthier) (10.09.2020).
  
• Covid-19 and food insecurity: what research evidence does the frontline need? And what can we learn? Part 2, ENUF https://enuf.org.uk/research-blogs/covid-19-and-food-insecurity-what-research-evidence-does-frontline-need-and-what-0 (10.09.2020).
• Covid-19 and Children’s Food: Parents’ Priorities for Building Back Better (Sustain Briefing paper of Children's Food Campaign & Food Active report; insights from over 750 parents across the UK; 9 in 10 parents say Government should provide healthy free school meals for all children in poverty, regardless of immigration status) https://www.sustainweb.org/resources/files/reports/Childrens_Food_Covid19_Briefing.pdf (10.09.2020).
• Universal Credit: the £20-a-week benefits increase stopped me going hungry at the end of every month https://inews.co.uk/opinion/universal-credit-the-20-a-week-benefits-increase-stopped-me-going-hungry-at-the-end-of-every-month-641054 (14.09.2020).
  
• Briefing report for Food Foundation by @rloopstra et al. on the impacts of furlough and unemployment on food security https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BriefReport_Unemployment_v5.pdf ('there is an urgent need to address the inadequacy of income protection for the newly unemployed') (14.09.2020).
  
• What food-insecure children want you to know about hunger, The Conversation https://theconversation.com/what-food-insecure-children-want-you-to-know-about-hunger-146140 (15.09.2020).
• Time to Reset report (people want a fairer, greener Britain after Covid) https://reset-uk.org/static/TimeToReset-3a6ee92ce4fff64d024c62404f53fe5c.pdf (appetite for change across age, sex, class or ethnicity; emphasis on well-being, community and nature; food section:  '31% of people made more food from scratch, 27% tried to shop locally and 22% noted they had to plan what they ate more carefully'; 'For many, the experience of the pandemic has shifted the way they think about food');
• See also this article in The Guardian about the inquiry findings https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/16/people-want-a-fairer-greener-britain-after-covid-inquiry-reveals (19.09.2020); cf. @FFC_Commission Learning from Lockdown survey; + if you want to compare UK data with global perspectives see this World Economic Forum survey (21,000 people in 28 countries) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/sustainable-equitable-change-post-coronavirus-survey/ (23.09.2020).
  

• New Trussell Trust report reveals how coronavirus has affected food bank use https://www.trusselltrust.org/2020/09/14/new-report-reveals-how-coronavirus-has-affected-food-bank-use/ (the analysis 'forecasts a 61% increase in food parcels needed across its UK network in October to December – six parcels given out every minute'); see also https://www.trusselltrust.org/heriot-watt-research-2020/ (15.09.2020). Selection of newspaper articles reporting on the new food bank use data:

  • Tens of thousands forced to turn to food banks for first time as demand soars during pandemic, The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-banks-uk-demand-coronavirus-covid-trussell-trust-latest-figures-b433921.html (15.09.2020).
    
  • Foodbanks prepare to hand out six emergency parcels a minute to desperate Brits, Mirror Online https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/foodbanks-prepare-hand-out-six-22675172 (15.09.2020).
    
  • Extreme poverty 'will double by Christmas' in UK because of Covid-19, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/14/coronavirus-extreme-poverty-in-uk-will-double-by-christmas-trust-predicts (15.09.2020).
    
  • Big Issue article on The Trussell Trust analysis https://www.bigissue.com/latest/foodbanks-could-give-out-six-food-parcels-every-minute-this-winter/ ('Mass unemployment will result in 300,000 more emergency food packages needed if ministers don't act on pandemic poverty now') (19.09.2020).
• ‘Magic pop-up allotment’ at CoFarm offers community food security  https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/business/magic-pop-up-allotment-at-cofarm-offers-community-food-security-9121920/ (community land, horticulture, food banks, community food security) (21.09.2020).
  
• Broken Plate report, Food Foundation https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FF-Broken-Plate-2020-DIGITAL-FULL.pdf (need to change the food environment; the UK’s poorest households struggle to afford to meet the Eat Well Guide. Mean price of fruit & veg – £9.39 per 1,000kcal, while the price of food & drinks that are high in sugar, salt and/or fat is £3.54 per 1,000kcal i.e. healthy foods are roughly three times as expensive as less healthy food per kilocalorie) (21.09.2020).
• Structural inequalities and the growing need for food aid (webinar hosted by IFAN and the University of York) https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/22-09-webinar-recording (23.09.2020).
• Letter: Fighting hunger requires community self-help, Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/6c8b4bd6-4276-4258-bdaa-baf18c56592f?segmentid=acee4131-99c2-09d3-a635-873e61754ec6 ('Much of this hunger has arisen among newly vulnerable families on the fringes of the labour market , whose earnings have either diminished or been lost entirely as a result of Covid-19. This is in addition to those whose existing vulnerabilities were exacerbated by the pandemic') (25.09.2020).
  

• The second EFRA COVID-19 and food supply public evidence session took place on 15.05.2020 https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/52/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/146356/covid19-and-food-supply-second-public-evidence-session-announced/. Session covered "how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the ability of vulnerable people to get sufficient healthy food, and the impact on charities such as food banks who help people facing food insecurity". Witnesses: Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive Officer, FareShare; Emma Revie, Chief Executive, Trussell Trust; Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director, Age UK; and Fazilet Hadi, Policy Manager, Disability Rights UK. Here's the video link https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/1b065556-825b-420d-9d1d-580deda858a6 (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Chair raises 'pressing challenges' faced by those struggling to access food https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/52/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/146487/Chair-comments-access-to-food-19-21 (accessed 23.05.2020).
• EFRA Committee’s COVID-19 and Food Supply Report (Covid-19 exacerbated food insecurity for millions of people; calls for a mechanism within central government to co-ordinate policy across departments on food supply, nutrition and welfare) https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/52/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/147628/covid-19-and-food-supply-report-published-19-21/; here's an interactive summary of the report https://houseofcommons.shorthandstories.com/EFRA-covid19-food-supply/index.html (30.07.2020).
• This article reports on EFRA's main recommendation in their food supply report to appoint a food security minister and enshrine in law a right to food (to address food poverty) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/30/mps-say-government-must-appoint-food-security-minister-in-wake-of-pandemic (01.08.2020).

Committee on Food, Poverty, Health and the Environment

• Committee on Food, Poverty, Health and the Environment report - argues the UK’s food system is failing and calls for Government action to reduce health inequalities https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/food-pov-health-enviro-comm/news-parliament-2019/report-publication/(08.07.2020).

Government announcement to support food charities

• Government announcement of £16m to support food charities. Link and summary of support available here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/16-million-for-food-charities-to-provide-meals-for-those-in-need (accessed 09.05.2020).
• Here's Kath Dalmeny's response to the announcement, who argues it is simply not enough to address the scale of the problem https://www.sustainweb.org/news/may20_government_offers_crumbs_to_people_running_out_of_food/ (accessed 09.05.2020).

Community responses

• Excellent blog by Megan Blake documenting some of the ways community groups are working and organising to counter food hunger and food insecurity in communities; stark problems also outlined and the need for central government support (accessed: 10.04.2020).
• Excellent guide from Nourish Scotland for community responses to Covid-19 (accessed 10.04.2020).
• Lincoln Food Partnership. Like many other community food organisations, they are doing great work to organise food responses, including food donations (accessed: 11.04.2020); see also the Sustainable Food Places list of local food partnerships.
• Social eating: inside the supermarket surplus initiatives that could change the way we eat https://theconversation.com/social-eating-inside-the-supermarket-surplus-initiatives-that-could-change-the-way-we-eat-142613 (10.09.2020).

School meals and school catering

• Call for free school meals during half-term and summer in England (The Guardian, 15.05.2020) https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/15/call-for-free-school-meals-during-half-term-summer-england (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Sustain has produced a guide for local authorities and school caterers to deliver to the elderly, including four ways to adapt school kitchens and a case study for each model https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/school_caterers_put_their_meals_on_wheels/ (accessed: 23.05.2020).
• YouGov Teacher Survey, Magic Breakfast (Nearly two thirds of teachers think hunger will harm efforts to help children catch up on the learning they missed during school closures. 86% of teachers support a nationwide school breakfast programme) https://www.magicbreakfast.com/news/yougov-teacher-survey (18.07.2020).
• Metro article: 'teachers fear kids will be going back to school hungry in September' https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/17/teachers-fear-kids-will-going-back-school-hungry-september-13001597/ (21.07.2020).
  
• Feeding 1,400 children through the school holidays in Derbyshire, Feeding Britain https://feedingbritain.org/feeding-1400-children-through-the-school-holidays-in-derbyshire/(23.07.2020).
• The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (how it could go further when it resumes in September) http://fuseopenscienceblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/its-not-just-teaching-and-curriculum.html (04.08.2020).
• The restaurant chefs transforming school meals, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/20/the-restaurant-chefs-transforming-school-meals-lockdown-coronavirus-challenges (Chefs in Schools) (21.09.2020).
  

Legal action to secure school meals over the summer months

• Sustain and Good Law project have threatended the Government with legal proceedings to secure school meals after they announced they would not extend the school meal voucher scheme over the summer months https://www.sustainweb.org/news/jun20_holidayfood/ (06.06.2020).

Free summer school meals and Marcus Rashford-led campaign

• 'Protect the vulnerable': Marcus Rashford's letter to MPs https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/15/protect-the-vulnerable-marcus-rashfords-emotional-letter-to-mps?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
  
• The government initially rejected the campaign to extend school meals. See: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/15/boris-johnson-rejects-marcus-rashfords-plea-for-free-school-meals-over-summer
• Government u-turn on summer school meals after campaign led by Marcus Rashford (16 June 2020) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53065806
• Lots of other articles on the government u-turn re. summer free school meals. See e.g.: https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/news/jun20_government_announces_summer_holiday_free_school_meal_provision_in_england/#; https://www.sustainweb.org/news/jun20_fsmwin/
• See also EFRA letter on the free school meal voucher scheme https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/52/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/146984/is-the-free-school-meal-voucher-scheme-working-for-everyone/ (accessed: 20.06.2020).
• Marcus Rashford: a brief history of free school meals in the UK https://theconversation.com/marcus-rashford-a-brief-history-of-free-school-meals-in-the-uk-140896 (28.06.2020).
• Headteachers out of pocket and children hungry in England's school meals chaos, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/30/headteachers-out-of-pocket-and-children-hungry-in-englands-school-meals-chaos (04.07.2020).
  
• England's free school meals scheme to close for new claims over summer, The Guardian (children who become eligible after the summer holidays have begun will miss out) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/14/englands-free-school-meals-scheme-to-close-for-new-claims-over-summer (14.07.2020).
  
• Migrant children face hunger over free school meal restrictions, The Guardian (children’s groups are calling for state meal provisions to extended for low-income migrant families when schools reopen) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/14/migrant-children-face-hunger-over-free-school-meal-restrictions; see also this BBC News articles https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53766050 (15.08.2020).
• Marcus Rashford brings food brand giants together to tackle child food poverty, BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53979648 (01.09.2020).
  

Other devolved nations re. extending school meals through the summer:

• Wales was the first to agree to support summer school meals (Wednesday, April 22) https://gov.wales/wales-has-become-first-country-uk-guarantee-ongoing-funding-children-continue-receive-free-school; 
• Scotland (16 June 2020) https://www.gov.scot/news/free-school-meals-extended/ ;
• Northern Ireland Executive extends the free school meals scheme (agreed 19 June 2020) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-53111146 (accessed: 20.06.2020).

Reliance on EU food chains, Brexit and food security

• Useful blog by Tony Heron, which argues that Covid-19 is a reminder of our reliance on EU food chains for UK food security, and why we should question the logic of a post-Brexit 'cheap food' trade policy https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2020/05/21/covid-19-is-a-stark-reminder-of-how-deeply-the-uks-food-security-is-dependent-on-the-eu/ (23.05.2020).
• This article, in The National, picks up a recent Nature Food paper by Philip Garnett, Bob Doherty and Tony Heron that argues Covid19 has exposed UK over-reliance on The Netherlands and Spain for fresh fruit and veg https://www.thenational.scot/news/18496845.uk-dangerously-dependent-two-eu-countries-fresh-veg/ [it was reported in other papers too, but this article has no paywall; here's the link to the Nature Food paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-0097-7] (06.06.2020).
• Excellent Financial Times piece which shows how Covid-19 has highlighted food security issues and tensions for the UK and these are now playing out in UK-EU trade talks https://www.ft.com/content/1db1dfcc-09b4-4c6a-94a8-0442b037d557 (06.06.2020).
• A resilient UK food system https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0626/ (20.06.2020).
• What the Covid-19 crisis taught us about food chain resilience and Brexit (perspective from Arla Foods UK) https://www.politicshome.com/members/article/what-the-covid19-crisis-taught-us-about-food-chain-resilience-and-brexit (06.07.2020).

National Food Strategy

• National Food Strategy - Part One (great to see this out; at a glance it looks excellent; major focus is children's health (and related obesity and food poverty), which are emergency issues highlighted and accentuated by Covid-19; plus trade (post-Brexit standards)) https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/partone/ (29.07.2020).
• National Food Strategy - Part One - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2YdpXrdOzQ (29.07.2020).
• @HenryDimbleby speaks with Tim Field [@daylesfordfarm] - The Future of Food Episode One https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=jdo_4eqypfQ (overview of Part One of NFS, including links to COVID, with wider remarks re organics/agroecology, food waste, true cost accounting, system complexity) (21.09.2020).

Selection of key media articles reporting on the strategy's main messages/ambitions:

• 'Once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity for more sustainable food, BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53573534 (29.07.2020).
  
• Leon founder Henry Dimbleby attacks M&S in scathing food report, The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/leon-founder-henry-dimbleby-attacks-m-amp-s-in-scathing-food-report-wzh2fx9fj (29.07.2020).
  
• National food strategy set out: banishing pollution and poverty for sustainability, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/29/national-food-strategy-set-out-banishing-pollution-and-poverty-for-sustainability (29.07.2020).
  
• Huge growth in free school meals urged to tackle food poverty crisis, The Guardian's Health section (reporting on free school meals NFS recommendation) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/29/huge-growth-in-free-school-meals-urged-to-tackle-food-poverty-crisis (29.07.2020).
  
• More free school meals 'would stop diet disaster', BBC News (reporting on the NFS launch) https://www.bbc.com/news/education-53574164 (29.07.2020).
• Jay Rayner's commentary on the food strategy pulls no punches (argues it will be easy to sideline because it is written in the first person and is weak in terms of post-Brexit trade policy) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/01/this-isnt-a-tough-new-food-policy-for-post-brexit-uk-its-thin-gruel-and-easy-to-set-to-one-side (04.08.2020).
• Nick Hughes commentary (food service) (supportive in terms of the vision but still waiting for food system fixes) https://www.foodservicefootprint.com/dimbleby-keeps-us-waiting-over-food-system-fix/ (04.08.2020).
• Useful review of the National Food Strategy - Part One, including a summary of the strategy's key recommendations, by Michael Winter http://sites.exeter.ac.uk/foodsystemimpactscv19/ (29.08.2020).

Sustainable food organisation responses:

• Sustain https://www.sustainweb.org/news/jul20-national-food-strategy-launched/ (29.07.2020)
• National Food Strategy: Who’s missing from the table?, Sustain https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/aug20-national-food-strategy-missing-from-table/ (19.08.2020)
  
• Patrick Holden, Sustainable Food Trust https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/if-we-want-sustainable-food-systems-its-all-about-the-money/?utm_source=SFT+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5e1d7efb25-Newsletter+214_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bf20bccf24-5e1d7efb25-105088289 ('Henry Dimbleby’s report is evidence that the UK Government is responding, but the real elephant in the room is actually the absence of financial incentives for farmers to produce food in a more sustainable way') (24.08.2020).

• International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has put together a great resources page on COVID-19 impacts in majority world countries https://www.ifpri.org/covid-19 (accessed 09.05.2020); see also IFPRI's Covid-19 and Global Food Security book, which brings together blog contributions on the impacts and early policy responses to Covid-19 in majority world countries https://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/133762/filename/133971.pdf (01.08.2020).
• The UN 'Goal 2: Zero Hunger' page has useful info and links https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/ (30.05.2020).
• The FAO has a useful page on COVID-19 and global food supplies http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1268059/icode/ (30.05.2020); see also their policy support and governance resources page to improve emergency food assistance to vulnerable groups http://www.fao.org/policy-support/coronavirus-pandemic/en/?utm_content=bufferf4974&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer (06.06.2020); policy briefs section has resources re. impacts on trade, agriculture, food chains, markets & livelihoods (global) http://www.fao.org/2019-ncov/resources/policy-briefs/en/ (22.09.2020).
• World Food Programme analysis of the potential impact of COVID-19 on the world’s poorest people https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000114205/download/?_ga=2.241337546.952775517.1586900153-341597442.1584735263(30.05.2020). Key message: the economic and food insecurity impacts of the disease could be more devastating that the disease itself.
• Committee on World Food Security (CFS) website has various C-19-related items http://www.fao.org/cfs/home/en/, including this paper on 'Building Back Better to Avert a COVID-19 Food Crisis' https://medium.com/committee-on-world-food-security-cfs/cfs-calls-for-building-back-better-to-avert-a-covid-19-food-crisis-f293a52e36ea (12.08.2020).

Other resources and articles (media, academic)

• Global food shortage prediction - The Guardian (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2020. You can access the executive summary and full report here https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-report-food-crises-2020 (accessed: 04.05.2020). The forecasts were made pre Covid-19 but the summary and full report include commentary re. the pandemic (impacts and action needed).
  
• The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition are preparing situation reports for low and middle-income countries that they work in re. the impact of Covid-19 on food systems https://www.gainhealth.org/resources/reports-and-publications/impact-covid-19-food-systems-situation-report (23.05.2020).
• Food insecurity warning from WFP (East Africa) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/wfp-warns-food-insecurity-double-east-africa-200428150049637.html (accessed: 04.05.2020).
• Food insecurity in India (impacts on the 'working poor') https://www.ft.com/content/dec12470-894b-11ea-9dcb-fe6871f4145a (04.05.2020); also how COVID-19 is changing the livelihoods and diets of vegetable producers in India, Nutrition Connect (lower prices and less nutritious food) https://nutritionconnect.org/resource-center/blog-37-lower-prices-less-nutritious-food-how-covid-19-changing-livelihoods-and (16.07.2020).
• Video diaries from Nairobi https://medium.com/enabling-sustainability/video-diaries-from-nairobi-navigating-food-insecurity-in-times-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-296b300b0867 (09.05.2020).
• Tripoli https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/care-about-masks-anger-poverty-grip-lebanese-city-tripoli-coronavirus (09.05.2020).
• Forbes - COVID-19 and food security in the Caribbean (31/03/2020).
• Excellent blog https://www.ifpri.org/blog/covid-19-nutrition-crisis-what-expect-and-how-protect (accessed 24.04.2020) on the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for global malnutrition, including practical ways vulnerable groups can be protected.
• This Economist piece argues the global food chain is responding to the Covid-19 challenge [I disagree, given food insecurity crisis, but articles like this balance the narrative, even if I don't agree!] https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/05/09/the-global-food-supply-chain-is-passing-a-severe-test (16.05.2020).
• This piece also argues that global food chains are resilient https://www.luke.fi/en/blog/the-global-food-supply-chains-are-resilient/ (20.06.2020).
• This Lancet editorial https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2214-109X%2820%2930228-X warns 'food insecurity will be the sting in the tail of COVID-19', and women, and particularly children, could bear the brunt of the effects of food insecurity/health system disruptions (23.05.2020).
• World Food Programme warning of a food crisis in Latin America because of COVID-19 http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2020/05/30/2020053000400.html (30.05.2020).
• Enabling Sustainability has resources, reports and video diaries on responses to Covid-19 https://medium.com/enabling-sustainability (30.05.2020).
• Asia Pacific perspective: nice blog, arguing for support for small family farms and farmers' associations to address food insecurity https://nutritionconnect.org/resource-center/blog-30-wifi-weak-our-call-support-smallholder-family-farmers-strong (06.06.2020).
• Social safety nets and shorter supply chains proposed as essential mechanisms to protect smallholder farmers facing spiralling debt and bankruptcy https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/06/01/now-time-climate-pandemic-proof-food-systems/ (06.06.2020).
• Covid-19 and the right to food (Independent Food Aid Charity Network; #rights not charity) https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/blog/covid-19-and-the-right-to-food (06.06.2020).
• UN warning of a global food crisis https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus (14.06.2020).
• Food vending and farming in Kenya - how Covid-19 is changing socio-economic dynamics https://medium.com/enabling-sustainability/from-corner-office-to-food-vendor-how-covid-19-is-changing-socio-economic-dynamics-in-kenya-12d800f5db09 (14.06.2020); see also this blog by Sharon J Cheboi on 'Restructuring the Kenyan food system post Covid-19' https://medium.com/enabling-sustainability/restructuring-the-kenyan-food-system-post-covid-19-3fa881ac99de (27.07.2020).
• COVID-19 lockdown in Zimbabwe: ‘we are good at surviving, but things are really tough’ https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/life-under-covid-19-lockdown-in-zimbabwe-we-are-good-at-surviving-but-things-are-really-tough/ (20.06.2020).
• Informal markets exploring ways to survive tough times (Lilongwe, Malawi) https://medium.com/enabling-sustainability/informal-markets-exploring-ways-to-survive-tough-covid19-times-d3c8e3b69aa5 (04.07.2020).
• With COVID-19, the challenges hampering the attainment of food security in Nigeria could deepen. The impact is already being felt in the form of rising food prices https://www.pwc.com/ng/en/publications/impact-covid-19-food-security-nigeria.html(26.07.2020).
• UN food agencies call for action to reduce COVID-19 impacts on world's hungriest population http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-06/10/c_139127202.htm (20.06.2020).
• Excellent article about COVID-19 and Syrian livelihoods in agriculture, including food security impacts [thanks @GarethEnticott]. The virus may not have reached displaced communities in the Middle East, but its domino effects have https://www.routedmagazine.com/covid-19-syrian-communities (27.06.2020).
• Latest issue of Lancet Planetary Health argues the COVID-19 pandemic is morphing into a global food security crisis (articles too on wet markets and small-scale fishers) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/issue/vol4no6/PIIS2542-5196(20)X0007-6?ct=t(C2025_newsletter12_03152017_DO_NOT_DELET3_15_2017_) (27.06.2020).
• The Committee on World Food Security's High Level Panel of Experts call for radical transformation of the food system and extend the defintion of food security to include sustainability and agency https://www.devex.com/news/radical-transformation-covid-19-shows-urgency-for-food-systems-policy-shifts-97579 (28.06.2020).
• Impact of COVID-19 on the Human Right to Food and Nutrition: Preliminary monitoring report, FIAN International [thanks to Colin Anderson for the link] https://www.fian.org/files/files/Preliminary_monitoring_report_-_Impact_of_COVID19_on_the_HRtFN.pdf (28.06.2020).
• Good piece by MaximoTorero, FAO on 'preparing food systems for a long-haul fight against COVID-19' (useful map of global food insecurity hotspots; argues nation states must avoid a reactionary self-sufficiency approach (need to facilitate global trade) https://maximotorero.com/2020/07/03/prepare-food-systems-for-a-long-haul-fight-against-covid-19/(04.07.2020).
• Crisis spreads from rich to poor nations, London Evening Standard https://www.standard.co.uk/news/foodforlondon/food-for-london-now-crisis-spread-poor-nations-a4487836.html (06.07.2020).
• UN policy brief: the impact of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition, June 2020 https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_food_security.pdf?ct=t(C2025_newsletter12_03152017_DO_NOT_DELET3_15_2017_) (accessed 09.07.2020).
• The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 (Key points: the number of hungry people increased globally last year pre-Covid-19; food security & nutritional status of the most vulnerable groups predicted to deteriorate further due to Covid-19) https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/publication/asset/42000691 (14.07.2020).
• Discussion paper by Food and Land Use Coalition on the impacts of COVID-19 on food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (different indicators point to growing stresses e.g. the cost of a basic food basket has increased in most countries during the first quarter of 2020) https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FOLU-Discussion-Paper_Sub-Saharan-Africa%E2%80%99s-Food-Systems-and-COVID-19_The-Emerging-Evidence_22May2020.pdf (15.07.2020).
• Protecting Africa’s food systems from farm to fork (need for regional co-ordination)  https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2020/06/19/economic-impact-of-covid-19-protecting-africas-food-systems-from-farm-to-fork/ (23.07.2020).
• How lockdown exposed food insecurity in a small Bangladeshi city (Mongla), Geography Directions blog by Mohammad Feisal Rahman, Durham University and Hanna A Ruszczyk, Durham University https://blog.geographydirections.com/2020/07/17/coronavirus-how-lockdown-exposed-food-insecurity-in-a-small-bangladeshi-city/ (18.07.2020).
  
• New analysis by @FAO-@WFP identifies 27 countries heading for food crises due to COVID-19 http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1298468/icode/?platform=hootsuite (18.07.2020).
  
• How Coronavirus Is Exposing the World’s Fragile Food Supply Chain, Time (the big challenge is disruption to food supply not food shortages) https://time.com/5820381/coronavirus-food-shortages-hunger/ (21.07.2020).
  
• To reduce world hunger, governments need to think beyond making food cheap https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-world-hunger-governments-need-to-think-beyond-making-food-cheap-142361(23.07.2020).
• Child malnutrition and COVID-19: the time to act is now, The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31648-2/fulltext (28.07.2020).
• Excellent blog by Jennifer Clapp: Solving Our Food Crisis Requires a Fundamental Transformation of the System (lessons from the High Level Panel of Experts Global Narrative report in the context of the COVID-19 food security crisis) https://www.iisd.org/blog/food-crisis-transform-system (29.07.2020).
• Policy Brief: Safeguarding food systems and promoting healthy diets, Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition https://www.glopan.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Covid-Brief.pdf (01.08.2020).
• How India’s agrifood supply chains fared during the COVID-19 lockdown (importance of traditional retail chains and informal market economy) https://www.ifpri.org/blog/how-indias-agrifood-supply-chains-fared-during-covid-19-lockdown-farm-fork?ct=t(C2025_newsletter12_03152017_DO_NOT_DELET3_15_2017_) (06.08.2020).
• Food Security special issue: Worldwide disruptions of food systems and the search of enduring food security amidst Covid19 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-020-01094-z (30 papers, mostly opinion articles. Papers cover impacts, resilience mechanisms, sustainable food systems and policies) (thanks @lauklerkx) (14.08.2020).
• The impacts of COVID-19 on Dutch food banks: a call on government to guarantee the right-to-food (part of Gastronomica SI on food in the time of COVID-19) https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/article/20/3/72/111238/The-Impacts-of-COVID-19-on-Dutch-Food-Banks-A-Call (19.08.2020).
  
• William G. Moseley and Jane Battersby: The Vulnerability and Resilience of African Food Systems, Food Security, and Nutrition in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic, African Studies Review https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/vulnerability-and-resilience-of-african-food-systems-food-security-and-nutrition-in-the-context-of-the-covid19-pandemic/8E8E86CE98EB17DB42ECB8C7DA2B0968 (22.08.2020).
  
• New Global Panel on Ag. and Food Systems for Nutrition policy brief: Strengthening Food Systems in Fragile Contexts https://www.glopan.org/resources-documents/fragile-contexts/(international policy community need to put more emphasis on food system resilience) (25.08.2020).
  
• Excellent policy report by CARE on women, hunger and COVID-19 ('Most important is the recognition of women & girls as leaders in food systems') (thanks @CorinnaHawkes for sharing) https://www.care.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Left-Out-and-Left-Behind.pdf?_ga=2.105792711.532214394.1598456015-982615239.1598456015 (26.08.2020).
• The World Bank and the Malawi National Statistics Office have released COVID-19 impact monitoring results (first results find that even among households in the wealthiest quintile, more than half of adults are experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity) (via IFPRI-Compact2025) (06.09.2020).
• Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (first annual report on the impact of COVID19 on people in poverty; not food per se but shows that most social protection measures are maladapted, short-term, reactive, and inattentive to the realities of people in poverty) https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Poverty/Covid19.pdf (12.09.2020).
• Covid-19 and food podcast, The Institute for Global Food Security (A new podcast series from @IGFS exploring the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the food landscape) https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/TheInstituteforGlobalFoodSecurity/institute-for-global-security-news/Covid-19-and-food-podcast/ (12.09.2020).
• COVID-19: A threat to food security in Africa, Paul Akiwumi, UNCTAD https://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=2450 ('In order to address the impact of COVID-19 on food security in the long term, Africa will need to build productive capacities to address underlying economic vulnerabilities...' (17.09.2020).
• Impacts of a national lockdown on smallholder farmers’ income and food security: Empirical evidence from two states in India, World Development https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X20301959?via%3Dihub ('any short- or long-term risk-mitigation policy must be responsive to the local context') (17.09.2020).
• Impacts of COVID-19 on childhood malnutrition and nutrition-related mortality, The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31647-0/fulltext?ct=t(C2025_newsletter12_03152017_DO_NOT_DELET3_15_2017_) (Prevalence of moderate or severe wasting among children could increase by 14% due to COVID-19-related losses in GNI per capita) (19.09.2020).
• The 2020 Global Nutrition Report in the context of Covid-19 https://globalnutritionreport.org/reports/2020-global-nutrition-report/2020-global-nutrition-report-context-covid-19/ (23.09.2020).
• Cuba’s economy was hurting. The pandemic brought a food crisis, The New York Times ('the dearth of tourists in the pandemic’s wake strangled an economy already damaged by mismanagement and U.S. sanctions') https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/world/americas/cuba-economy.html (23.09.2020).
• Conflict and coronavirus spark a hunger crisis in Burkina Faso, The New Humanitarian https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2020/08/19/COVID-conflict-hunger-Burkina-Faso ('The number of people in need of emergency food aid in Burkina Faso has tripled to more than 3.2 million'; more will die from hunger than from COVID-19) (23.09.2020).

The need for basic income support not food charity (Canada & the US, including other food access-related articles)

• Great article from Valerie Tarasuk and Lynn McIntre https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/april-2020/food-banks-cant-adequately-address-covid-19-food-insecurity/ (accessed 29.04.2020) on why we must not accept food banks as an adequate response to Covid-19 food insecurity - they argue for basic income support not food charity. Comments based on Canada's food response to date.
• Marion Nestle on why SNAP is important in the US, as a safety net for the poor https://www.foodpolitics.com/2020/05/23149/(accessed 16.05.2020); see also this April 2020 article from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation re. raising SNAP payments https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2020/04/snap-supports-health-and-boosts-the-economy.html?cid=xtw_rwjf_unpd_dte:20200723_des:flagship; and this article reporting how SNAP payments are now allowed online (Amazon and Walmart) as part of a pilot programme (available in 40 US states) https://www.supermarketnews.com/online-retail/usda-s-snap-online-grocery-pilot-grows-more-40-states (23.07.2020).
• This article from The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/nyregion/coronavirus-ny-update.html emphasises the scale and persistance of the problem in the US (2 million city residents food insecure) (accessed: 23.05.2020); see also this Guardian article (pandemic effects could leave 54m Americans without food) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/people-are-going-to-go-hungry-pandemic-effects-could-leave-54m-americans-without-food(06.06.2020).
• Good CNN article about food deserts in the US (compounded by Covid-19) https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/09/business/food-deserts-coronavirus-grocery-stores/index.html (14.06.2020).
• What is Food Insecurity? Interview with Paul Taylor, FoodShare, including Covid-19 impacts and Canada response. Key message: "Food insecurity is an income issue that requires income based interventions” https://www.foodnetwork.ca/food-network-insider/blog/what-is-food-insecurity/ (04.07.2020).
• To Be Hungry in the Middle of the Pandemic - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/opinion/coronavirus-food-banks-hunger.html (06.07.2020).
• Covid-19 and food insecurity in the US (one study suggests number food insecure has doubled; increasing pressure on charitable food system) https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/millions-americans-are-going-hungry-pandemic-erodes-incomes-destroys-communities-n1233110 (08.07.2020).
• Recent items on food insecurity in the US, via Marion Nestle https://www.foodpolitics.com/2020/07/recent-items-on-food-insecurity/ (14.07.2020).
• Good article about food banks in the US. Food charities are reorganising distribution, labour and storage space. Feeding America estimates Covid-19 could push an additional 17 million people into food insecurity in 2020 https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-growing-need-strain-u-s-food-bank-operations-11594891802 (20.07.2020).
• Stealth food banks are reaching out to 'undocumented clients' (including migrant farmworkers who have no permament status) to support them during Covid-19. Case studies explain how food banks (in partnership with other groups) run underground food distribution and direct financial support https://foodbanknews.com/stealth-food-banks-serve-the-undocumented/ (26.07.2020).
• Senate GOP coronavirus relief bill won’t expand SNAP benefits or Pandemic EBT, The Washington Post (this is despite the fact nearly 1 in 3 low-income families report having experienced food insecurity in the past 30 days!) https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/28/senate-gop-wont-extend-pandemic-food-stamps-doubles-three-martini-lunch-deduction/ (29.07.2020).
  
• Almost 30 million US households reported food insecurity (highest reported level since the Census Bureau started tracking the data in May) https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/31/us/food-insecurity-30-million-census-survey/index.html (04.08.2020).
• Useful article about hunger and poverty during the pandemic and why the relationship is not a simple one (households are above the poverty line but food insecure) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/us/politics/coronavirus-hunger-poverty.html (04.08.2020).
• The "last mile" – getting the delivered food into the hands of the hungry - is often an afterthought in government programmes and is proving a considerable barrier during the pandemic http://www.farmtoschool.org/news-and-articles/the-last-mile (Highlights the need for public investment in local supply infrastructure - similar gap evident in the UK) (08.08.2020).
• Wall Street Journal: More Americans go hungry amid coronavirus pandemic, Census shows https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-americans-go-hungry-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-census-shows-11597570200 (e.g. 12.1% of adults lived in households that didn’t have enough to eat at some point in the previous week, up from 9.8% in early May; almost 20% of Americans with kids at home couldn’t afford to give their children enough food, up from almost 17% in early June) (18.08.2020).
  
• The COVID Crisis Is Reinforcing the Hunger Industrial Complex, The MIT Press Reader  (Excellent article by @Fisherfood on the unholy alliance between food banks and corporate America; this complex needs to be broken in favour of stronger government response that strengthens the social safety net) https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-covid-crisis-is-reinforcing-the-hunger-industrial-complex/ (22.08.2020).
  
• Food insecurity is rising, especially among kids (Marion Nestle's Food Politics blog) https://www.foodpolitics.com/2020/08/food-insecurity-is-rising-especially-among-kids/ (25.08.2020).
• USDA extends free-meal programme for children (but only after an outcry from educators), The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/after-backlash-usda-agrees-to-extend-free-meal-program-for-children/2020/08/31/0bf22e36-eb9d-11ea-b4bc-3a2098fc73d4_story.html (01.09.2020).
  
• Workers Keeping Americans Fed Are Going Hungry in the Heartland, Bloomberg (title says it all really; also argues food insecurity in rural America is not new, but spikes in states like Minnesota (featured) show how deeply C-19 is impacting the American foodscape, including food workers) https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-hunger-minnesota-pandemic/ (06.09.2020).
• Economic impact of coronavirus has many American families turning to food banks for help, The New York Times ('projections suggest up to 54 million Americans could be food insecure before the end of the year, a 46 percent increase since the pandemic began') https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/us/food-pantries-hunger-us.html (06.09.2020).
• Mapping Trump’s food boxes, The Counter https://thecounter.org/covid-19-farmers-to-families-food-box-delivery-usda-trump/ (excellent article about the USDA’s food box distribution program[me] and why it is failing to support some food banks / feed communities in need (distribution gaps and incongruencies between supply and demand) (10.09.2020).
• Canada must eliminate food banks & provide a basic income after COVID-19 https://theconversation.com/canada-must-eliminate-food-banks-and-provide-a-basic-income-after-covid-19-144994 (Graham Riches: Covid-19 should be an opportunity to redistribute wealth, not excess food that benefits large landownwers and major food corps more than food insecure people) (12.09.2020).
• No Food Security, No World Order (excellent essay by Jessica Fanzo, which is part of @JohnsHopkins 'COVID-19 and World Order' collection of essays, which are all open access) https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/2696560 (12.09.2020).
• 29 million American adults don’t have enough to eat—a threefold increase since 2018, The Counter (the crisis reveals long-standing issues in the US food system) https://thecounter.org/covid-19-hunger-food-insecurity-crisis-america/ (19.09.2020).

Hacking food chains, food system innovations, food sharing

• Inspiring article about a project in the Bronx to 'hack' the food chain to get cheaper supplies to restaurants who then prepare and supply emergency food aid (culturally specific) to people in need in the community https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/coronavirus-response-hacking-emergency-food-supply-chains-200601065958248.html (06.06.2020); plus this article about clever ways New York City organised the food response (might need to subscribe to access the full article) https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-serves-up-food-to-fill-in-the-gaps-amid-the-pandemic-11591106402 (14.06.2020).
• Useful blog by Corinna Hawkes reviewing food system innovations that have helped to get food to people (digital innovations (e.g. mobile apps), distribution, point-of-sale, vouchers) https://www.ifpri.org/blog/covid-19-and-promise-food-system-innovation (20.06.2020).
• Interesting example of food sharing in Oakland, called "Town Fridge" (set up to create food access) https://oaklandside.org/2020/07/15/oaklands-town-fridge-is-spreading-food-security-one-refrigerator-at-a-time/ (18.07.2020); see also this article about 'community fridges' to help homeless people in LA (via @ShareCityIre) https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2020/0720/1154319-community-fridges/ (21.07.2020).
• The Share City project website https://sharecity.ie/ has some useful blogs on food sharing during Covid-19, including this one about food sharing in the US https://sharecity.ie/food-sharing-in-the-us-whats-changed-during-covid-19/ (21.07.2020).
• Positive story about how teenagers in Chicago turned a former liquor store into a pop-up fresh food market https://www.blackenterprise.com/texas-based-teens-convert-old-liquor-store-into-a-pop-up-fresh-food-market/ (23.07.2020).
• 'Take what you need. Leave what you don't': Community fridges fill a growing need with free food, National Post (community fridges, with cases from Canada, plus New York) https://nationalpost.com/life/food/take-what-you-need-leave-what-you-dont-community-fridges-fill-a-growing-need-with-free-food (01.08.2020).
  
• Useful critique of why community fridges won't solve food insecurity, Civil Eats https://civileats.com/2020/07/30/op-ed-why-those-community-fridges-wont-solve-hunger/ (06.08.2020).
• An inspiring @CivilEats compilation of initiatives in the U.S to address food system inequalities, many in response to the pandemic https://civileats.com/2020/08/03/and-now-for-some-good-news-20-inspiring-food-and-agriculture-stories/ (07.08.2020).
• Startup in San Francisco (Full Harvest) matches farmers with distributors (via on-line market). During Covid-19 they linked farmers (who needed to sell crops no longer wanted by buyers) with organisations that provide food boxes to food insecure in Oakland and New York City https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-08-13/fixing-the-covid-food-disaster-can-slash-climate-emissions (25.08.2020).
• To combat hunger, neighbo[u]rs are stocking community fridges on Boston’s streets, The Boston Globe https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/25/business/combat-hunger-neighbors-are-stocking-community-fridges-bostons-streets/ (community fridges and food insecurity; '“take what you need. Leave what you can” is written in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole' via @julianagyeman) (26.09.2020).
  
• Not completely a crisis! Vanessa Lucy slides as part of the SHARECITY 2020 conference https://sharecity.vids.io/videos/ea9cd6ba1f18e4c363/3-vanessa-lucy ('+ outlooks on the COVID-19 pandemic include >foodsharing sales, a global renewal of affection for gardening & a tech boom of sharing knowledge & skills, overall expanding access to food activities') (26.09.2020).

• Video from the Johns Hopkins Center reports on ways food policy councils in the US are shifting their strategies to address increased food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Case studies from Montgomery County Food Council (Maryland), the Dubuque County Food Policy Council (Iowa), and the Detroit Food Policy Council (Michigan) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HH02GobEhg&feature=youtu.be (13.06.2020).

• This Guardian article argues factory farming, global agribusiness and environmental destruction are to blame for coronavirus (not wet markets) (accessed: 10.04.2020). Links to Wallace’s (2016) argument about relational geographies not absolute geographies when tracing the cause of disease outbreaks; see also https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/pandemics-destruction-nature-un-who-legislation-trade-green-recovery (20.06.2020).
• Here's a podcast/interview with Rob Wallace, explaining links between infectious disease and global agriculture https://kutpodcasts.org/the-secret-ingredient/covid-19-series-rob-wallace (accessed: 06.05.2020).
• Industrial animal farming has caused most new infectious diseases and risks more pandemics, The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/coronavirus-meat-animal-farming-pandemic-disease-wet-markets-a9505626.html (accessed: 16.05.2020).
  
• This article, by Laura Spinney, is also helpful in making the case for global responsibility in terms of the origins of the virus (accessed: 11.04.2020); have a read too of the excellent blog on Covid-19, racism and the power of names, by geographer Tim Cresswell (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• Baby pangolins on my plate: possible lessons to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13002-020-00366-4. Open access paper in Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (09.05.2020).
• Excellent article on pangolins by historian Sujit Sivasundaram ('the history of the current crisis lies in human interactions with animals, not least pangolins, in a variety of settings, including in Europe') https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/covid-19-interspecies-frontier-history-with-pangolins (08.07.2020).
• Useful article by Patrick Holden on what the pandemic means in terms of future food security (11.04.2020). Critiques the current centralised system.
• Caroline Lucas - Coronavirus and access to food (11.04.2020).
• Interview linked to Tim Lang’s new ‘Feeding Britain’ book, but links also to Covid-19 (11.04.2020); see also this interview with Geoff Tansey https://geofftansey.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/feeding-britain-our-food-problems-and-how-to-fix-them/ (16.05.2020).
• Go back in time to Mike Davis ‘The Monster At Our Door’ (2005) responding to Avian Flu. Davis argues for international co-operation to secure global public health.
• We need to change how we grow our food (20.04.2020).
• EU towards a sustainable food system (20.04.2020).
• The myth of silver linings https://www.businessgreen.com/blog-post/4012857/myth-silver-linings  (24.04.2020) (interesting blog on green growth generally, but very relevant in terms of food system changes that we might anticipate now but might not happen (for various reasons)).
• Two blogs from the Future Food team at Nottingham University. The first is about the globalisation of food, their fragility and links to 'planetary health' https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/futurefood/2020/04/07/global-food-supply-chains-in-times-of-pandemic/ and the second considers global trading patterns https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/futurefood/2020/04/27/global-trading-the-good-the-bad-and-the-essential/ (both accessed 29.04.2020).
• Podcast on Covid-19 and the food system by the Sustainable Places team at Cardiff University https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/sustainable-places/research/sustainable-places-podcast(accessed 29.04.2020).
• Eating Better blog on the UK food system (five lessons from Covid-19) https://www.eating-better.org/blog/5-things-covid19-has-told-us-about-food-systems-in-the-uk (accessed 29.04.2020).
• This is a crowdsourced Googledoc https://docs.google.com/document/d/10w7MKa1lurkJR5zIJBbG-LyMykhDtxlfO2liGjruNVQ/edit?fbclid=IwAR3on3eJfnhiP7HMiKPfVqxi8nwTnlcZMlNGQlMu_3BGuczaiTT43enZiMA (accessed: 29.04.2020) that covers a range of materials (mostly media articles but academic sources too), across various food system themes (see the contents page). Thanks to Colin Anderson for sending me the link.
• Frontiers is also organising a theme issue on the effects of COVID-19 on food supply, diet, nutrition and health https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/14033/the-effects-of-the-covid-19-outbreak-on-food-supply-dietary-patterns-nutrition-and-health (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Journal of Agrarian Change has a call for papers for a special issue on 'Capitalism, Crisis and Covid' https://www.aqs.org.uk/cfp-capitalism-crisis-and-covid-agrarian-political-economy-in-disrupted-circuits-of-capital-and-labour/ (accessed 23.05.2020).
• Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Communiyt Development has a special issue on COVID-19 (early) food system responses https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj (30.05.2020).
• Useful report by IPES-Food on COVID-19 and the Crisis in Food Systems http://www.ipes-food.org/pages/covid19 (29.04.2020).
• This article examines food chain disruptions caused by Covid-19, with analysis and case studies from production through to consumption (nice visuals) https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/world/article/3080824/covid19-disrupts-food-supply/index.html 
• Rockerfeller Foundation article (Covid-19 food system reflections) https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/five-covid-19-reflections-from-a-food-system-perspective-and-how-we-could-take-action/ (accessed 04.05.2020).
• Thoughtful blog by Corinna Hawkes making the case for a systems approach to global health https://www.4sd.info/covid-19-narratives/spotlight-on-systems-with-professor-corinna-hawkes/ , including food systems (systems as multiple and interconnected) (accessed: 06.05.2020).
• Great article by Jennifer Clapp in The New York Times: the Covid-19 crisis is revealing a very broken global food system https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/coronavirus-global-food-supply.html (09.05.2020).
• Michael Pollan article in The New York Review of Books (how Covid19 exposes vulnerabilities in the US food system) https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/06/11/covid-19-sickness-food-supply/ (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Phil McMichael: COVID-19 Implications on our 'Broken Food System' https://www.isa-agrifood.com/post/covid-19-implications-on-our-broken-food-system (16.05.2020).
• This Los Angeles Times piece is also a good summary of Covid-19 impacts on the US food chain https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-05/coronavirus-food-supply-chain-makers-distributors-retailers (16.05.2020).
• This paper by Christopher Barrett in Nature Food sets out seven actions governments can take to stablise food chains (based on learning from 2008-2012 price spikes) https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-0085-y.pdf(09.05.2020).
• Sustainable Healthy Diets and Covid 19: Building Back Better Food Systems https://tastingthefuture.com/2020/05/06/sustainable-healthy-diets-and-covid-19-building-back-better-food-systems/ (09.05.2020).
• Blog from the Nordic Food Policy Lab on how we build back more sustainable food systems, post-Covid (short food chains, diversity, citizen agency) https://tastingthefuture.com/2020/05/06/sustainable-healthy-diets-and-covid-19-building-back-better-food-systems/ (accessed 23.05.2020).
• Impacts of COVID-19 on the Food System (Warwick University resources page)  https://warwick.ac.uk/research/priorities/food/foodduringcovid19/ (23.05.2020).
• Coronavirus offers the chance to create a fairer UK food supply chain https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/18/coronavirus-offers-chance-to-create-fairer-uk-food-supply-chain-say-experts (23.05.2020).
  
• Food systems should focus on public goods - IPES-Food; Peter Jackson is quoted too https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/covid19-shows-food-systems-should-focus-on-public-good.html (23.05.2020).
• Nature Plants editorial: food in a time of COVID-19 (highlighting inequalities in food systems) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-020-0682-7.pdf (30.05.2020).
• Nature Food: exploring wet markets (we need a wider approach than banning these markets; as is often the case, no simple fix!) https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-0090-1.pdf; see also this piece about banning bushmeat in The Conversation https://theconversation.com/banning-bushmeat-could-make-it-harder-to-stop-future-pandemics-138735 (both accessed 30.05.2020).
• Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition has outlined 10 farm to fork actions to fix the food system post-covid19 https://www.barillacfn.com/en/ (06.06.2020).
• Food safety risk during the pandemic https://ifst.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fsat.3402_4.x (06.06.2020).
• Interesting blog [thanks to Matt Reed for sending] by Ludivine Petetin about how we build democratic food systems post-Covid (interconnection, democracy and multi-level governance) https://foodmanifesto.wales/2020/06/01/building-democratic-food-systems-following-covid-19/ (06.06.2020).
• How Food Producers Can Re-Make Their Supply Chains for 21st Century https://www.foodlogistics.com/sustainability/article/21133458/perch-perspectives-how-food-producers-can-remake-their-supply-chains-for-21st-century (06.06.2020).
  
• Here's a link  to my Geography Directions blog that summarises key themes from the COVID-19 sustainable resources page (relationality, food insecurity and relocalisation of food systems) https://blog.geographydirections.com/2020/06/10/covid-19-and-food-systems-relational-geographies-food-insecurity-and-relocalisation/ (11.06.2020).
• Food system fragility: Peter Jackson and Duncan Cameron, Institute for Sustainable Food, argue that Covid-19 highlights the fragility of the food system and what needs to be done to 'build back better' (horticulture, urban growing, procurement schemes, circular economy) https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sustainable-food/news/coronavirus-pandemic-symptom-broken-food-system (13.06.2020).
• Paper by Ludivine Petetin argues we can use the Covid-19 crisis as an opportunity to integrate food democracy into post-pandemic food systems https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/486D3CB338D1043228183A942E8CF8C9/S1867299X20000409a.pdf/covid19_crisis_an_opportunity_to_integrate_food_democracy_into_post_pandemic_food_systems.pdf (14.06.2020).
• Covid-19 and structural food system change https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/linking-covid-19-responses-to-structural-change-in-food-systems/ (14.06.2020).
• Catherine Price: food and memories in the time of Covid-19 https://es.britsoc.co.uk/food-and-memories-in-the-time-of-covid-19/?utm_source=British+Sociological+Association&utm_campaign=15b5696e31-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_08_09_54&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_944a94d9c4-15b5696e31-362001761 (14.06.2020).
• This piece argues global food chains are resilient https://www.luke.fi/en/blog/the-global-food-supply-chains-are-resilient/ (20.06.2020).
• International Humanitarian Studies Association Covid-19 blog series https://mailchi.mp/b2668508c02d/ihsa-newsletter-4138047 (20.06.2020).
• Building food system resilience (landscape perspective) https://ecoagriculture.org/blog/how-to-reimagine-our-food-systems-for-a-post-covid-world-taking-a-landscape-perspective/ (20.06.2020).
• A resilient UK food system https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0626/ (20.06.2020)
• The Dutch food system post-coronavirus https://www.wur.nl/en/show-longread/The-Dutch-food-system-post-coronavirus.htm (20.06.2020).
• The Pandemic and Our Food System: Why We Might Want to Move Our Food Supply Closer to Home. Pace University discussion with Melanie DuPuis and Jonathan Brown  https://pace.zoom.us/rec/play/vZwtdu6qqj03HIfGsASDAP8qW43sLq2s0SgdqaBYnRy9AnIFNAemb7AWMLEefXrDWEU93O6EQfXWcLIy?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=Yy_R7kUySVahBiEAB18cXw.1593123431211.0989031fc0248aa2a343cf0b0de10791&_x_zm_rhtaid=825 (27.06.2020).
• Article summarising arguments from the Committee on World Food Security's High Level Panel of Experts (call for radical transformation of the food system and extend the defintion of food security to include sustainability and agency) https://www.devex.com/news/radical-transformation-covid-19-shows-urgency-for-food-systems-policy-shifts-97579(28.06.2020).
• How to reimagine our food systems for a post-COVID world | World Economic Forum  https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/we-need-to-reimagine-our-food-systems-for-a-post-covid-world/(28.06.2020).
• Infrastructure investments for a greener, more resilient and sustainable country: Ideas and considerations for Canadian decision-makers, including food systems https://ipolitics.ca/2020/06/22/infrastructure-investments-for-a-greener-more-resilient-and-sustainable-country-ideas-and-considerations-for-canadian-decision-makers/(28.06.2020).
• COVID-19: the imperative of a global food system transformation, The Guardian (Advertiser content, Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition) https://www.theguardian.com/advertiser-content/barilla-center-for-food---nutrition/the-imperative-of-a-global-food-system-transformation-after-covid-19-sustainable-and-healthy-diets-for-all (28.06.2020).
  
• Nordic food lab: Covid-19 and food system resilience (outlines seven principles to build resilience, including diversity and redundancy, connectivity, systems thinking and social learning) https://pub.norden.org/nord2020-038/#29373 (04.07.2020).
• Preventing the next pandemic - Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, UNEP - UN Environment Programme (key message: need to reshape food systems - change diets, shorten food chains) https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/preventing-future-zoonotic-disease-outbreaks-protecting-environment-animals-and (07.07.2020).
  
• Food and post-COVID transformations podcast with Dr David Nabarro and and Melissa Leach (includes zoonotic spillover, One Health, and the global food system) https://www.faifarms.com/podcasts/the-one-with-the-who-ipes-food/(08.07.2020).
  
• Will Coronavirus's Disruption of Big Ag Have Lasting Change?, Time https://time.com/5865037/coronavirus-agriculture-us/ (11.07.2020).
• Effects of COVID-19 on the food supply system https://post.parliament.uk/analysis/food-security/effects-of-covid-19-on-the-food-supply-system/ (13.07.2020).
• Trump, race, poultry and agri-capital in the pandemic https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-trump-is-helping-tycoons-exploit-the-pandemic (14.07.2020).
• Brief by Alison Blay-Palmer and Building Back Better Post-COVID-19 Task Force colleagues: Now is the time to build sustainable food system resilience, iPolitics (Canada) https://ipolitics.ca/2020/07/15/now-is-the-time-to-build-sustainable-food-system-resilience/ (15.07.2020).
  
• 15 inspiring quotes and questions to guide the food system forward, Food Tank https://foodtank.com/news/2020/07/15-inspiring-quotes-and-questions-to-guide-the-food-system-forward/ (16.07.2020).
  
• New Nature Economy Report II: The Future of Nature and Business (argues no future for business as usual; need arrangements that build resilience in agriculture, fisheries and food systems) http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Future_Of_Nature_And_Business_2020.pdf (20.07.2020).
  
• UN report on zoonotic diseases. Argues we are currently treating symptoms but not the environmental cause of pandemics - we need a one-health approach and better surveillance of disease threats and associated food systems to prevent future outbreaks https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/preventing-future-zoonotic-disease-outbreaks-protecting-environment-animals-and (20.07.2020).
• Science paper calls for investment to protect wildlife and prevent disease spillovers. Notes significant investment in One Health biosecurity plans to prevent farmed animal spillovers. Need investment also in wildlife trade spillovers, as well as reducing deforestation https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6502/379 (25.07.2020).
• The pandemic could actually strengthen the U.S. food system, National Geographic (interesting article re. flexiblity of small and medium-sized farms and reflective critique re. food security and regional food resilience) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/07/pandemic-could-strengthen-us-food-system/ (22.07.2020).
• Zhao Haijun & Seth Cook blog discusses building food system system through decentralisation, digitalisation and diversification (lessons from China’s response to COVID-19) https://nutritionconnect.org/resource-center/blog-38-build-resilience-food-system-through-decentralisation-digitalisation-and (23.07.2020).
• Food systems transformation: building back better during response and recovery, FAO Response and Recovery Programme ($50 million, 2020-24) http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/faoweb/Resource_Mobilization/resources/covid19/06Food_Systems_Transformation.pdf?ct=t(C2025_newsletter12_03152017_DO_NOT_DELET3_15_2017_) (23.07.2020).
• Interesting article about systems thinking and sustainability innovation by Rowan Conway (useful for food systems thinking, esp. intersectional nature of systems and rethinking economics) https://medium.com/@rowan.e.wilson/what-does-systems-change-mean-in-2020-706d159763cc (28.07.2020).
  
• Excellent blog by Jennifer Clapp: Solving Our Food Crisis Requires a Fundamental Transformation of the System (lessons from the High Level Panel of Experts Global Narrative report in the context of the COVID-19 food security crisis) https://www.iisd.org/blog/food-crisis-transform-system (29.07.2020).
• Anna Davies OneEarth paper commenting on the SAPEA sustainable food systems evidence review report (the report went to press pre-Covid-19 but the recommendations are very relevant, as Anna argues) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7380216/pdf/main.pdf (01.08.2020).
• Corinna Hawkes, The Conversation: Five ways to reboot the global food economy to make it healthier for all (e.g. financing healthy food, comprehensive regulation for junk food, public procurement) https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-reboot-the-global-food-economy-to-make-it-healthier-for-all-143704 (04.08.2020).
• Agriculture and Human Values has a special collection of short essays on COVID-19 in Issue 3 (Sept 2020) https://link.springer.com/journal/10460/37/3?utm_source=toc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_10460_37_3&utm_content=etoc_springer_20200805 (05.08.2020). Some excellent contributions.
• Ana Moragues-Faus has a useful piece in the A&HV's collection (see above), arguing for the need for a distributive food systems to build just and liveable futures, with a link to the work of Iris Young https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10087-9 (05.08.2020); and this piece, by Lewis Holloway, is useful, linking Covid-19 to his work on infectious farm animal disease and biosecurity  https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10460-020-10072-2.pdf (05.08.2020); see also 'Agri-food tech discovers silver linings in the pandemic' (Fairbairn and Guthman) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10052-6 (08.08.2020).
• World Bank piece on the potential of digital technology platforms for system transformation (thanks @lauklerkx for sharing) https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2020/08/06/beyond-the-pandemic-harnessing-the-digital-revolution-to-set-food-systems-on-a-better-course?cid=SHR_SitesShareTT_EN_EXT (08.08.2020).
  
• New report on transforming the US food system from The Rockefeller Foundation: Reset the Table: Meeting the Moment to Transform the U.S. Food System (reviews what Covid-19 has revealed re. food nutrition insecurity and proposes three goals (integrated nutrition security system, reinvigorated regional systems, and more equitable prosperity)) (via Marion Nestle, who rightly notes that the real challenge for this transformation is how!) (08.08.2020).
• Susanna Klassen and Sophia Murphy World Development paper. 'Equity as both a means and an end: Lessons for resilient food systems from COVID-19' https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2030231X (food insecurity reinforces inequity; food workers are essential but not treated as such, and migrant food workers face unique forms inequity) (thanks @KhKnickel) (10.08.2020).
• Food Supply Chains & COVID-19: Impacts & Policy Lessons http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/food-supply-chains-and-covid-19-impacts-and-policy-lessons-71b57aea/ (part OECD's C-19 Policy Responses section) (10.08.2020).
  
• Food Security special issue: Worldwide disruptions of food systems and the search of enduring food security amidst Covid19 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-020-01094-z (30 papers, mostly opinion articles. Papers cover impacts, resilience mechanisms, sustainable food systems and policies) (thanks @lauklerkx) (14.08.2020).
• Gastronomica special issue (Volume 20 Issue 3): food in the time of COVID-19 and its complex symptomology https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/issue/20/3 (perspectives from the kitchen, the pass, the table, the community, the market and our foodways) (19.08.2020).
• Excellent N8 AgriFood blog by @Tom_H_Oliver about green recovery and the need to address lock-in mechanisms (at structural and psychological levels); in short, ‘bouncing back better’ from COVID-19 requires overcoming system lock-ins to reconfigure our socioeconomic systems https://www.n8agrifood.ac.uk/blog-posts/bouncing-back-better-from-covid-19-requires-overcoming-systemic-lock-ins/ (22.08.2020).
• Earth Overshoot Day and COVID-19 bring food system challenges into focus, Diplomat Courier https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/earth-overshoot-day-and-covid-19-bring-food-system-challenges-into-focus?utm_campaign=EOD%202020&utm_content=137990547&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-48441185 (calls for structural changes to transform food systems) (29.08.2020).
  
• Jan Douwe van der Ploeg: From biomedical to politico-economic crisis: the food system in times of Covid-19, The Journal of Peasant Studies https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03066150.2020.1794843?needAccess=true (useful paper; argues political economic impacts of Covid may be longer and deeper than the current biomedical crisis) (29.08.2020).
• A Call for a National Agenda for a Healthy, Equitable, and Sustainable Food System (Nick Freudenberg & Marion Nestle editorial, American Journal of Public Health https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305926 (06.09.2020).
• Post-coronavirus, how can we achieve food justice? Horizon: the EU Research & Innovation magazine, European Commission https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/post-coronavirus-how-can-we-achieve-food-justice.html (Olivier De Schutter 'many voices now are calling for a rethink, so that we treat food, like medicine and healthcare material, as a strategic good') (16.09.2020).
  
• Food as a commons and changing food narratives in a post-COVID19 world, podcast with Jose Luis Vivero-Pol  https://findsustpod.podbean.com/e/031-food-as-a-commons-and-changing-food-narratives-in-a-post-covid19-world-with-jose-luis-vivero-pol/ (21.09.2020).
  
• Will COVID-19 change our relationship with meat?, Thomson Reuters Foundation Long Reads https://longreads.trust.org/item/pandemic-climate-eat-green-food-COVID-19 (COVID19 as the tipping point in our relationship with meat?; sales data from the US and Asia show increased demand for plant-based alternatives during the pandemic) (23.09.2020).
  
• The 2020 Global Nutrition Report in the context of Covid-19 https://globalnutritionreport.org/reports/2020-global-nutrition-report/2020-global-nutrition-report-context-covid-19/ (highlights the need to build a food system that makes healthy and sustainable food affordable) (23.09.2020).
• Helping policymakers make decisions to transform their food systems for healthy diets, Nutrition Connect https://nutritionconnect.org/resource-center/blog-42-no-regrets-no-excuses-helping-policymakers-make-decisions-transform-their (Corinna Hawkes, Stephanie Walton, Lawrence Haddad and Jessica Fanzo report on their No Regrets project, which will identify a short list of food systems actions for policy makers) (26.09.2020).
  
• Covid-19 has exposed the world’s fragile, complex food supply chains, Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/65ad7504-b7de-4df4-8747-f669a2e541fe (features @Hodmedods and @ProfTimLang; 'the ethics & ecology of what we eat'; Covid19 has highlighted the interconnection between planetary and human health (one health!)) (26.09.2020).
  

Covid-19 expert database, including responses re. food

• Business, trade and COVID-19: What are experts concerned about? [50 concerns listed re food] https://post.parliament.uk/horizon-scanning/business-trade-and-covid-19-what-are-experts-concerned-about/ (accessed 16.05.2020).

Food policy co-ordination

• Two useful resources by Kelly Parsons, Rosalind Sharpe and Corinna Hawkes at Food Research Collaboration https://foodresearch.org.uk/publications/who-makes-food-policy-in-england-and-food-policy-coordination-under-covid19/ (05.05.2020): a Guidance Note on why the government’s response to the Covid-19 food crisis needs to be better coordinated; and the detailed report it is based on, Who makes food policy in England?
• Food Secure Canada has produced a food policy action plan in response to COVID-19, centred around resilience and equity https://foodsecurecanada.org/2020-growing-resilience-equity (30.05.2020).

Mapping unhealthy food commodity industry responses

• This is a mapping tool created by the NCD alliance to track how business are responding to COVID-19 and impacts on non-communicable disease https://ncdalliance.org/news-events/news/help-map-unhealthy-commodity-industries-responses-to-covid-19. In particular they track how COVID-19 may be used opportunistically by some food manufacturers/suppliers who promote unhealthy foods. Thanks to Dave Watson for sharing this (accessed: 09.05.2020).

• Signalling Virtue, Promoting Harm - Unhealthy commodity industries and COVID-19, NCD Alliance (@ncdalliance @SPECTRUMRes report; shows the different ways some big food businesses are promoting unhealthy / processed food during COVID-19) https://ncdalliance.org/resources/signalling-virtue-promoting-harm (17.09.2020).
  

• Sustainable Food Places: fantastic list of local food partnerships that are responding to the crisis, including place-based examples and regular updates (accessed 20.04.2020).
• Useful article describing how CSA, box schemes and other short chains are responding to unprecedented demand (accessed 10.04.2020).
• Sustain has put together a useful list of small food businesses selling on-line (national and regional directories) https://www.sustainweb.org/coronavirus/local_food_online/ (not intended to be an exhaustive list) (04.05.2020), plus selling platforms https://www.sustainweb.org/coronavirus/selling_platforms_for__food_orgs/(16.05.2020).
• Open Food Network UL local food producer list (online retail) https://about.openfoodnetwork.org.uk/blog/support-local-producers-by-shopping-online/ (04.05.2020).
• CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Network UK has put together a great set of Covid-19 resources for CSAs, including food-handling guidelines, how to meet increased demand and volunteer labour issues (accessed 11.04.2020).
• CSA article by Civil Eats reports on their growth during Covid-19 and how they were pioneered by black farmers in southern US states in the 1960s and 1970s https://civileats.com/2020/04/09/community-supported-agriculture-is-surging-amid-the-pandemic/ (14.06.2020).
• Land Workers’ Alliance (resources) (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• The Loans for Enlightened Agriculture Programme (LEAP) has launched an Emergency Small Loans Programme to help support the community food sector (10.04.2020).
• Useful article about Covid-19 and the local abattoir sector, who are critical for local meat chains (10.04.2020), plus a useful list of five websites / platforms that are helping to link local food producers with markets/consumers https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/resources-to-support-sustainable-food-during-the-lockdown/ (accessed: 22.04.2020).
• Guardian article reporting individual and community grassroots responses to address food access uncertainty in supermarkets (accessed: 11.04.2020).
• Article on meat and veg vending machines (farm shop in Aberdeenshire) (20.04.2020).
• See also past CCRI work for ‘Local Food’ and CPRE food from the ‘Urban Fringe’  (14.03.2020).
• New Food Foundation report on veg. boxes schemes in the UK https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Food-Foundation-COVID-19-Veg-Box-Scheme-report.pdf, showing significant increases in demand and how schemes have adapted to sell to priority and vulnerable groups (05.05.2020); see also a summary of the main findings in this blog https://foodfoundation.org.uk/fruit_and_veg_affect/new-food-foundation-data-veg-box-sales-increase-by-111-in-six-weeks-as-a-result-of-covid-19/ (16.05.2020).
• Blog by Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins on local food and Covid-19 https://wiserd.ac.uk/news/could-local-food-fill-our-supermarket-shelves, reminding us that local is 'sticky' and no simple solution (accessed 09.05.2020).
• This blog by Matt Reed and Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins discusses Covid19 and lessons for relocalising food chains (see also their blog for this webpage) https://www.bevanfoundation.org/commentary/can-localising-food-tackle-inequalities/ (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Sustainable Trust guides to 'growing your own' http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/guides-to-growing-your-own-we-review-our-favourite-books/ (09.05.2020).
• Selling milk from the farm (direct, short chains) http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/milk-fresh-from-the-farm/ (23.05.2020).
• Blog by Jan Vávra about agriculture, food growing and gardening in the Czech Republic https://timesofcovid19.temporalities.no/2020/04/22/sketches-of-food-agriculture-gardening-and-sustainability-in-the-times-of-covid-19-jan-vavra/ (accessed: 23.05.2020).
• Local food and food gardening, Edible Gardens project, Australia https://urbanagscientist.com/2020/05/19/a-more-locally-connected-resilient-and-tasty-australia-future-how-to-support-all-these-newly-enthused-food-gardeners/ (accessed: 23.05.2020).
• This blog captures what it is like for local food grower Better Food Shed during Covid-19 - they supply box schemes in London (supply challenges noted, esp labour)  https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/may20_farming_through_a_pandemic/ (23.05.2020).
• Indepedent meat processors (abattoirs) in the US (local food chain infrastructure). https://civileats.com/2020/05/19/as-covid-19-disrupts-the-industrial-meat-system-independent-processors-have-a-moment-to-shine/ (23.05.2020); see also this piece about how hog farmers in the midwest have started to sell online and informally https://civileats.com/2020/06/08/struggling-farmers-are-selling-midwest-hogs-ad-hoc-and-online/amp/?__twitter_impression=true (14.06.2020).
• Civil Eats piece from the US argues funds provided to support farmers during the crisis won't benefit small farmers or farmers selling direct to consumers https://civileats.com/2020/06/01/millions-of-dollars-heading-to-farmers-but-small-farms-wont-see-much-of-it/ (06.06.2020).
• Roundtable: The role of local food in future food and farming systems (Vicki Hird - Sustain, Pam Warhurst - Incredible Edible, Peter Segger - Blaencamel Farm) https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/roundtable-the-role-of-local-food-in-future-food-and-farming-systems/(06.06.2020).
• Veg box sales increased by 3000% for veg box companies in Scotland https://www.thenational.scot/news/18485299.veg-box-market-booms-3000-scots-source-locally-grown-produce/?ref=twtrec (06.06.2020).
• Useful overview and links to local food partnerships in the UK, including case studies and examples https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/coronavirus/ (06.06.2020).
• Getting recognition and support for local food partnerships (letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick) https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/news/national_media_release_day_of_action_jun20/ (11.06.2020).
• COVID-19: Local Food System Resources, Montgomery County Food Council https://mocofoodcouncil.org/covid-19-local-food-system-resources/(13.06.2020).
• Interesting article by historian David Edgerton about 'autarky' (more generally but obvious links to local food self-sufficiency) https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/06/new-age-autarky (13.06.2020).
• Online farmers' markets: Good Food Exeter https://goodfoodexeter.co.uk/buy/ (14.06.2020).
• Farm to tablet (how farmers and consumers in Florida are using the internet to sell/buy food) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/sunday/farmers-florida-coronavirus.html (14.06.2020).
• The Civil Eats website has articles re. farmers' markets in the US (how to keep them open, supported, etc.), plus analysis of food hubs, food co-ops and civic networks. Great coverage of Covid-19 and food systems in the US https://civileats.com/ (14.06.2020).
• Building local food system resilience https://localtrust.org.uk/news-and-stories/blog/how-can-we-build-resilient-food-systems-in-the-covid-19-recovery/ (20.06.2020).
• Need to save farmers' markets (Civil Eats) https://civileats.com/2020/05/29/op-ed-we-must-save-farmers-markets/ (20.06.2020).
• Examples of how farmers' markets in the US are responding to Covid-19 and racial protests  https://foodprint.org/blog/farmers-markets-challenges/ (27.06.2020).
• The value of local - Sustainable Food Trust http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/the-value-of-local/ (28.06.2020).
• Community Supported Agriculture is a Safe and Resilient Alternative to Industrial Agriculture in the Time of Covid-19, International Network URGENCI, 7^th April, 2020 http://urgenci.net/community-supported-agriculture-is-a-safe-and-resilient-alternative-to-industrial-agriculture-in-the-time-of-covid-19/?(accessed: 28.06.2020).
• Community Supported Agriculture is surging in the US amid the Pandemic, Civil Eats https://civileats.com/2020/04/09/community-supported-agriculture-is-surging-amid-the-pandemic/(accessed: 13.07.2020).
• Fighting for the Forgotten Keystone of Local Food – the Abattoir https://pipersfarm.com/blogs/journal/fighting-for-the-forgotten-keystone-of-local-food-the-abattoir (04.07.2020).
• Digitising the Solidarity Economy – Desira (case study of Open Food Network) http://desira2020.eu/2020/04/30/article-digitising-the-solidarity-economy/ (04.07.2020).
• Wicked Leeks blog, Nina Pullman. Survey of 102 small food businesses in London shows their adaptability during the crisis, but need to support local food post-Covid too! https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/news/local-sourcing-ethical-business/support-local-food-after-covid-shoppers-urged (04.07.2020).
• Covid-19 Consumer Tracker Waves 1 and 2 (FSA and Ipsos) (Covid-19 has changed how consumers access food; reports continued trend towards more localised food purchasing behaviours) https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/covid-19-consumer-tracker-report.pdf (08.07.2020).
• Farmers' markets in the US (adapting to the new normal and financial challenges) https://foodprint.org/blog/farmers-markets-challenges/ (27.07.2020).
• Interesting Civil Eats article about farmers' markets in the US and the difficulties they are facing. In a Farmers' Market Coalition member survey, still to be published, 74% of the organisations that responded reported decreased income; 93% reported added costs https://civileats.com/2020/05/29/op-ed-we-must-save-farmers-markets/ (05.08.2020).
• Wicked Leeks article about the spike in demand for allotments and interest in home grown food https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/news/local-sourcing-grow-your-own/coronavirus-causes-spike-demand-allotments (12.08.2020).
• Resilience of local food systems and links to food security – A review of some important concepts in the context of COVID-19 and other shocks. New paper in Food Security (part of C-19 special issue) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-020-01076-1 (14.08.2020). 
• Covid highlights value of locally-produced food, FarmingUK News (comments from Alistair Trail, SAC Consulting) https://www.farminguk.com/news/covid-highlights-value-of-locally-produced-food-expert-says_56349.html (22.08.2020).
• How coronavirus has led to a UK boom in community food growing, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/24/how-coronavirus-has-led-to-a-uk-boom-in-community-food-growing (Covid-19, community food growing and the accessibility of nutritious food) (25.08.2020).
• Replanting a Movement: Dan Barber’s Kitchen Farming Project https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/dan-barber-kitchen-farming-project; see also https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/15/multimedia/kitchen-garden-chefs.html (3,600 chefs have joined the project; the idea is chefs sign up and get step-by-step recipes to start their own garden) (17.09.2020).
• Public sector caterers urge PM to support ‘buy British’ efforts, Public Sector Catering https://www.publicsectorcatering.co.uk/news/public-sector-caterers-urge-pm-support-buy-british-efforts (19.09.2020).
  
• ‘Magic pop-up allotment’ at CoFarm offers community food security  https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/business/magic-pop-up-allotment-at-cofarm-offers-community-food-security-9121920/ (community land, horticulture, food banks, community food security) (21.09.2020).
• Interest in foraging is booming during the COVID-19 pandemic, Civil Eats https://civileats.com/2020/07/09/interest-in-foraging-is-booming-heres-how-to-do-it-right/ (best practice advice re. gathering wild foods; US examples) (21.09.2020).
• Riverford box scheme (article covers their much-deserved certification as an ethical B Corp - well done! - but useful figures at the end too re. customer numbers during the pandemic) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/21/organic-vegetable-box-firm-riverford-certified-as-an-ethical-b-corp (22.09.2020).

Shortening supply chains (regional resilience) and online platforms

• Useful Soil Association report about shortening food chains to build regional resilience post-Covid-19 https://www.soilassociation.org/shortening-supply-chains-roads-to-regional-resilience/ (06.06.2020).
• This manifesto, from the Dynamic Food Procurement National Advisory Board, also sets out useful ways forward re. post-Covid-19 economic recovery http://ad555873-f343-4a7c-b674-b0e4792f5f9a.filesusr.com/ugd/6b24d7_a54481998a1c4b45bbd44542515b592e.pdf (06.06.2020).
• Anna Krzywoszynska (Institute for Sustainable Food) explains why more local food supplies could prevent empty shelves after the pandemic (food system resilience) and introduces a new project which will study the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on local food producers https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sustainable-food/news/more-local-food-supplies-could-prevent-empty-shelves-after-pandemic-say-experts (20.06.2020).
• Blog by Anna Krzywoszynska (Institute for Sustainable Food): Will local food producers keep feeding us beyond Covid-19? Key message: we need to build functional diversity in food systems https://blog.geographydirections.com/2020/07/01/will-local-food-producers-keep-feeding-us-beyond-covid-19/ (04.07.2020).
• Interesting article about the foundational economy (new place-based approach), featuring Kevin Morgan (Cardiff) https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/innovation/2020/07/03/the-post-pandemic-world-must-be-fairer-and-more-sustainable/ (06.07.2020).
• Farm-to-table during a pandemic, The Washington Post [hopefully the link is accessible and not behind a paywall for folks] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/09/farms-fruit-california/ (13.07.2020).
  
• Resilient supply chains and changing business models. Y Felin Mill in Pembrokeshire (source grain from British farms and have adapted their business to supply directly) (featured on FFCC 'The Road To Renewal' website) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqAuKGyjClA&feature=youtu.be (20.07.2020).
• The pandemic could actually strengthen the U.S. food system, National Geographic (interesting article re. flexiblity of small and medium-sized farms and reflective critique re. food security and regional food resilience) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/07/pandemic-could-strengthen-us-food-system/ (22.07.2020).
• Local slaughterhouses struggle to keep ethical farming in the UK alive  https://www.dw.com/en/meat-production-coronavirus-farming-cattle/a-54381190 (COVID reinforces the need for small-scale abattoirs; local supply chain infrastructure) (01.09.2020).
• See also this Farmers Guardian article https://www.fginsight.com/news/news/coronavirus-pandemic-could-aid-small-abattoirs-111657 (small multi-species abattoir near Norwich; argues 'Covid-19  has brought about a change in the dynamic of the food supply chain which may offer a lifeline to smaller abattoirs') (thanks @GarethEnticott for sharing) (01.09.2020).
• South West Food Hub. New online platform (pilot) for public sector procurement https://www.thesouthwestfoodhub.co.uk/ (25.07.2020).
• Dynamic purchasing (public procurement): FCRN blog by Matt Reed, Dan Keech and myself on work we are leading in Gloucestershire to link dynamic purchasing to the new iteration of the school food contract (post-Covid economic recovery model, esp. for smaller-scale farmers int he county) https://fcrn.org.uk/fcrn-blogs/creating-new-opportunities-small-farmers-through-dynamic-purchasing (12.08.2020).
• How COVID-19 could forever change the way Ontarians buy food, TVO.org (many small farms started selling online and direct to consumers; Covid was a final push to start using online platforms) https://www.tvo.org/article/how-covid-19-could-forever-change-the-way-ontarians-buy-food (14.08.2020).
  
• This article by @JenSheridan on the Open Food Network in Australia (how it started and Covid-19 impacts: 'existing Open Food Network shops’ turnover increased threefold, sign-ups increased tenfold, and turnover through the platform overall increased tenfold across our local and global networks') https://www.dumbofeather.com/articles/the-open-food-network/ (28.08.2020).
• Coping with Covid19 - the Open Food Network and the New Digital Order(s), ARC 2020 (useful overview of Open Food Network's digital platform, which gets small producers to market (different models)) https://www.arc2020.eu/coping-with-covid19-open-food-network-and-new-digital-orders/ (19.09.2020).
• COVID-19 and the role of local food production in building more resilient local food systems, FAO http://www.fao.org/3/cb1020en/CB1020EN.pdf ('In particular, promoting local food production and short supply chains to help build more resilient and sustainable local food systems was mentioned frequently by respondents') (22.09.2020).

A more critical relocalisation perspective

• Interesting article from Jayson Lusk (agricultural economist) on the short food chain / relocalisation food system response, reminding us not to see these responses as a panacea to problems that might be more systemic [that's what i take from it anyway!] http://jaysonlusk.com/blog/2020/5/12/ruminations-on-solutions-to-the-covid-related-food-disruptions (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Plaid Cymru's 'buy local' campaign to boost farmers https://www.farminguk.com/news/plaid-cymru-s-buy-local-campaign-to-boost-farmers_55691.html (accessed 23.05.2020).
  
• Re-setting food systems in Wales (food democracy via local authorities and community groups) https://foodmanifesto.wales/2020/06/18/how-local-authorities-and-community-groups-can-re-set-the-food-system/ (20.06.2020).
• Blog by Martin Yarnit about food hubs (US) and cooperatives (Italy) as future business models for British horticulture (part of FFCC blog series on Britain's horticulture sector) https://ffcc.co.uk/conversations/lets-grow-our-own-1 (24.07.2020).

Agroecology

• FAO has created an Agroecology Knowledge Hub, including several articles related to local and urban food networks http://www.fao.org/agroecology/slideshow/news-article/en/c/1268856/ (accessed: 09.05.2020).
• This blog by Joanna Lewis (Soil Association) argues agroecology should be a priority for UK food security post-Covid http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/iprblog/2020/05/01/coronavirus-caught-our-food-system-on-the-back-foot-but-lets-not-take-a-backward-step/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=social_organic&utm_campaign=news_proactive&utm_content=jo_lewis_ipr_blog (accessed 09.05.2020).
• Organic food sales increase reported https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2020/05/06/Organic-food-gets-coronavirus-boost (09.05.2020).
• An interview with Simon Crichton, Triodos Bank, re. financing agroecological businesses for a fairer (post-Covid) food system https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/may20_finance_fairer_food/ (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Regenerative agriculture in the pandemic (Stemple Creek Ranch) https://civileats.com/2020/06/16/civil-eats-tv-regenerative-ranching-in-a-pandemic/ (20.06.2020).
• Back to the future, Wicked Leeks interview with Carolyn Steel about her new book, Sitopia, and her post-Covid-19 organic food vision https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/big-interview-environment-ethics-organics-price/back-future (18.07.2020).
• UK organic food and drink sales boom during lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/03/uk-organic-food-and-drink-sales-boom-during-lockdown (organic food and drink sales grew by 6.1%; growth reaches highest rate since 2016; high demand for organic bananas, chicken, eggs and wine) (03.09.2020).

• UK food surplus charity (Fair Share) given 360 tonnes more than usual as food service businesses close (accessed: 10.04.2020).
• WARP is trying to develop new ways to significantly increase surplus food redistribution (accessed: 10.04.2020).
• Data from WRAP re citizens and food during lockdown https://wrap.org.uk/content/citizens-and-food-covid-19-lockdown (23.05.2020). Reports a 34% drop in how much food households throw away, plus more food planning and creative cooking. A positive silver lining (amidst the mostly gloomy news).
• Food sharing during Covid-19, report from Philadelphia https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-05-17/food-sharing-during-covid-19-video (23.05.2020).
• UK takeaway food waste rises during coronavirus lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/13/uk-takeaway-food-waste-rises-during-coronavirus-lockdown (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• The oil crash has created a plastic recycling trap https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/goodbye-waste-free-future-the-oil-crash-has-created-a-plastic-recycling-trap-20200507-p54qkb.html (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Useful circular economy article on 'building a healthy and resilient food system - A circular economy for food in a post-Covid-19 world' https://medium.com/circulatenews/building-a-healthy-and-resilient-food-system-352195694118 (11.06.2020); see also: 'the Covid-19 recovery requires a resilient circular economy' https://medium.com/circulatenews/the-covid-19-recovery-requires-a-resilient-circular-economy-e385a3690037 (11.06.2020).
• FarmLink: grassroots initiative in the US which reduces food waste, pays the farmers (using donations) and distributes the food to nearby food banks (great initiative!) https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/10/extra-food-is-rotting-farms-while-americans-go-hungry-this-group-is-trying-fix-that/ (20.06.2020).
• Reality bites: how the pandemic changed the way we eat, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/04/reality-bites-how-the-pandemic-changed-the-way-we-eat (06.07.2020).
• COVID-19 has resurrected single-use plastics - are they back to stay?, The Conversation https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-resurrected-single-use-plastics-are-they-back-to-stay-140328 (14.07.2020).
• Food waste increases in UK as coronavirus restrictions ease, The Guardian (reporting data from WRAP survey, which in April 2020 found a reduction in waste but gains are reversing as lockdown eases according to their June survey, but figures are still above pre-lockdown levels) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/29/food-waste-increases-in-uk-as-coronavirus-restrictions-ease (01.08.2020).
  
• Circular Online article also reports on the WRAP food waste findings https://www.circularonline.co.uk/news/as-lockdown-eases-signs-of-food-wasted-in-uk-homes-increasing-wrap/ (notes self-reported waste increased by 30% compared to the early stages of lockdown; however, as noted above too, self-reported waste remains significantly below pre-lockdown levels) (12.08.2020).
• Startup in San Francisco (Full Harvest) matches farmers with distributors (via on-line market). During Covid-19 they linked farmers (who needed to sell crops no longer wanted by buyers) with organisations that provide food boxes to food insecure in Oakland and New York City https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-08-13/fixing-the-covid-food-disaster-can-slash-climate-emissions (25.08.2020).
• Tesco asks shoppers to weigh their food bins to help cut waste, The Guardian (project by Tesco and Hubbub initiated on the back of data which suggests consumers are valuing food more; 'polling of about 2,000 adults for Tesco found that 67% now felt differently about food... (29%) said the pandemic had made them value food more') https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/05/tesco-asks-shoppers-to-weigh-their-food-bins-to-help-cut-waste (06.09.2020).
  
• Social eating: inside the supermarket surplus initiatives that could change the way we eat https://theconversation.com/social-eating-inside-the-supermarket-surplus-initiatives-that-could-change-the-way-we-eat-142613 (10.09.2020).
• Blog outlining ideas on how to accelerate a circular food system https://www.greenbiz.com/article/3-ways-accelerate-circular-food-system-even-middle-pandemic (working with growers at farm-level to prevent food waste; importance of local food systems; emerging technology) (15.09.2020).
  
• Tesco to work with sharing app Olio in bid to drive down food waste, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/17/tesco-to-work-with-sharing-app-olio-in-bid-to-drive-down-food-waste (initiative is in part in response to criticism supermarkets have faced of wasting edible food during COVID-19, when food banks are dealing with unprecedented demand)(17.09.2020).
  

• AHDB Market Impact - Markets and Prices (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• Excellent AHDB podcast on how Covid-19 is impacting UK dairy markets https://audioboom.com/posts/7569431-covid-19-special-the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-dairy-industry (04.05.2020); differential impact between retail and food service sales.
• FAO has useful tools to support policy analyses and assess COVID-19 impacts on food and agriculture, value chains and food security, including real-time data analysis of food chain and food price impacts http://www.fao.org/2019-ncov/en/(29.04.2020); plus this big data tool on food chain impacts https://datalab.review.fao.org/index.html#.XsJbNZRZCW8.twitter (23.05.2020).
• IFPRI has great resources to track production and stocks of key crops at global and country levels https://www.ifpri.org/covid-19, plus food price and food trade tracker tools (09.05.2020).
• IFPRI has also created a COVID-19 Policy Response Portal which captures policy responses through multiple channels, including population restrictions, social protection, trade, health, fiscal, and monetary measures. Different channels impact agri-food systems (data at country level) https://www.ifpri.org/project/covid-19-policy-response-cpr-portal (06.06.2020).
• Short-term Agricultural Outlook report. Suggests Covid-19 is a demand rather than a supply shock, with European ag. sectors resilient to the crisis and food service re-opening likely to make a big difference https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/short-term-outlook-good-production-prospects-many-agricultural-sectors-overall-sector-should-benefit-reopening-foodservice-2020-jul-06_en (06.07.2020).
• OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2020-2029 ( report provides market projections for major agricultural commodities & an initial scenario analysis on the impact of the #COVID19 pandemic on the food & agriculture) https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/agriculture-and-food/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2020-2029_1112c23b-en (18.07.2020).
• FAO has launched a new Hand-in-Hand geospatial data platform to help build stronger food and agriculture sectors post COVID-19 http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1298766/icode/?platform=hootsuite; you can access the platform via this link https://data.apps.fao.org/ (great resource) (22.07.2020).
• USDA retail prices data (June 2020 compared with June 2019). Shows price impact of COVID-19 on food items at the retail level. Most categories impacted, especially beef https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=99014 (thanks @GarethEnticott) (30.07.2020).
  
• FRED Graph shows how COVID-19 affects food prices in the US https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=uBgX&utm_campaign=myfred_referrer&utm_medium=exported-chart&utm_source=direct (food is more expensive for consumers; producers get paid less) (thanks @wamasters for sharing) (24.08.2020).

Food system organisations

• Sustain (the alliance for better food and farming). This link includes a range of case studies and responses to the crisis e.g. guidelines to help keep food markets open, case studies to support vulnerable groups and ways we can support the fishing fleet. If you are on Twitter, follow Vicki Hird and Kate Dalmeny.
• Food Ethics Council. They are compiling great material too, including a #FridayFoodChampions award for food citizenship responses to Covid-19 (@FoodEthicsNews), plus this article about ‘ethics in our food response to Covid-19’ (accessed: 11.04.2020) and their #FoodTalks https://www.foodethicscouncil.org/resource/foodtalks-from-emergency-to-recovery/ (04.05.2020). If you are on Twitter, follow Dan Crossley.
• Sustainable Food Trust. They have produced some interesting articles on Covid-19. I have included some specific ones below re small and local food businesses, but you can find them all here (11.04.2020).
• Sustainable Food Places. Collating material on local food responses (see also the 'local food networks' theme), as well as tracking food insecurity and business impacts: see this page (accessed 20.04.2020); see also this link to their COVID-19 podcast series https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/sustainable-places/research/sustainable-places-podcast (28.06.2020).
• The Food Foundation. Articles tracking Covid-19 food system impacts, particularly impacts on food prices and food accessibility and survey data on household food security, see this page (11.04.2020).
• N8 Agrifood. Compiled a list of international organisations dealing with the crisis, plus key news items (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• Institute of Food Science and Technology. IFST has created a COVID-19 knowledge hub https://www.ifst.org/resources-policy/covid-19-knowledge-hub (accessed: 29.04.2020), with key resources and links on consumption, food education and SME operations.
• Food Climate Research Network. Lots of useful material on sustainable food systems https://fcrn.org.uk/. Their newsletter (Fodder) features interesting Covid-19 articles. They have also put together a list of COVID-19 food system resources (blogs, papers, etc.) https://fcrn.org.uk/research-library/covid-19-and-food-list (14.06.2020).
• Food Research Collaboration. Useful working papers on food policy co-ordination https://foodresearch.org.uk/publications/who-makes-food-policy-in-england-and-food-policy-coordination-under-covid19/, including the different organisations in England involved in food governance (and the need for coordination) (05.05.2020).

Food, farming and the rural economy

• NFU. Coronavirus up-dates and advice page (20.04.2020).
• AHDB. Useful material on markets, plus farmer and grower guidance (general/sector) (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• RSA Food and Farming Countryside Commission. Tracking impact of the virus on farming, food and rural communities. Coordinating a ‘road to renewal’ response and evidence gathering https://roadtorenewal.co.uk/ (20.07.2020). Article by Tom MacMillan explains what they are planning (accessed: 11.04.2020). If you are on Twitter, follow Sue Pritchard. In this link, you can find FFCC's 'learning from the lockdown' survey findings https://www.ffcc.co.uk/lockdown-survey (06.06.2020). Shows 80% of respondents wanted most things to be different in the recovery. None wanted everything to go back to how it was before.
• Centre for Rural Economy has produced an excellent briefing paper on Covid-19 impacts on rural economies, including agriculture (accessed: 20.04.2020).
• Rural Policy Group: Running a series of virtual seminars on the rural economy and Covid19  https://ruralpolicy.group/red(16.05.2020).
• Centre for Rural Policy Research, University of Exeter: What is the impact of COVID-19 on the food system of the UK?(UKRI-ESRC project on the management of the disruptive social and economic impacts of COVID-19 on the UK’s food supply chain) http://sites.exeter.ac.uk/foodsystemimpactscv19/(26.09.2020).

National Food Strategy

• National Food Strategy - Part One (great to see this out; at a glance it looks excellent; major focus is children's health (and related obesity and food poverty), which are emergency issues highlighted and accentuated by Covid-19; plus trade (post-Brexit standards)) https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/partone/ (29.07.2020).
• National Food Strategy - Part One - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2YdpXrdOzQ (29.07.2020).

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee

• EFRA Select Committee Inquiry: COVID-19 and food supply https://committees.parliament.uk/work/217/covid19-and-food-supply/ (24.04.2020).
• This is the video link to the first EFRA Committee meeting for COVID-19 and food supply, 05.05.2020: https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/cbf5c316-5053-48d4-a0f9-be8e82bea32c. Witnesses: Minette Batters, President, National Farmers' Union; Tom Hind, Chief Strategy Officer, Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board; Jack Ward, Chief Executive Officer, British Growers Association (accessed: 06.05.2020).
• The second EFRA COVID-19 and food supply public evidence session took place on 15.05.2020. The session covered "how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the ability of vulnerable people to get sufficient healthy food, and the impact on charities such as food banks who help people facing food insecurity". See also the food security UK thread.
• You can access the oral and written evidence submitted to the inquiry via this link https://committees.parliament.uk/work/217/covid19-and-food-supply/publications/ (accessed 23.05.2020).
• EFRA Committee’s COVID-19 and Food Supply Report (Covid-19 exacerbated food insecurity for millions of people; calls for a mechanism within central government to co-ordinate policy across departments on food supply, nutrition and welfare) https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/52/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/147628/covid-19-and-food-supply-report-published-19-21/; here's an interactive summary of the report https://houseofcommons.shorthandstories.com/EFRA-covid19-food-supply/index.html (30.07.2020).

Food, Poverty, Health and the Environment Committee

• Session with Henry Dimbleby, Tuesday 10 March 2020. Before the UK lockdown but useful food system context. Reviews the current food system and changes needed to address diet and health inequalities https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/3dcb8ee0-9a59-4877-ad9a-9d2c8134da34 (07.07.2020).
• Committee on Food, Poverty, Health and the Environment report - argues the UK’s food system is failing and calls for Government action to reduce health inequalities https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/food-pov-health-enviro-comm/news-parliament-2019/report-publication/(08.07.2020).

Covid-19 research project tracker

• UKCDR & GloPID-R COVID-19 research project tracker - shows projects funded  / research gaps (thanks to Isabel Fielden for the link) https://www.ukcdr.org.uk/funding-landscape/covid-19-research-project-tracker/?utm_source=UK+Collaborative+on+Development+Research+List&utm_campaign=2329b876e1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_06_09_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ebeb154498-2329b876e1-1285497654 (20.07.2020).
  

Food in the time of lockdown

• Cool project led by the University of Chester (Dept of Music, Media and Performance) called 'Food in the time of lockdown (FINTOL)'. Aims to be a 'gathering point for all of the food-related stories, films and images that people have written or captured for posterity' https://foodinthetimeoflockdown.co.uk/ (29.07.2020).
  

• AHDB Weekly updates on agricultural commodities and price evolution. Weekly analysis of markets and the processing sector.
• Potato mountains and rotten cheese (Europe) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-52715288/coronavirus-leads-to-food-industry-crisis-in-europe (23.05.2020).

Meat & food processing plants (US, UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Brazil)

US:

• Financial Times article on Trump's executive order to keep meat processing plants open in the US https://www.ft.com/content/2c7e1a34-2cd7-4b80-ae2d-a8549f565423  and here too on slaughterhouse shutdowns in the US https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/29/millions-of-farm-animals-culled-as-us-food-supply-chain-chokes-up-coronavirus (both accessed 04.05.2020).
• Excellent overview of the Smitfield outbreak (pork plant) in South Dakota in April 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52311877 (accessed 20.06.2020).
• This article in The Economist https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/04/30/in-america-the-virus-threatens-a-meat-industry-that-is-too-concentrated argues meat processing in the US is too concentrated (thanks Théo Lenormand for the link) (06.05.2020).
• The Economist reports a surge in meat prices in the US because of Covid-19  https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/05/13/the-spread-of-covid-has-caused-a-surge-in-american-meat-prices?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/dailychartthespreadofcovidhascausedasurgeinamericanmeatpricesgraphicdetail(accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Mapping Covid-19 in meat and food processing plants in the US https://thefern.org/2020/04/mapping-covid-19-in-meat-and-food-processing-plants/ (thanks to Gareth Enticott for this and the previous link) (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• COVID-19 has infected 3000+ US meat packing workers (data from United Food and Commercial Workers International Union) https://thepoultrysite.com/news/2020/05/covid-19-has-infected-more-than-3-000-us-meat-plant-workers (30.05.2020).
• A summary of COVID-19 in the meatpacking industry - using URLs from NodeXL Graph Gallery reports (thanks Gareth Enticott for the link) https://wakelet.com/wake/_AGj4_s-vwBbbm4nArZDs; and here's the BMJ piece (summarising the twitter analysis) https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/29/learning-about-covid-19-outbreaks-from-non-viral-tweets/ (both accessed 30.05.2020).
• Critical analysis of the mismanagement of the pandemic in Iowa meatpackers, Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/28/springtime-fear-small-meatpacking-town/ (30.05.2020).
• Bloomberg article reports on outbreaks in 60 food processing plants beyond meat packing in the US, with workers exposed to avoidable risks https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-09/outbreaks-at-60-u-s-food-plants-raise-specter-of-more-shortages (11.06.2020); see also this USA Today piece reporting a rise in Covid cases as meatpacking plants increase production after Trump declared meat processing an essential operation https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/06/06/meatpacking-plants-cant-shake-covid-19-cases-despite-trump-order/3137400001/ (14.06.2020).
• COVID-19 and meat (items of interest, Marion Nestle blog) https://www.foodpolitics.com/2020/06/keeping-up-with-covid-19-and-meat-items-of-interest/ (28.06.2020).
• Tyson Turns to Robot Butchers (due to Covid-19 meatpackers’ are shifting from human meat cutters to automated one; however, 'machines can’t yet match people’s ability') https://www.wsj.com/articles/meatpackers-covid-safety-automation-robots-coronavirus-11594303535(10.07.2020).
• C-19 outbreak at Iowa meatpacking plant (Tyson Foods pork processing plant, Columbus Junction) was larger than reported by the state (1000+ positive cases not 444) https://apnews.com/85a02d9296053980ea47eba97f920707 (23.07.2020).
• This ProPublica article reviews documents and reports dating to 2006, where government officials predicted that a pandemic would threaten meatpacking companies (and other critical businesses) and warned them to prepare; the warnings were largely ignored https://www.propublica.org/article/meatpacking-companies-dismissed-years-of-warnings-but-now-say-nobody-could-have-prepared-for-covid-19 (22.08.2020).

UK:

• Coronavirus outbreak (just under 100 workers tested positive) at two food processors in Wales (chicken) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53091149 (20.06.2020).
• Article about Asda's Kober Ltd meat processing plant in West Yorkshire - useful material on worker conditions https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/coronavirus-covid-19-asda-kober-cleckheaton-meat-factory-processing-plant-cases-safety-452466?ito=twitter_share_article-top (27.06.2020).
• Workers at 2 Sisters tell of fear and terror at coronavirus struck factory - Wales Online  https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/coronavirus-chicken-factory-anglesey-wales-18469347(28.06.2020).
• What explains the high rate of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in meat and poultry facilities? (analysis of meat and poultry processing facilities in different countries; shows influence of the working environment, plus a low-paid workforce, who may be under pressure to keep working) https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/what-explains-the-high-rate-of-sars-cov-2-transmission-in-meat-and-poultry-facilities-2/
• See this paper also (thanks to Gareth Enticott for the link) using Twitter analytics to review scientific evidence on the link between meat and poultry facilities and covid-19 clusters https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/29/learning-about-covid-19-outbreaks-from-non-viral-tweets/ (20.06.2020); the analysis shows "the complex public health problems faced by meatpackers, both before and during the covid-19 pandemic".
• Coronavirus cases at Merthyr meat plant leap by 101 after weekend testing https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-cases-merthyr-meat-plant-18507667?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar (accessed: 04.07.2020).
• Inside a UK meat processing plant (chicken) hit by coronavirus outbreak where workers can't afford time off sick https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/inside-uk-meat-processing-plant-22292920 (04.07.2020).
• British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) report offers solutions to workforce challenges and is calling on the Home Office to include Butchers on the Shortage Occupation List https://britishmeatindustry.org/industry-news/new-bmpa-report-offers-solutions-to-workforce-challenges/ (04.07.2020).
• Hundreds self-isolate after Norfolk poultry plant outbreak (350+ staff and households affected) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/27/covid-hundreds-self-isolate-after-norfolk-poultry-plant-outbreak?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other (thanks @GarethEnticott) (27.08.2020).

Germany, France, the Netherlands:

• This article on outbreaks of Covid-19 in meat processing factors in Germany is interesting. Similar to reports in the US (see above) it highlights wider structural and ethical questions about the labour conditions and the safety of workers https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/22/exploitative-conditions-germany-to-reform-meat-industry-after-spate-of-covid-19-cases (23.05.2020).
• This article also covers outbreaks of Covid-19 in German meatpackers (thanks to Gareth Enticott for the link) https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-breaks-out-in-third-german-slaughterhouse/a-53389860 (23.05.2020).
• This article suggests the ventilation system played a major role in the spread of Covid-19 amongst employees at the German pig slaughterhouse Tönnies https://www.pigprogress.net/Finishers/Articles/2020/6/Covid-19-German-meatpackers-improve-hiring-procedures-603063E/ (27.06.2020).
• Meat plant must be held to account for Covid-19 outbreak, says German minister | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/22/meat-plant-must-be-held-to-account-covid-19-outbreak-germany (28.06.2020).
• Outbreaks of coronavirus at two abattoirs in France (May 2020) https://www.france24.com/en/20200518-france-hit-by-new-covid-19-outbreaks-in-two-abattoirs (accessed: 20.06.2020).
• China suspends bulk of Dutch pork imports after COVID-19 outbreaks at main slaughterhouses https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-netherlands-pork/china-suspends-bulk-of-dutch-pork-imports-after-covid-19-outbreaks-idUSKBN2411RU (04.07.2020).
• Covid-19 and Meat Processing Plants: An EU-wide response? https://www.arc2020.eu/covid-19-and-meat-processing-plants-an-eu-wide-response/ (10.08.2020).
  

Australia and Brazil:

• Coronavirus clusters at two abattoirs in Melbourne (high-risk worksites) https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/high-risk-worksites-in-spotlight-as-more-outbreaks-hit-abattoirs-hospitals-20200712-p55bbf.html (13.07.2020).
• ‘There's a direct relationship’: Brazil meat plants linked to spread of Covid-19, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/15/brazil-meat-plants-linked-to-spread-of-covid-19 (15.07.2020).
  

Not just meat!

• New outbreak data from @CDPHE shows growth in COVID-19 cases throughout food processing in the US (-140+ new cases at Greeley JBS; + outbreaks at Ft Morgan’s Cargill, Leprino’s cheese plants and new outbreaks at commercial bakeries) https://covid19.colorado.gov/data/outbreak-data [thanks to Melanie DuPuis for this link, via Twitter] (20.06.2020).
• 200 farm workers quarantined in Herefordshire outbreak, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/12/coronavirus-200-farm-workers-quarantined-herefordshire-outbreak ; see also this BBC News article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-53381802#
  (13.07.2020).
• Greencore staff self-isolate after outbreak (sandwich factory for M&S, Northampton; "proactively testing workers") https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-53762233 (14.08.2020); see also: 'Makers of M&S sandwiches faced pay dock if they self-isolated, says union', The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/16/covid-19-ms-sandwich-makers-sick-pay-self-isolated-union (17.08.2020).
• This article reports comments by David Nabarro, a World Health Organization special envoy on Covid-19, that meat and food processing plants in the UK could create a perfect storm for the spread of the virus. Outbreaks at UK food processing plants are increasing (see above), but not on the scale seen in the US, so more hypothetical https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/21/uk-cheap-food-could-fuel-covid-19-spread-says-who-envoy (22.08.2020).

Independent meat processors

• Indepedent meat processors (abattoirs) in the US. Civil Eats piece https://civileats.com/2020/05/19/as-covid-19-disrupts-the-industrial-meat-system-independent-processors-have-a-moment-to-shine/ (23.05.2020).
  
• See also this article on small-scale abattoirs https://www.hcn.org/articles/covid-19-will-covid-19-help-save-small-slaughterhouses (23.05.2020).
• Due to the slaughterhouse crisis caused by COVID-19, some pork producers in the US are slaughtering their own animals (Iowa examples) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/10/us-producers-in-tears-at-having-to-cull-livestock-on-their-farms?CMP=share_btn_tw (11.06.2020).
• Local slaughterhouses struggle to keep ethical farming alive (UK)  https://www.dw.com/en/meat-production-coronavirus-farming-cattle/a-54381190 (COVID reinforces the need for small-scale abattoirs; local supply chain infrastructure) (01.09.2020).
• See also this Farmers Guardian article https://www.fginsight.com/news/news/coronavirus-pandemic-could-aid-small-abattoirs-111657 (small multi-species abattoir near Norwich; argues 'Covid-19  has brought about a change in the dynamic of the food supply chain which may offer a lifeline to smaller abattoirs') (thanks @GarethEnticott for sharing) (01.09.2020).

Supply chain vulnerability and market impacts

• Financial Times piece about the vulnerability of food chains to Covid-19, especially meat processing; other global food networks are more agile; short chains offer greater resilience https://www.ft.com/content/d7a12d18-8313-11ea-b6e9-a94cffd1d9bf (30.05.2020).
• Useful overview of how COVID-19 has impacted food supply and distribution in the U.S., including farm labour, supply chain disruptions and adjustments from food service to retail markets https://civileats.com/2020/04/15/food-distribution-101-what-happens-when-the-food-supply-is-disrupted-by-a-pandemic/ (28.06.2020).
• USDA is considering broader reporting requirements for meatpacking companies as it investigates cattle market fluctuations driven by the coronavirus pandemic and a fire at a major beef plant. The two "black swan" disruptions led to significant spikes in beef prices https://eu.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2020/07/23/usda-report-sheds-light-beef-market-concerns/5496593002/ (24.07.2020).
• Shipping containers and food exports (New Zealand) https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/dairy/view/containers-in-short-supply (short supply is a threat to NZ agri-food exports; cf. 2010 Larry Busch paper - importance of shipping containers to global agri-food https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9523.2010.00511.x ) (thanks @GarethEnticott for sharing)  (01.09.2020).

Concerns about food fraud

• Recent horsemeat seizures has raised concerns about food fraud, with criminal gangs exploiting supply chain vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/23/horsemeat-seized-amid-fears-criminals-exploiting-coronavirus/ (30.05.2020).
• Covid-19 pandemic could give rise to 'new horsemeat scandal' as food industry struggles to meet demand https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/covid-19-pandemic-new-horsemeat-scandal-food-fraud-550309 (18.07.2020).

• Sustainable Food Places webpage has useful resources/articles on how different cities / urban food partnerships in the UK are responding https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/ (accessed: 23.05.2020); see also their day of celebration and action for local food partnerships (10th June 2020) https://mailchi.mp/9be133996c85/sustainable-food-places-newsletter-may-2726972 (30.05.2020); local food partnership example - Leed's local response to Covid-19 https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/news/leeds_local_response_covid19/ (08.08.2020).
• Written from the perspective of feeding cities as energy becomes more scarce Joy Carey’s ‘Who Feeds Bristol’ remains a vital resource for thinking about urban food resilience (14.03.2020).
• This article was published just before the lock-down, and like Joy Carey they estimate the capacity of a large western city (Sheffield) could provide - through urban agriculture - 15% of its own food needs (14.03.2020).
• FAO paper about the importance of urban food systems (their role in the emergency) (20.04.2020); the revised FAO paper examines cities and local government for resilient food systems http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cb0407en/. Survey data and case studies from cities around the world (860 responses; data on disruptions and food system governance; need for shorter chains and local production) (28.07.2020).
• City and city region impacts and responses http://www.fao.org/in-action/food-for-cities-programme/news/covid-19/en/ (04.05.2020); plus this city region food system article by Alison Blay-Palmer and colleagues for RUAF https://ruaf.org/news/city-region-food-systems-to-cope-with-covid-19-and-other-pandemic-emergencies/ (16.05.2020).
• Thoughtful blog by Adrian Ely (STEPS) about links between national food planning and local organisations https://steps-centre.org/blog/food-in-the-time-of-covid-19-how-can-local-action-and-national-coordination-work-together/, drawing on his work with the Brighton and Hove Partnership and the importance of these forms of partnership during the crisis (accessed 09.05.2020).
• This blog gives an overview of Bristol's 'Going for Gold' and other food policies in the wake of Covid-19 https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/going-for-gold-in-the-wake-of-covid-19/?utm_source=SFT+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6d983255c7-Newsletter+214_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bf20bccf24-6d983255c7-105088289 (accessed 23.05.2020).
• Importance of farmland on city edges (analysis from Melbourne, where land on city edge provided important produce during Covid; need to maintain land zoned for farming going forward) https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/planners-say-pandemic-shows-farmland-on-city-fringes-is-crucial-20200505-p54pxs.html (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• This blog, by Sharelle Polack, Braulio Eduardo Morera, Alex Ryan and Laura Platenkamp, argues that city-level governments have a key role to play re. food system governance in the COVID-19 pandemic https://nutritionconnect.org/resource-center/blog-26-urban-governments-have-key-role-play-covid-19-pandemic (30.05.2020).
• Food growing in Dublin: community gardens as a post-Covid-19 sustainable food future (social resilience) https://sharecity.ie/dublins-food-growing-scene-are-community-gardens-a-solution-in-our-covid-19-future/ (06.06.2020).
• Growth in urban gardens in Montreal (veg. donated to community orgs.) https://www.shareable.net/covid-19-pandemic-brings-new-growth-to-montreals-urban-gardens/ (13.06.2020).
• Urban farming in Malawi: positive story about how Covid-19 is boosting the growth of urban farming and backyard farming in Lilongwe https://medium.com/enabling-sustainability/its-a-new-era-for-urban-farming-in-malawi-4d0cccbeb802 (13.06.2020).
• Home gardening in the US https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/food-insecure-americans-are-home-farming-as-covid-wreaks-havoc-on-agricultural-chain (14.06.2020).
• How cities are feeding residents today and building a better tomorrow https://www.c40knowledgehub.org/s/article/Food-and-COVID-19-How-cities-are-feeding-residents-today-and-building-a-better-tomorrow?language=en_US (14.06.2020).
  
• Urban agriculture / backyard food production in the US  as a coronavirus silver lining. Good article, showing how the pandemic has rekindled interest and belief in the value of urban, local and regional food systems (after recent criticisms) https://civileats.com/2020/04/15/the-rebirth-of-urban-ag-is-a-coronavirus-silver-lining/(28.06.2020).
• Food Sharing in the United States: What’s Changed During COVID-19? https://sharecity.ie/food-sharing-in-the-us-whats-changed-during-covid-19/ (04.07.2020).
• Covid-19 and cities: Lessons on maintaining access to good food (cases from New York, Kampala and Quito) https://www.rikolto.org/en/news/covid-19-and-cities-lessons-maintaining-access-good-food (04.07.2020).
• Birmingham's local response to Covid-19 (a local authority and voluntary sector partnership approach) https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/news/birmingham_local_response_to_covid_19_jul20_/ (06.07.2020).
• Covid-19 has led to a surging demand in food banks in Detriot and renewed interest in urban agriculture. A three-year study in the city is evaluating how cover crops, compost and tillage can improve land. Aim is to scale up urban gardening and farming to promote food sovereignty https://civileats.com/2020/07/16/could-a-detroit-experiment-unleash-the-power-of-urban-soil/ (18.07.2020).
  
• FoodPrint blog notes some cities in the US are cutting community garden funds, with impacts on refugee communities; community gardens contribute to hunger relief programmes (e.g. Seattle P-patch prog.); policy support is the key issue (for urban planning) not funding https://foodprint.org/blog/community-gardens/ (27.07.2020).
  
• How black-run urban farms in the US are fighting food inequality, Thomson Reuters Foundation Long Reads https://longreads.trust.org/item/black-urban-community-farmers-uproot-food-apartheid-united-states (01.08.2020).
  
• How are London councils responding to rising food insecurity during lockdown and as it lifts?, Sustain https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/jul20_london_council_covid_response/ (01.08.2020).
• Home gardening and urban agriculture for advancing food and nutritional security in response to the COVID-19 pandemic https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-020-01058-3 (14.08.2020).
• Re-homing hens during Covid-19: A rethinking of urban space? https://www.sociologylens.net/topics/collective-behaviour-and-social-movements/re-homing-hens-during-covid-19-a-rethinking-of-urban-space/32056 (interesting piece in Sociology Lens by Catherine Oliver on re-homing hens and a new approach to multispecies geography) (18.08.2020).
• The need to plan for healthy, equitable and resilient food systems (emphasis on city food systems) https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/28KNTTQASTNDAZC7WDES/full?target=10.1080%2F23748834.2020.1791442& (26.08.2020).
  
• Urban farming: four reasons it should flourish post-pandemic, The Conversation https://theconversation.com/urban-farming-four-reasons-it-should-flourish-post-pandemic-144133 (27.08.2020).
• Can alternative urban initiatives & approaches really transform our cities? (Insights from the UrbanA Wiki on Sustainable Just Cities) https://medium.com/urban-arenas-for-sustainable-and-just-cities/can-alternative-urban-initiatives-approaches-really-transform-our-cities-2c349345c465 (12.09.2020).
• Building plans for growing food, Brighton and Hove Food Partnership https://bhfood.org.uk/building-plans-for-growing-food/ ('The update comes at a time when the city’s food resilience has been exposed due to Covid-19 and people have been compelled to think about what they eat and where their food comes from') (26.09.2020).
  
• The pandemic will accelerate the evolution of our cities (Norman Foster article in The Guardian - emphasis on urban agriculture) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/24/pandemic-accelerate-evolution-cities-covid-19-norman-foster?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other (thanks Matt Reed for sharing) (26.09.2020).

Rural-urban relations

• Useful blog https://ruralsociologywageningen.nl/2020/04/20/rural-urban-relations-in-times-of-covid-19/ by Bettina Bock and Jessica Duncan discussing rural-urban relations in a time of COVID (part of Horizon 2020-funded ROBUST project).
• See also https://urbanrurallinkages.wordpress.com/ (20.06.2020) and https://urbanpolicyplatform.org/2020/05/12/un-habitat-plg-covid-19-response-activities/ (28.06.2020).
• Rural-Urban relations during Covid-19 (ROBUST project) https://foodgovernance.com/robust-rural-urban-relations-during-covid-19/ (29.07.2020); includes a series of Covid-19-related 'live cases' from 11 living labs e.g. Lisbon, with example of proximity relations and shorter food circuits https://rural-urban.eu/living-lab/lisbon/live-cases (27.08.2020) and Lucca - proximity and resilience in times of sanitary emergency https://rural-urban.eu/living-lab/lucca/live-cases (26.09.2020).
• Why Covid-19 should make us rethink multilocality (blog for the ROBUST project by Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins, Ulla Ovaska and Theresia Oedl-Wieser) https://rural-urban.eu/news/why-covid-19-should-make-us-rethink-multilocality (08.08.2020).

• A couple of great resources from Bristol to support and encourage citizens to buy local and support food retail independents, from Bristol Food Network and Support Bristol Food (accessed: 10.04.2020); see also https://www.goingforgoldbristol.co.uk/bristolfoodkind-highlights-so-far/ (09.05.2020).
• BBC News coverage of how independent retailers are adapting during Covid-19 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-52589775 (23.05.2020).
• UK corner shops and independent grocers see a sharp rise in sales (63% increase)  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/27/uk-corner-shops-and-independent-grocers-ring-up-63-per-cent-rise-in-sales-coronavirus?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tweet (30.05.2020).
  
• Until recently local food producers lacked access to the software to create their own online presence and sales dedicated to food. To learn more about open and accessible software see these pages from the Open Food Network and Local Food Nodes (14.03.2020).
• A small village transformation of shopping under lockdown in Wiltshire (20.04.2020).
• Community food co-ops are thriving in the US, largely because of how they organise their supply chains (local infrastructure) https://civileats.com/2020/05/15/community-food-co-ops-are-thriving-during-the-pandemic/ (23.05.2020).
• Bon Appetit article about how food businesses (restaurants, food stores) in the US are responding https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-businesses-covid-19 (06.06.2020); this article highlights the uncertainty in restaurant chains in the US, which many reversing opening plans, which is impacting farms that supply them https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/business/farmers-restaurants-closures/index.html (18.07.2020).
• Deliveroo and food chains (Pizza Hut, Pret a Manger, Itsu and Wagamama) ask Boris Johnson for help during pandemic https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/16/deliveroo-and-food-chains-ask-boris-johnson-for-help-during-pandemic?CMP=share_btn_tw (20.06.2020).
• Has coronavirus sent the out-of-town shopping centre packing? [probably not!?]  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/24/coronavirus-out-of-town-shopping-centre (27.06.2020).
• Article about how One Fair Wage, working in partnership with New York City, will provide grants to 100 family-run restaurants that closed due to C-19. Aim to improve how they pay workers https://civileats.com/2020/06/19/one-fair-wage-wants-to-help-reopen-restaurants-and-change-how-they-pay-workers/ (28.06.2020).
• See also this Washington Post article regarding workers' wages and how restaurants in the US treat their workers https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/16/forget-wine-list-foodies-should-ask-how-restaurants-treat-their-workers/ (20.07.2020).
• Bristol chefs are calling for more support to help the 44,000 jobs connected to Bristol's food & drink industry https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-53106484 (28.06.2020).
• Marketplaces as public spaces in times of the Covid‐19 coronavirus outbreak. Analysis of markets in the Netherlands (some closed but some formed new economic infrastructures to sell produce) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tesg.12431?campaign=wolearlyview (28.06.2020).
• Why local markets are key to reviving our locked down town centres https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/jun20_markets_covid_recovery/ (04.07.2020).
• How local retailers are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic (Canada) (video link includes analysis from Jennifer Clapp) (availability and affordability may become issues at the end of the growing season) https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/the-future-of-food-how-local-retailers-are-responding-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-1.5016091 (13.07.2020).
• Bike delivery cooperatives are changing the rules of the gig economy https://www.shareable.net/courier-cooperatives-are-changing-the-rules-of-the-gig-economy/ (16.07.2020).
• Meals on wheels for the 21st century, Sustain (report examines meals on wheels services in London before, during and after Covid-19) https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/meals_on_wheels_for_21st_century/# (16.07.2020).
• How South Asian corner shop culture helped the UK survive Covid-19, gal-dem https://gal-dem.com/how-south-asian-corner-shop-culture-helped-the-uk-survive-covid-19/ (05.08.2020).
  
• Reuters article about Uber profits and losses - Uber Eats food-delivery business revenue doubled to $1.2 billion during the pandemic https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-results/uber-rides-take-covid-19-hit-but-food-delivery-business-doubles-idUSKCN25230X (08.08.2020).
• London's restaurants on a social mission, Jellied Eel https://www.sustainweb.org/jelliedeel/articles/jun20_restaurants_mission/ (how three restaurants in London have run as social enterprises, supporting sustainable food and local people) (17.08.2020).
• Eat Out To Help Out. BBC News article about the scheme: How can I use the 'eat out to help out scheme'? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-53431026 (10.08.2020); Eat Out to Help Out dishes out 35m meals in two weeks, BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53817886 (19.08.2020).
• 'Eat out' vouchers, Wicked Leeks (urges spending them at independent eateries) https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/news/eating-drinking-local-sourcing/spend-eat-out-vouchers-indies-public-urged (04.08.2020).
• Eat Out to Help Out scheme benefits farm shops with restaurants and cafés (some have now opted out), Farmers Weekly https://www.fwi.co.uk/farm-life/feedthenation-eat-out-scheme-benefits-farm-shops-and-cafes (22.08.2020).
• Eat Out to Help Out: crowded restaurants may have driven UK coronavirus spike https://theconversation.com/eat-out-to-help-out-crowded-restaurants-may-have-driven-uk-coronavirus-spike-new-findings-145945 ('Rather than trying to encourage a big-bang “back to normal”, governments should settle in for the long haul') (12.09.2020).
  

• Morrison’s Food Boxes (accessed: 10.04.2020). Picked this up via Sarah Holloway’s Twitter feed, who commented “If anyone is struggling to get online food orders for elderly or self-isolating relatives in a different part of the country, I'd recommend googling 'Morrison's Food Boxes'. They send a sensible selection of food and household goods. Booking to delivery was less than 48 hours”.
• Morrisons unveils 10kg 'British Food Box' to support farmers - Farming UK, 12.05.20  https://www.farminguk.com/news/morrisons-unveils-10kg-british-food-box-to-support-farmers_55628.html (accessed: 16.05.2020).
• Stockpiling led to huge boosts in retail sales, including Tesco (10.04.2020).
• Concerns about food shortages is another key narrative in the debate. This article captures that perspective.
• Which ? Information on how supermarket and the retail industry are responding to the current crisis. Weekly Updates, including data on shopping habits  (20.04.2020).
• Waitrose launches promotion to buy/eat more steak https://www.farminguk.com/news/waitrose-launches-biggest-ever-steak-promotional-push_55541.html and support British livestock farmers (accessed 04.05.2020).
• This Guardian article reports on a stakeholder revolt over executive pay, but data too reporting a significant rise in profits from food sales, plus a shift to online sales, during COVID-19 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/26/tesco-sales-soar-as-customers-turn-to-deliveries-in-pandemic-coronavirus(27.06.2020).
• Tesco demands supplier price cuts in discount battle https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53284788 (04.07.2020).
• 'Three quarters of UK does grocery shopping online', BBC News  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53840920 ('The biggest shift towards online supermarket shopping was in the over-55 age group, where regular online shopping nearly trebled') (22.08.2020); this Guardian article notes similar trend re. over-55 age group shopping online and supermarkets as beneficiaries https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/20/pandemic-prompts-doubling-of-online-grocery-shoppers-in-uk (thanks Anna_K_speaking for sharing) (26.08.2020).
  

Big food brands moving online

• This Financial Times article, if access is possible, is interesting: suggests 'big food' brands are moving online during the crisis and sidestepping retailers; also reports an increase in the consumption of ultraprocessed foods https://www.ft.com/content/2a8b011a-60e0-4bd7-bdac-c22c6a210ea5 (30.05.2020).
• Amazon plans big expansion of UK online grocery service, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/28/amazon-plans-big-expansion-of-uk-online-grocery-service (30.07.2020).

Trade in high-value horticultural exports (Kenya to European supermarkets)

• Global lockdown has hit large and small horticultural growers in Kenya, especially trade with European supermarkets (Franch beans, flowers, etc.). Some have started to sell more via retailers in Nairobi (Carrefour, Quick Mart and KFC). https://www.ecowatch.com/kenya-exports-covid-2646163421.html (13.06.2020); see also this Food Tank piece https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/covid-19-is-hitting-kenyan-horticulture-exports-hard/ (14.06.2020).

• Webinar 1 – Local Food After the Pandemic. Dan Keech (CCRI) Ped Asigarian (The Community Farm)
• Webinar 2 - Community Supported Agriculture. Jasmine Black (CCRI); Agroecology in Uganda. Nick James (Open University).
• Webinar 3 - Brexit & Food Citizenship. Ludivine Petetin (Cardiff University); Food in Japan during COVID-19. Steven McGreevy (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan)
• Webinar 4 - Achieving 'Food for Life' gold status in Bristol. Joy Carey; Enacting Food Policy in the UK. Dr. Kelly Parsons