ASH CLOUD

The epigenome is essentially the control software for plants and animals that dictates when, where, and to what level different genes in the genome are expressed. Moderating the epigenome has the potential to upgrade crops in real time, during the season, to adjust photosynthesis and warn crops of upcoming droughts, diseases, or other threats. While traditional plant breeding and genetics requires trait selections to be made prior to planting and establishing the crops, epigentics enables these traits to be managed after the plant is already growing. Today we are joined by Travis Bayer who recently founded Decibel Bio to develop spray on  epigenetic instructions that enable a new level of control over crop traits.Travis and Decibel are leading the development of highly targeted epigenetic innovations for crops while other startups are looking at epigenetic reprograming to develop human therapeutics.  Send us a text

Over human history animal protein has always been a luxury food. Meat is the first thing people generally chose to buy when they rise from lower to middle income.  With the current cost of living crises across the world, further food price inflation predicted due to climate change, geopolitical instability, and biodiversity loss, increasing impacts on productivity due to climate change, as well as the growing impact of dietary related disease, the big question is how much longer will we be able to afford this luxury. The answer is it's complex. Today we are joined by Paul Behrens from Oxford University where he is working on systems to reduce the environmental harm and increase the resilience of our food systems. The three things we can change are what we eat, the amount of food wasted, and how we produce our food. Paul sees all three as being necessary for the future health of ourselves and the environment.You can listen to our conversation here.Send us a text

Beef supply chains have been described as the most dysfunctional and least organised supply chains of everything available in the supermarket. Today we are joined by Lamar Steiger and Neil Mellers from Ranch2Retail who are building connected beef supply chains to improve economic performance of the whole chain and environmental outcomes. Data across all participants is a key component of creating and sharing the extra value. It took over 100 conversations before Lamar found a rancher who was interested in rising to the challenge of creating a premium supply chain for Walmart that provided consistent product, reliably at consistent price which give the customer a great beef eating experience across 4600 stores.  Prime Pursuits now supplies about 600 Walmart stores across the SE USA. You can listen to our conversation here.Send us a text

In this episode I am exploring the rapidly growing rates of obesity globally, the rapid rise in the use of GLP-1s or obesity drugs,  how these are impacting our food systems, and how obesity and poverty seem to be linked. In the US around 10% of all Americans are either using GLP-1s or have tried GLP-1s, with early data showing a 5-10% decrease in food spending and a significant change in the foods people are purchasing. Yet, it's only the wealthiest that can afford these drugs. Today we are joined by Jack Bobo, Director of the Rothman Family institute for food studies at UCLA where he is diving deep into how GLP-1s are reshaping the food system, consumer behavior, and human health.Obesity rates are skyrocketing globally. In the US 42% of the population is obese and three quarters are overweigh. Australia is hot on the heels of America and much of the world is moving in the same direction.  The cost of the is also growing.  In the US obesity and metabilic disease are costing about $1 trillion a year and that figure globally it between $10-12 trillion.  Yet it's complicated, soda consumption and sugar consumption in the US are at 30 year lows, all while obesity is at an all time high. Sugar taxes have let to high income people losing weight and lower income no losing weight. Which follows a general trend that with almost every intervention, healthy people get healthier and unhealthy people don't.Jack is also the author of "Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices"Send us a text

Today we are joined Aimable Uwizeye, Livestock Policy Officer for the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations where he is part of the team that implements the Sustainable Livestock Transformation initiative within the Animal Production and Health Division. Increasingly the impartance of animal health is being identified as a key aspect of improving sustainbility and reducing emissions.Aimable's mission is to promote global change towards a sustainable livestock sector by tackling climate change, reducing methane emissions, enhancing biodiversity, and reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. Join me in this journey to create a more sustainable and resilient future for our planet.  Send us a text

The Australian livestock industries now produce high quality product, that is full tracebale, quality assured, with real time market information coming from a sophisticate supply chain that sells into high quality markets with preferential access including 16 FTAs. This has transitioned from an absolute commodity industry with only one free trade agreement, no traceability, national ID system, limited market information and a disconnected supply chain just 30 odd years ago. Today we are joined Jason Strong, a long time advocate and leader in the Australian livestock industries including as the former Managing director of Meat and livestock Australia and former CEO of the AACo, Australia's largest integrated cattle and beef producer, and is the oldest continuously operating company in Australia.Jason sees the greatest opportunity is making progress in areas that are efficiency productivity driven but has other knock on benefits, including the reduction of enteric emissions with the methane emissions from the base cow herd being the greatest challenge and poor reproductive performance being crucial to improving emissions intensity from these cows. Trust is the most critical thing to capitalism on these opportunities.  Send us a text

Humans have been selectively breeding animals since before Roman times. Modern technologies and tools including genomics and artifical intelligence has hugely increased the rate of progress. Increasingly, sustainability traits such as the enviromneatl footprint of production are being included in breeding programs in addition to productivity, efficiency, and profitability traits.   Today we are joined Matthew Clevlend, a geneticist who leads sustainability at ABS Global across their beef and dairy genetic improvement programs. Early indications are that the heritability of methane emissions are between 20-30% which is similar to many traditional production traits. In addition, these improvements are both cumulative and permanent, and applicable to production systems across the Global North and Global South.   Send us a text

Political scientist Sparsha Saha from Harvard University joins us to challenge the status quo in meat politics. How can a sector so vital be so overlooked? Sparsha shares groundbreaking insights, exposing the unusual political dynamics surrounding animal welfare and the unexpected urban-rural divide on climate policies related to meat consumption. We grapple with the low prioritization of food and water in political discourse and the urgent need for heightened awareness in tackling ecological crises.Our conversation takes a deep dive into the path toward building inclusive strategies in the plant-based and regenerative agriculture sectors. By bridging gaps across ethical and expertise boundaries, we uncover how collaboration can drive meaningful social progress. Sparsha and I discuss the public's yearning for genuine moral leadership on critical issues like food and water, and consider how emerging leaders, particularly younger ones, could resonate with people's fundamental needs. Furthermore, we examine how cultural expressions, especially music, can capture our deep-rooted connection to the land.We turn the spotlight on the pressing challenges and potential solutions within the global food systems. Recent crises, from food shortages to geopolitical tensions like the Ukraine war, have emphasized the vulnerability of these systems. Sustainable practices such as regenerative agriculture and mindful water usage in farming are more essential than ever. We also introduce the "eat less but better" concept, advocating for reduced animal product consumption to enhance biodiversity and sustainability. Sparsha and I underscore the socio-economic struggles faced by vulnerable communities dependent on unsustainable food systems, urging systemic policy changes to foster security and equity.Send us a text

The least productive 10-20% of producers are causing 60-80% of the environmental impacts but only produce 5% of the food. Incentivizing these farmers and ranchers to change can significantly improve the sustainability of our food systems with minimum impact on global food production. Today I am joined by Jason Clay from WWF who focuses on working with the  private sector to improve supply chain management especially addressing habitat, biodiversity, soil health, irrigation, effluent, and green house gases. Jason leads the Markets Institute to improve sustainability in internationally traded food and soft commodities, known as Codex Planetarius.We need to move away from looking at averages. With the largest 10 commodites we are finding there are three to five production systems globally and the difference between the most damaging  decile and most sustainable decile is 10x. Between any two of the 5 production systems it can be 50 or 100x. Huge reduction in the environmental footprint of these systems can be achieved by addressing the bottom. The culture of eating animal protein is engrained in millions of years of evolution. With over 400 million Chinese people raised from poverty this century and a further 1 billion Indians being taken out of poverty the increased demand for animal proteins is not going to disappear. Send us a text

The 350 million hectares of global irrigation consume 3-4 Mississippi's worth of fresh water every day. This volume of fresh water used for Irrigation is continuing to increase, especially across the global south, exacerbating the challenge of how we produce more food with less water. Today we are joined by Bruce Lankford, who has been working on Water and Irrigation Policy across the developed and developing worlds for over 30 years. In a recent blog post Bruce wrote about how Irrigation is colonising water and is being colonised; on research and teaching gaps in irrigation. He concluded that because many consultants, analysts, researchers, research projects, funders and decision-makers are not fully interrogating irrigation as a complex system, irrigation is colonising freshwater, and it is being technically, conceptually and financially colonised.Send us a text

The reintroduction of wolves into Wisconsin and other US Staes has led to a 25% decrease in deer vehicle collisions. The majority of this is due to how wolves change deer behaviour so there are fewer in the vicinity of roads. Environmental and agricultural policies have both intended and unintended consequences with the impacts of the secondary or tertiary effects frequently being greater than the primary.  Markets, incentives, and governments policy all moderate these impacts.  An understanding of nature and behaviour is critical to developing effective policy.  Send us a text

Low- and middle-income countries house 76% of the global cattle herd, and by 2050 will be home to 8 billion people. They are the projected epicenter of both increased animal source food demand, and livestock-related emissions. The most promising approach to address this demand while limiting greenhouse gas emissions is to improve the efficiency of livestock production systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through interventions in genetics, feeding and health. Boosting livestock productivity can improve both food security and producer incomes. Alternative proteins may play a limited role in addressing projected demand, but currently most companies are located in high-income countries Moreover, given the multifaceted roles that ruminants play in global agri-food systems, the social, economic and economic trade-offs associated with replacing meat and milk with alternative proteins must be evaluated holistically.Today we are joined by Alison Van Eenennaam from UC Davis who is leading theanimal Genomics and Biotechnology Program is to provide research and education on the use of animal genomics and biotechnology in livestock production systems.Alison recently wrote this paper outlining the challenges alternative proteins face in meeting the increased demand across the Global South.  Send us a text

Our food systems are orders of magnitude more complex than other sectors of our economy so how can tools such as Artificial intelligence help farmers across the world make better decisions to improve the sustainability and productivity of our food systems.Today we are joined by Aidan Connolly a animal agtech entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Future of Agriculture who has spend his career working on agricultural innovation. Send us a text

Today Ash Cloud is partnering with CSIRO to bring you Andy Shepherd, the Chief Research Scientist Biosecurity at CSIRO where he leads efforts to protect Australia, it's neighbours,  and trading partners from plant, animal and human pests and disease threats. Building local and global partnerships to understand the biology of the threats across their native and invaded range so intervention opportnities can be implemented is a key part of his work. Andy is also the Co-Executive Director of Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and CSIRO Catalysing Australia's Biosecurity Initiative. You can listen to our conversation here.Send us a text

The US military has recognized climate change as a national security threat for decades our guest today, Sherri Goodman, has been credited with educating a generation of US military officers and government officials about the complex interactions between climate change and national security. She is Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security  and the author of Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security.  I recently spoke with Sherri about her 30 odd years experience working on the nexus of climate and security, including the risks posed by climate change and the many indirect ways they can be manifested, the challenges in changing the mindset at DoD around how they think about climate change, what  can be learned from her experience, and opportunities to intervene. You can listen to our conversation here.Send us a text

The intersection between climate change and armed conflict is complex. For those who have not witnessed the difference between the devestation and social upheaval that results from war compared with any other form of social upheaval it is almost impossible to explain. This is why I see great importance in further understanding these intersections. Climate related violence is a messy marriage of climate stress and poor governance.ISIS profited from collapsing agricultural positions to bolster its ranks in Iraq and Syria. The recruitment rate of jihadis was three time higher from villages reliant solely on rain than from similar villages with access to irrigation water. The developed world is not immune, above and beyond the global impacts of migration it has been documented that violence against women in Greece appears to increase almost in lockstep with summer temperates. In the United States, 85% of the mass shootings that accrued in 2022 took place between the June and September with the physiological changes unleashed by higher temperatures appearing to be a determining factor. The migration stories that make the headlines are only the tip of the iceberg. These are based on the 10% of people that flee their homes due to conflict and migrate internationally.  The other 90% impact the towns and cities within their countries. However, as it's generally the best educated and wealthiest people that can actually afford to leave this also undermines the governance and financial security of the impacted villages further undermining these societies.The urban rural divide a growing issue globally. ISIS recruitment around Mosul was facilitated by the growing disparity between agricultural and urban livelihoods that led to some of the greatest  concentrations of ISIS recruits. The proximity to the city led ensured that villages were very conscious of this growing disparity making them easy targets for the ISIS recruiters.Peter Schwartzstein is an environmental journalist who has reported on water, food security, and the conflict-climate nexus across some 30 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and occasionally further afield. Peter is a Global Fellow with the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program. The Heat and The Fury,  is published in September 2024.Send us a text

Depending on who you speak with cattle can be vital to the sustainability of our food systems and our ability to provide health nutrition to humanity or they can be one of the largest sources of climate pollution. The culprit in this debate is methane, especially enteric methane emissions that is derived from the foregut of all ruminants including cattle. Frank Mitloehner is the Director of the UC Davis Clear Center that researches the intersection of animal agriculture and the environment and leads communication efforts across the complex interactions between the environmental health, human health, our food systems, and livestock. Frank's work has significantly focused on methane emissions. I recently caught up with Frank to hear his perspective on how the conversation around methane has evolved, including the increasingly passionate positions on the role of ruminants in our food systems that are being advocated by different groups focused on addressing climate change.  It is widely accepted that reducing methane emissions is the emergency brake when it comes to mitigating warming, with a reduction of methane by 20, 30, or 40% having a significant impact due to the high warming potential of methane and it's rapid natural breakdown in the atmosphere. Where there is much more disagreement among those advocating for methane reduction is which sectors to target most urgently for methane reductions with oil and gas, waste, livestock, and domestic leaks being the most frequently discussed. Where there is no disagreement is the need for increased funding on research and innovations to reduce livestock methane.  Send us a text

Regenerative ranching has recently gained traction across the main stream media but the idea of using  livestock to mimic nature and managing a landscape holistically was largely led by Allan Savory from the 1980s. Rich Bradbury' parents attended the Savory Institute in the 1980's which was when he was first exposed to the holistic approach that Allan Savory brings to ranching.  I recently caught up with Rich to hear how this has impacted his thinking and the way he manages his ranch to this day.Send us a text

Nitrogen is absolutely essential for all forms of life, plants, animals and microbes. Nitrogen is the basis for making amino acids, and amino acids are the basis for making proteins, enzymes. The historic nitrogen system was balanced and based on microbial activity transforming atmospheric nitrogen into soluable forms usable by plants and microbes. Eric Davidson's has been working to transform our food systems through better understanding terestrial nutrient cycling, cycling, greenhouse gas emissions from soils, global biogeochemical cycles, and how they impact sustainable agriculture. Charles Brooke has been working to accelerate the rate of action and innovation in reducing the climate impact of livestock production. He leads Spark Climate Solutions livestock enteric methane mitigation program.The modern nitrogen system is based on the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilzers produced through the energy intensive Haber-Bosch process developed just prior to World War I to manufacture munitions. The impact of this sythetic nitrogen has spread far beyond conflict. Synthetic nitrogen has enabled our modern food systems to produce enough food to feed 8 billion people. It has also resulted in widespred nitrogen pollution in water ways and ever incresing levels of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Synthetic fertiliser production has been so successful that today 50 - 60% of all the nitrogen in human bodies in humans actually comes from Habe-Bosch processes.From a warming perspective nitrous oxide (or N2O) is about 270 times more potent than is carbon dioxide. However, unlike CO2 where levels are somewhat plateauing, N2O levels continue to rise. The use of nitrogen fertilizer is hugely inefficient. Half of all fertilizer put on the ground is lost. Additionl losses occur when plant proteins are fed to animals prior to human consumption. Nitrogen 2.0 is focused on reducing nitrogen wastage and pollution, and increasing the circularity of nitrogen use. The three components are:Feeding nitrogen directly to livestockDecreasing the nitrogen required by and provided to cropsIncreasing the recycling of nitrogen in manure back into our cropping systems Eric Davidson is Professor of the Appalachian Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He is also a Principal Scientist at Spark Climate Solutions. His most recent book Science for a Green New Deal; Connecting Climate, Economics, and Social Justice was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2022.Send us a text

The efficacy of methane reducing feed additives constantly varies between cows and herds because the rumen microbiome is constantly changing. Certain feed additives that worked really well at that one given her may stop working, or the other way around. Feed additives that were not working can become effective. Using AI based on the genome sequences within the microbiome so that the right additive is used at the right time can triple the impact of feed additives. Yaniv Altshuler has been working on Artificial Intelligence for the over 20 years focusing on decentralized and scalable AI methods. He is a researcher at MIT and the founder and CEO of Metha.ai where he is using decentralized AI algorthims that are ubiquitous across nature to predict the efficacy of methane reducing feed additives based on the cows microbiome. More details on how AI can increase the efficacy of feed additives can be found in Yaniv's white paper here:From Microbes to Methane: AI-Based Predictive Modeling of Feed Additive Efficacy in Dairy CowsYaniv holds a PhD in Computer Science, and is the author of over 70 scientific papers and 15 patents. He is also the author of several books including "Security and Privacy in Social Networks" and "Applied Swarm Intelligence".Send us a Text Message.

Rob Jackson is a climate scientist who has been leading global efforts to reduce millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions and improve human health, safety, and air and water quality. Methane emissions are a major focus of Rob's work as there is nothing else that gives as much power to slow global warming over the next decade or two.  Rob's new book, "Into The Clear Blue Sky” the path to restoring our atmosphere is being released at the end of July.  In the book Rob tells the story of the people creating and driving some of the boldest and most impactful climate solutions under development and what motivates and inspires these people to dedicate their careers to addressing climate change. Rob Jackson is the Chair of the Global Carbon Project, a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy, and a professor of earth science at Stanford University. 

Maik Kindermann, the inventor of the methane inhibitor 3-NOP or  Bovaer®. Earlier this week it was announced that Boaver has been approved for use by the FDA adding the United States to the other 59 countries where its available. Following a directive in 2008 from Feike Sifbesma, the former Chairman and CEO of dsm-firmenich Maik began working on a product to inhibit enteric methane. 16 years later Maik and his team have completed trials 119  and published 80 peer reviewed papers with another 31 in the pipeline. I recently caught up with Maik to hear about his journey developing Boaver and how the conversation on enteric methane has changed over that time. You can listen too our conversation here.

The security communities around the world  including European, UK, US, and Australia have all recognized climate change as a National Security threat with climate change not being necessarily a direct cause of conflict but compounding the risks of conflict. The impact of climate change on food and water security is a key component of this increased threat. Neil Morisetti  leads efforts to develop society's and policy makers understanding of the security implications of a changing climate, including the impact on the key natural resources of food, water and land at University College London and Chatham House. His work focuses on the relationship between these emerging challenges and more traditional threats to national security. Neil has previously served as the UK Government Climate and Energy Security Envoy, the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Climate Change and he is a retired Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy.The complex problem with climate change is it does not impact everyone at the same rate. Currently  conflict and climate change are primarily correlated in a belt tuning just north and south of the equator, countries well away from Europe, North America, and Australia.Neil is also an International Fellow of the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group who just released Too Hot To Handle report that highlights the reality of Australia's climate–security failure.  I recently caught up with Neil and you can listen to our conversation here:This conversation follows on from these previous episodes on the links between conflict and climate change.Agriculture is not just about food security, it's about national and regional security with Air Vice Marshal (retired) John Blackburn, former Deputy Chief of the Royal Australian Air ForceConflict, climate change, and food insecurity with David Tuck International Committee of the Red Cross

There are currently 350 million people globally living with extreme hunger, with a plus 2°C rise in global temperatures this is forecast to rise to 539 million people, and with a plus 4°C temperature rise it is predicted that 2.1 billion people worldwide will be living with extreme hunger. Failing to adequately address this rise in extreme hunger will be a growing national security and global security issue as food insecurity is linked to increased migration and clonflict. Ismahane Elouafi is the  Executive Managing Director of CGIAR here she is building on her experience leading agrifood research and advocacy to deal with some  the world's most pressing environmental and human challenges. Her work focuses on the urgent challenge of providing nutritious food for all by ensuring that small-scale farmers across the global South have access to the science and technologies they need to adapt to a growing number of challenges, including climate change. In low income countries most recent agricultural production gains have come from clearing more land, there have been no improvements in efficiency. This provides a huge opportunity to provide existing technology so the 500 hundred millions small holder farmers can increase productivity. Ethiopia has successfully achieved significant increases in productivity over recent years through the adoption of technology.I recently caught up with Ismahane to discuss how our food systems are broken and whether we have realistic expectations of farmers across the world.  The big question that arose is whether it is realistic to expect farmers to fix the issues of agriculture's impact on climate, biodiversity, the environment, and resource use, while addressing the  growing issues of malnutrition and producing  affordable food, and contributing to local and global economies.You can listen to our conversation here.Additional Links:Periodic Table of Food Ingredients: https://foodperiodictable.org/Virginia Tech Report: https://globalagriculturalproductivity.org/2023-gap-report/ IFPRI:  https://www.ifpri.org/  Bezos Earth Fund: https://www.bezosearthfund.org/

 This  episode of Ash Cloud is brought to you in partnership with CSIRO.Proteins play many critical roles in our bodies, and in the plants, animals, fungi and microbes that are our source of food and nutrition. Disease, brain function, appetite, movement, allergies, and thousands of other metabolic process all require proteins. This is  in addition to the need for protein to build and maintain  muscle. Growing global populations are dramatically increasing protein demand and this demand is putting ever greater pressure on our climate and environment. Meeting this demand sustainably requires new thinking on how we produce and consume protein.Michelle Colgrave is the Deputy Director (Impact) at CSIRO Agriculture and Food where she uses her scientific background in the study of proteins across agriculture and food science to benefit human health and food sustainability.  Together with her CSIRO team and partner organizations she is working to deliver more sustainable, productive, and resilient agricultural and food systems.Balancing the roles of plant protein, animal protein, and novel non meat proteins is an opportunity to enhance the amount of protein we can produce sustainably. Michelle and her team prefer the term complimentary protein to describe the suite of new and emerging protein technologies including fermentation, algae, fungi, insect, and cell cultures that can improve productivity, nutrient composition, bioavailability, and the flavour of novels foods.  I recently caught up with Michelle to discuss opportunities to improve the sustainability of protein production, the important research her team is doing to alleviate the negative affects that allergy causing anti-nutritional proteins have on the lives of thousand of people globally, opportunities to enhance hybrid foods by incorporating legumes, and the work she is doing with New Mexico University to improve reproductive efficiency in livestock.You can listen to our conversation here.Additional information on the work of CSIRO Agriculture and Food that we discussed in this episode can be found at these links:https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2022/january/whats-brewing-precision-fermentationhttps://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2022/november/proteins-of-the-future-using-precision-fermentation-to-develop-new-ingredients

Reducing methane emissions is the greatest opportunity to limit warming in the short term. With roughly 30% of current temperature increases are caused by methane, global food systems being responsible for 60% of methane emissions as a continuum from production to waste, and  80% of recent emissions have come from non-OECD countries  the methane challenge intimately linked to the International development challenge.To address this solution that are fit for purpose need to be developed. With feed additive solutions being only  applicable to 2% of global production systems other mechanisms to reduce methane are needed that do not compromise livelihoods and food security. Marcelo Mena is Chief Executive Office at the Global Methane Hub and the former Environment Minister for Chile from 2014 to 2018. Together with his team, the Global Methane Hub is bringing together philanthropic funding from the likes of Bezos Earth Fund and the Gates Foundation alongside government and private sector funds to create collaborative solutions across the Global South and the Global North.I recently caught up with Marcelo to discuss the importance of addressing methane emissions globally, the need for solutions that align with the sources of those emissions and the collaborative partnerships and funding mechanisms that must be developed to have a real impact. You can listen to our conversation here.

Recent farmer protests across Europe have highlighted the political battleground around sustainable agriculture. The absence of effective policies and support for a just transition to Net Zero is positioning farmers as political pawns who are being exploitation by people outside the farming community pushing their own agendas.Farmers are increasingly being squeezed between decreasing margins, increasing costs, increasing regulations, less market power.  At the same time the growing politicisation of  the rural urban divide is not focused on actually addressing farmer livelihoods but is being fuelled to drive the political agendas of people outside the agricultural community.  At the same time the increasing fiscal demands of extreme weather events and geopolitical instability are in direct competition with funding for climate mitigation strategies. Tim Benton is Research Director for the Environment, and society at Chatham House where he studies  food security and food systems and how to increase their resilience to climate change, reduce their environmental footprints and improve public health through nutrition. In his recent paper on the European farmer protests he highlighted the need for a just transition as farmers are being squeezed between increasing regulatory framework and prices they are receiving for their produce.  I recently caught up with Tim to discuss the politics around these global farmer protests,  the costs involved in managing the impacts of climate change on our economies compared, and the lack of political will to take on the necessary investment.You can listen to our conversation here. 

The climate impact of animal agriculture is only one of the aspects that needs to be addressed for sustainable productions systems. The importance and urgency to mitigate methane emissions must be integrated with the social and economic aspects of livestock production and the other environmental issues such as nutrient management and biodiversity.  The current state of our food systems are the result of decades and even centuries of the choices people have made which will take time to change. When it comes to global warming methane is the emergency brake that can limit temperature rises in the short term. Methane from livestock is one of the global methane sources and a key focus of Sara Place's work.Over the last 12 months her team has collected and analysed samples from over 900 animals. This research showed over 30% variation in emissions from similar animals under similar conditions, the cause of which is yet to be understood. This huge variation is an opportunity to use selecting breeding to permanently lower livestock emission. However, to achieve this there will need to be a vast increase in the numbers of animals monitored. Sara Place  is an expert in livestock systems sustainability for AgNext at Colorado State University where she brings where she combines her methane mitigation work with her experience in all aspects of livestock sustainability across academia, industry associations, and private industry. I recently caught up with Sara to discuss his work. You can listen to the conversation here.AgNext at Colorado State University is wholly focused on researching, teaching and communicating their work on sustainable animal agriculture. 

Growing anthropocentrism is one of the underlying root causes of our ecological crisis. In recent decades humans have become increasingly disconnected from our food. While for thousands of years obtaining food and water was the top priority of most human societies. Today, this is no longer the case and in today's society food is increasing becoming an a political issue, especially for meat and animal products. I recently caught up with Dr Sparsha Saha from Harvard University to discuss research focuses on how voters respond to issues around meat, animal rights, and the links between animal agriculture, food accessibility, and climate change. Sparsha is the only empirical political scientist studying meat politics. You can listen to the conversation here. 

Less than 5% of climate finance is focused on addressing methane, and less than 2% of that finance is for the livestock sector. This is despite the fact that 155 countries agreed that rapidly reducing methane emissions from energy, agriculture, and waste is  the single most effective strategy to keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5˚C. The EPA estimates that 37% of methane emissions are from agriculture, with livestock contributing 32% of those emissions.  Low and middle income countries contribute over 70% of global livestock methane emissions, yet the climate is agnostic about the source of GHG emissions, so the lack of investment and support addressing methane emissions  across the Global South is an ever increasing strategic risk. Aimable Uwizeye is a Livestock Policy Officer for the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations where he leads programs aiming at improving the sustainability of global livestock systems with a particular emphasis on innovation and climate.  Aimable recently coordinated the production of the Methane emissions in livestock and rice systems  report which highlighted the sources of methane emissions, opportunities to mitigate emissions, and the need to address methane mitigation in low and middle income counties. I recently caught up with Aimable to discuss his work. You can listen to the conversation here. 

Of the 25 countries that are least able to adapt to the impacts of climate change about 14 of those countries or 56% are currently affected by armed conflict. The intersection of conflict and food insecurity is an area of series concern in many of the places where the International Committee of the Red Cross works. The 2023 global report of food crises reported that around 250 million people globally were food insecure and in need of urgent food assistance. This is the highest level in the seven year history of the report. There are currently 100 armed conflicts globally involving around 60 states and 100 or more non state groups. The number of armed conflicts has increased over recent decades.  In 2022, 120 million people were pushed into food insecurity by conflict. Frequently it is the most vulnerable, including women headed households, that suffer the most from conflict and climate related food insecurity. This is not helped by the continuing weaponization of food, such as the restrictions of Black Sea grain export during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the sieges initiated by ISIS the recent Syria conflict. David Tuck is the Head of Mission, Australia, for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). David has spent the last twenty years working as a legal advisor at the International Red Cross across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.  During this time, he has witnessed the impacts of conflict on civilian populations including how the combination of conflict, climate change, and food insecurity have a multiplying effect that further weakens the resilience of effected societies. I recently caught up with David to discuss his work. You can listen to the conversation here. The ICRC was created in 1863 following the Battle of Solferino. The sole objective of the ICRC has been to ensure protection and assistance for the victims of armed conflict. The ICRC is mandated globally to ensure all side of armed convicts adhere to the Geneva Conventions. 

Currently over 50% of the world's population is undernourished. There is generally not a shortage of food calories but a shortage of nutrients. This issue exists in rich countries, middle income countries, and poor countries. The traditional solution that has provided these nutrients to human populations for thousands of years is animals, both farmed livestock and hunted wild species.In recent decades the vast increase in the numbers of farmed livestock and how they are produced has created severe environmental burdens which are unsustainable. The larger the concentration of these systems the higher is the risk of environmental hazards. However, with good management these risks can be mitigated.I recently caught up with Dr. Peer Ederer to discuss the complex role livestock systems have in our food systems,  the positive and negative environmental and social burdens of these systems, and the vital role they provide nutritionally. In our conversation Dr. Ederer the role of small holder family farms in our food systems and the need for empathy  when developing innovations and solutions to these global challenges. 

Everyday choices are made about the food we eat by all 8 billion people on the planet. These choices impact our health and the health of the environment and climate. But what drives us to make the decisions we do and what would need to be done to change our decision making to improve both our health and reduce the environmental impact of food production.  I recently caught up with Prof. Barbara Mullan from Curtin University to discuss these issues. Most of us know that many of the things we eat will likely have detrimental effects on our health, yet despite this knowledge we continue our poor diets and the incidence of metabolic disease continues to increase. Even the broad evidence that metabolic disease increased our susceptibility to severe Covid did little to change behaviour. In our conversation Prof. Mullan explores the social, cultural, educational, and economic drivers behind this decision making and also the nuances of human behaviour.

Creating a win win for farmers/ranchers and the environment would be game changing across the whole livestock climate space. The key is to understand the kinetics of methane production by the rumen microbiome and identify opportunities to capture that energy within the animal for production. This approach mitigates methane emissions and decreases feed costs. Plus, creating this win win overcomes the not insignificant implementations/uptake challenge. Methane is the end point of a whole series of complex microbial metabolism in the rumen of cattle and sheep. Most current research is simply trying to prevent this last step where Hydrogen in converted to methane. Professor Rod Mackie, a gut microbial ecologist from the University of Illinois is leading an international research team pursuing a very different approach to mitigating livestock methane. The team is looking at the biomolecular mechanisms that lead to these precursors of methane which they hope will open up broader opportunities for intervention and productivity gains. The team has recently been awarded $2.5 million grant from the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research through their Greener Cattle Initiative. The team has six hubs spread across the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Europe, Israel,  and Australia.  Further conversations with key researchers from the team can be found below:Sharon Huws -Hydrogen warfare in the rumen - the source of livestock methane emissions, Queens University, BelfastItzik Mizrahi - Microbial good guys and bad guys, and their duplicitous nature, Ben Gurion University of the Negev Athol Klieve - Learning from nature how to eliminate livestock methane emissions, University of QueenslandMatthias Hess - Ruminant Methane Production, UC DavisThe two key papers published in conjunction with AgResearch NZ are:Hydrogen and formate production and utilisation in the rumen and the human colonElectron flow: key to mitigating ruminant methanogenesis

Management is the greatest limitation to reducing the environmental impact of livestock systems. Farming is managing an ecosystem. When we work with nature to manage that ecosystem, then nature works with us to improve the water cycle, improve the nutrient cycle, and to sequester more carbon in the soil. The challenge is, how do we improve every individual farmer understanding of their landscapes, the ecology, and businesses so they are managing their properties in an optimal manner. Currently the management of only 5% of Australian livestock producers is at an optimal level. The greatest barrier to improving management is education. Terry estimates that an investment of $50-100 million over 5-10 years could increase the percentage of farmers managing their land regeneratively from 5% to 30%. Terry McCosker has been pioneering regenerative agriculture for over 50 years. His work has focused on bridging the gap between the contesting paradigms of traditional agriculture and regenerative agriculture to help to ensure the long-term sustainability of Australian agriculture and the nations' farming families. Terry founded RCS to provide education and build capacity across the industry. Terry founded Carbonlink to make carbon farming more accessible to producers.I recently caught up with Terry to hear more about his work, you can listen to a short summary followed by our full conversation here. 

In East Africa, what we are now calling regenerative agriculture is basically kitchen gardening for food security, without the reliance on inputs, which is the traditional method of growing food. How do we evaluate the sustainability of  production systems in the Global South and how do these compare to those in the Global North?Comparisons are challenging. In the Global South most animals are multifunctional providing food, income, ecosystem services, finance, services, and cultural status.  Evaluating the environmental footprint of livestock is largely through tools developed by the Global North which do not account for the other functions these animals provide. The millions of small holder farmers across East Africa typically have two or three cows plus another two or three species of livestock such as goats, sheep,  chickens, and pigs. They are typically on two or three acres and for most farmers the milk is used for the family first with surplus going to the market. All animal waste products is recycled back into the soils.  Today my  guests, Su Kahumbu, Bernard Kimoro, and Claudia Arndt, who are working together to improve food security and sustainability across the millions of small holder farms and the traditional pastoral systems across East Africa. Su Kahumbu is a Kenyan Farmer and entrepreneur who works with small holder farmers to improve food security, nutritional security, and environmental sustainability. Her focus is developing mobile phone based education tools. Bernard Kimoro leads climate change and livestock sustainability for the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture and livestock. He is especially focused on working across the traditional pastoral systems. Claudia Arndt leads leads the Mazingira Centre where her team are investigating the environmental impact of livestock with focus on GHG emissions. The Mazingira Centre is part of the sustainably livestock program for the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi. Her research focuses on optimizing nutrient utilization efficient to reduce the environmental impact of animal agriculture, including the climate impact of methane emissions. 

Microbes communicate, they make decisions, they collaborate, and they fight. Sometimes they are good guys and other times they are bad guys. Understanding the importance of individual species withing the ecosystem and how species interact is critical for navigating our food sustainability challenges. The good news is that animals with higher feed efficiency produce less methane. However, our understanding of the ecological forces driving that double benefit is limited and the natural variation is huge with a five fold difference in methane emissions from animals in the same herd.  Itzik Mizrahi is a microbial ecologist studying the ecological and evolutionary forces that shape microbial communities in nature and specifically, in gut environments. His work investigating the ecology of rumen microbiome focuses on understand the cooperative and antagonistic interactions between species with the aim of improving food security and minimizing the environmental impacts of livestock production.Microbes are everywhere and the Mizrahi Lab studies what makes them live together.I recently caught up with Itzik to hear more about his work, you can listen to a short summary followed by our full conversation here. 

Humans are the cause of climate change.  Climate change is also biodiversity loss, desertification, mega fires and climate change that are all feeding off each other and spiralling out of control. The way humans manage fossil fuels, livestock, and the the environment is what is leading to the continual degradation of the natural world. In the 1960's Allan initiated an elephant culling program in an effort to protect native habitats in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe today) from over grazing. The results were devastating.  Not only were thousands of elephants killed, but the land degradation became worse. This led Allan to the conclusion that grazing animals were a critical component of all grassland systems. In fact, there is nothing available in the world that can reverse desertification other than livestock. In 1983, Allan and 2000 scientists from across the world identified that universal reductionist management was the key driver of climate change and developed the holistic framework.  In 2009 Allan founded the Savory Institute  to  facilitate regeneration of the world's grasslands and the livelihoods of their inhabitants through holistic management. Reductionist management ignores the complexity of our societies, economies, and nature and focuses primarily on addressing symptoms rather than the root cause. Reductionist management of our resources has led over thousands of years to the ever increasing degradation of the natural life support systems we all rely on for our survival. According to Allan government policies that cut fossil fuel use and livestock numbers will do little to address climate change if they are developed holistically.The reason governments as so critical to our ability to combat climate change is that governments are the only institutions that can manage at scale. To address the unintended environmental consequences of our current managements of all natural resources policies need to be implemented at the scale required to achieve real impact. I recently caught up with Allan to hear more about his work, you can listen to a short summary followed by our full conversation here. 

The question of what is a good microbiome all depends on the perspective you are asking. The answer differs if your lens from the perspective of the animal, humans, the microbes, or the climate. The relationships are complex. Microbes produce vital energy and nutrients for the animal. They allow our grazing animals to transform fibrous herbs, shrubs, and grasses into nutrient dense food. They recycle plant carbon and nutrients back into the soils. Since the first ruminants evolved around 50 million years ago the microbiome and these animals have coevolved together. Our understanding of this process is still very limited but the more we learn the more we realize the importance of this relationship to our society and the natural world. Today there are almost 200 living species of ruminants, nine of which have been domesticated over the last 10,000 years. I recently caught up with Todd to hear more about his work, you can listen to a short summary followed by our full conversation here. 

Climate policy has been weaponised in Australia over recent decades. The situation in other countries is frequently not dissimilar. The lack of real action on climate change resulted in over one third of Australian voters rejecting the major parties in preference of environmentally progressive ‘Teal' independents at the 2022 federal election. Zoe Daniel is one of seven Teal Independent who are now working to drive positive and constructive climate policy changes across the Australian Federal Parliament. The political will to generate and implement policies that effectively address climate change, including the economic mechanisms required for these policies to succeed, is frequently highlighted as a critical gap that needs to be overcome. Entrenched two party systems, each pandering to their base, make it easy for disruptive climate policies to remain off the agenda. Impact on climate change will remain limited without broad government leadership and policies despite the efforts of the NGO community, civil society, entrepreneurs, and the private sector.So how does a new MP make an impact in one the rougher federal parliaments globally?“If you come in, particularly as a new MP and expect to create massive systems change overnight, you're going to be disappointed. So you have to convince yourself that you can make a difference by doing the kind of nudging that myself and the other independents have been doing.”By using this approach Zoe managed to negotiate that the 43% emission reduction stipulated in the recent Climate Change Act was a floor rather than a ceiling. Her real impact came from being in the same room and having the opportunity to negotiate directly with the Climate Change Minister. Zoe has taken a pragmatic and broad approach that prioritises creating the social license for government to implement change and bringing the community along. She expects massive economic and social changes that people will need to adjust to a compressed period and for this to be successful broad community engagement and transparency are critical. This includes managing the expectation of her constituents who are pushing from much more rapid change and ensuring there is just transition for communities who have traditionally relied on the sunset industries. The continuing weaponization of energy, water, and food globally is a big concern. It becomes very challenging when these become bargain chips to undermine the existing global order. Drawing on her 15 years reporting from Africa, Asia, and North America she understands the cascading effects of climate induced food insecurity, water insecurity and natural disasters on political stability and displacement. Zoe also highlights the increasingly delicate balance required to keep vital communications channels open with our geopolitical rivals and adversaries. As a foreign correspondent she frequently witnessed the suffering and destruction climate change has on the most vulnerable societies and natural ecosystems. Her time as a journalist also exposed her to the frequently divisive nature of the media, where creating conflict in the name of good story is often favoured over promoting constructive conversations. I recently caught up with Zoe to hear more about her work, you can listen to a short summary followed by our full conversation here. 

We are always going to have emissions from growing food. There is no way agriculture can get to zero emissions. More than any other industry climate change affects agriculture and agriculture effects climate change. Britt Groosman leads efforts to decrease the environmental footprint of food production at the Environmental defense Fund (https://www.edf.org/). The initial focus are the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, the United States, China, India, and Europe. Her team concentrates on understanding where emissions come from, how these emissions affect farmers, rural communities, broader society, and nature, then identifying big leverage points for change. The first big leverage point is methane, especially livestock methane. Britt sees an urgent need to find practical ways of reducing methane emissions in the next 20 year.  “We are in a hurry here. We are not going to convince everybody to become vegan in the next five, or 10, or even 20 years, and maybe we don't need to.”The challenges vary significantly across the different geopolitical landscapes. In India her team is developing partnerships with dairy cooperatives to provide advice and financing to millions of small holder farmers to increase productivity, improve livelihoods, and reduce their methane emissions. Digital technology is being deployed to decouple economic development from climate issues, helping enable India to avoid taking the high emitting pathway to economic development we made in the West. In the United States EDF has brought together and fostered uncomfortable partnerships that include Big Ag, The Farm Bureau, and other environmental groups to negotiate climate policy. This group, The Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance,  (https://agclimatealliance.com/) recently published 40 joint recommendations to the Farm Bill. These achievements have been based on a pragmatic approach that listens to their audience and does not try and advocate change without first walking a mile in the other person's shoes.  Technology innovation alone is not a pathway to food sustainability, despite all the current energy, discussion, and investment in innovation.  Britt and her team have identified two additional gaps that need to be overcome. Firstly, without political will or the ambition to want to do things differently nothing will change. Despite the US Ministry of Defence identifying climate change as a near and imminent threat almost two decades ago, until quite recently climate change and agriculture were not discussed in the same sentence. Secondly, there is a huge implementation gap. In many cases we know what we need to do but we haven't figured out how to incentivize the necessary behavioural change. There is no one size fits all solution. “It's really dangerous to look at just one indicator. Yes, we're all in about climate, and yes, we can't have it being to the detriment of other important factors such as community, social cohesion, environmental justice issues, biodiversity issues, etc.”Personally, Britt fees very deeply for the developing counties at sticky end of climate change. Frequently these countries did not create the pollution that is causing current levels of warming. She personally feels we need reduce emissions, invest in adaptation and that western world owes it to the global south to help them. I recently caught up with Britt to hear more about her work, you can listen to the conversation here. 

There is arguably more land under the management of people producing beef, sheep, and goats than under any other industry. Having access to all these people and the land they manage provides an opportunity to impact a significant percentage of the world's land area. Creating the incentives to encourage and reward climate friendly and nature positive livestock management practices is both one of the greatest challenges and largest opportunities to limit global warming. The Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef (https://grsbeef.org/) has grown to include 24 countries across 12 Roundtables. In 2021 GRSB set three goals, to reduce the net global warming impact of beef by 30% by 2030 on the pathway to climate neutrality, to become a net positive contributor to nature by 2030, and on animal welfare, to Provide cattle with an environment in which they can thrive. GRSB is now adding a fourth goal focusing on the social role of beef production from both the producer side and more broadly across society. Livestock have a key role in the maintenance of landscape, provision of nutrition, employment, religious and cultural events, and social status. This is especially relevant in many arid and lower income countries where livestock frequently is a cornerstone of food production and rural economies. When the precursor to the GRSB first met in Denver in 2010 many people at the meeting had never sat in a room together. The meeting included a number of fairly beefy security guards because Ruaraidh was concerned things may get heated. It was a question of trust.As people continued to meet over the next 10-12 years and got to know each other trust was built, especially as people realized they all wanted to head in the same direction, and they could actually learn from each other.Methane emission is something that the industry has the ability to limit. Breeding companies are currently looking into using genetics to limit methane emission, improved grazing management also has a big role to play.I recently caught up with Ruaraidh to hear more about his work. You can listen to his conversation here. 

When Lance Baumgard first started working with the Arizona dairy industry, he quickly noticed the existing dogma around metabolic disease, inflammatory disease, and animal productivity didn't stack up. Questioning why the aggressive attempts to treat metabolic disease over the previous 30 years had led to no reduction in disease incidence he concluded that the industry could be focusing on the symptoms rather than the cause.Cellular health is key to maintaining productivity and profitability in agricultural systems. When Lance began leveraging cross species scientific data and adjusted his focus to infectious disease and the resulting inflammation, things started to make much more sense. The energetic demands of managing inflammation and all forms of inflammatory disease frequently contribute to the snowballing negative impact these diseases have on our farm animals, pets, and ourselves. Early diagnosis of immune activation and the resulting inflammation is critical.  Failure to do so has significant animal welfare, environmental, productivity, and farm profitability impacts. I recently caught up with Lance to hear more about his work. You can listen to his conversation here.  

The concern is not just climate change itself but how climate change relates to other parts of our society. Our current political and societal system is not able to deal with the complex interactions between all the issues. Population growth, climate change, the pandemic, economic crisis, energy transition, supply chain disruption, and the conflict in Eastern Europe are all being dealt with reactively and as components, with security implications for our country and our region. Many current solutions being discussed amongst the agricultural community are at the tactical level, focusing on what a farmer should do without looking at the risks to agriculture as a function. Then outside this is another layer that includes climate, water, energy, cyber, national infrastructure, sea trade, and the economy. These all need to be addressed on a national and regional level. The projected climate impact on food, water, and fishery security for the 260 million Indonesians to Australia's north will likely result in political instability and mass migration. A coherent food and climate security policy needs to also consider the regional impacts of climate change.While technology certainly has a role to play the most important issue is cultural change. John found the most successful technology adoption required a combination of top-down design combined with allowing the younger generations to experiment with emerging technologies, and vitally, all the technology effectively communicating with all other parts of the system.  John has adapted thinking that looks at what makes a military force resilient to identify key characteristics and attributes that make a resilient society. Number one is what the military call shared situational awareness, this is understanding the risks and having an honest conversation about where we are now. The second is teaming, these problems will not be solved by an industry group, scientists, or community action, they will require broad and sustained collaboration. The third and final is preparedness and mobilization, so how do we prepare for the reality that we are likely to miss the 1.5C mark and how do we mobilize our society to manage the short-term impacts and develop long term solutions. I recently caught up with John to hear more about his work. You can listen to his conversation here. 

When a delegate stood up and said to the audience “I just can't understand why a strategy of cheap food could ever be wrong,” at a 1995 Common Agricultural Policy conference no one questioned the wisdom of this statement.  Almost 30 years later, this and other well ingrained paradigms are being re-evaluated. The big questions are whether cheap food is sufficiently valued by our society and how much does cheap food drive increased food waste. Current USDA estimates are that between 30-40% of food is wasted. This is a radicle change from only one generation ago where all table scraps and leftovers that were not eaten where either fed to pigs, chickens or even the household pets.  Mary Shelman's insight and thinking on our food and agricultural systems stems as much from her time leading the Agribusiness Program at Harvard Business School and leading the development and implementation of Ireland's nations food sustainability programme, Origin Green, as it does from growing up in rural Kentucky and spending time with local farmers. We all know the challenges that have emerged around the urban rural divide. What is less discussed in the generational challenges and opportunities facing our societies around food and agriculture. Around 70% of young people today suffer from climate anxiety. Bringing young people into the conversation and leveraging their passions and concerns must become a key component of any food sustainability program. I recently caught up with Mary to hear more about her work. You can listen to his conversation here. 

There's a battle going on in the rumen of all cattle over hydrogen. When the methanogens are winning, livestock methane emissions rise, and milk and meat production decrease. When the acetogens win, milk and meat production increase, and methane emissions decline. The best opportunity available to limit the climate impact of our food systems and provide highly nutritious food to the world's population is to resolve this hydrogen war within our cattle and sheep.Professor Sharon Huws is a rumen microbiologist at Queens University Belfast who is leading global research teams working to develop solutions that benefit the climate and farmers. “If you can shift the biochemistry a little so that some of that the hydrogen is shuttled to energy, that will also reduce methanogenesis because there will be less hydrogen available.” Sharon said. Sharon and her team are using Omics technologies to improve their understanding of the rumen microbiome. These are the same technologies that have revolutionised cancer treatments over recent years. The plan is to identify microbes that can act as a hydrogen sink, microbes that capture the available hydrogen before the methanogens. They are then looking at identifying the most effective microbes that could then be made into probiotics or direct fed microbials.   The team is not starting from scratch as nature has given them a head start. There is a lot to learn from termites, wallabies, and kangaroos. They all produce very little methane because they have reductive acetogens that act as a hydrogen sink, capturing the hydrogen and converting it to energy. Methane emissions account for 5-15% of energy consumed by cattle and sheep. Winning the rumen hydrogen war will provide an economic benefit to farmers by increasing productivity and reducing feed costs, at the same time as mitigating the climate impact. This creates the vital win-win for farmers and the climate that is necessary for widespread adoption of new technologies. Sharon is optimistic that her research will provide an additive benefit by improving the performance of other livestock methane reducing technologies such as 3NOP and Asparagopsis. These technologies have shown efficacy reducing methane but do not improve productivity, leading to the conundrum of who is going to pay for them. I recently caught up with Sharon to hear more about her work. You can listen to our conversation here. 

High tech production systems can produce highly nutrient dense foods. Food processing is a technology, it's an enabler. It's the formulations that are usually the conundrum.  Every component in food has an important role to play. There are thousands of biologically active compounds above and beyond the few dozen essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. These all work together to impact our health. We are only starting to scratch the surface on understanding how these all work together. A huge part of this is the interconnections between our heath and our microbiome. Whenever we eat, we are feeding both ourselves and our microbiome.   Dr Anneline Padayachee is a nutrition scientist at the University of Queensland who has been studying the relationships between the nutrient density of our diets, our farming systems, our health, and the health of our microbiome.  Her work focuses on not just understanding these relationships but also linking the cultural, emotional, and political aspects of what we eat to human behaviour.The role of nutrient density in our food has been ignored for centuries. The first three food revolutions, from the ancient Egyptians to the Industrial revolution and the green revolution of the mid 20th century all focused on providing cheap and abundant food made from ever cheaper ingredients. This has resulted in the massive acceleration of in chronic health diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol, and heart disease. We are now entering food revolution 4.0 which is nutrition and health innovation where health must be the focus of product development. Nutrient density in food is absolutely essential. This is irrespective of whether the foods are eaten straight off farm or processed using emerging technologies. I recently caught up with Anneline to hear more about her work. You can listen to his conversation here. 

One or two healthy chickens can significantly improve the health and prosperity of marginalized communities. Poultry recycle food scraps and garden waste, forage insects and worms to produce eggs which provide much needed protein and income. The Kyeema Foundation (https://kyeemafoundation.org/) is working with some of the world's poorest communities to protect household poultry from disease. Kyeema started out vaccinating village chickens across Africa and the Pacific to protect them from disease. They have more recently expanded into restoring coral reefs and mangroves to revitalise local fisheries.  Small holder farmers provide food to around 80% of the world's population. It is only through developing a deep understanding of these communities and leveraging local expertise, traditions, and capacity that Kyeema can work to improve food and nutrition security for some of the poorest communities. There are more than 608 million family farms around the world, occupying between 70 and 80 percent of the world's farmland and producing around 80 percent of the world's food in value terms. Around 70 percent of all farms, operating on just 7 percent of all agricultural land, are less than one hectare, while another 14 percent of farms, controlling 4 percent of the land, are between one and two hectares, and another 10 percent of all farms, with 6 percent of the land, are between two and five hectares.https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1395127/icode/I recently caught up with Anthony to hear how he and his team are improving the reliance and health of their communities through sustainable local protein production. You can hear our conversation here.