The UK risks seeing $30bn a year wiped off the value of the economy if the world fails to respond to the decline in nature. A new Global Futures study by WWF modelled the economic cost of the loss of global biodiversity across 140 countries by 2050 if the world carries on with “business as…

Veg box retailer Abel & Cole has launched a refillables trial that will see single-use packaging removed from a selection of pantry items and delivered instead in returnable, reusable pots. The company said the service, named Club Zero, is the first to be offered by an online food retailer as part of people’s regular weekly…

Quorn is to put carbon footprint labels on 60% of its products in a bid to “better inform people” about the environmental impacts of the products they buy. The meat alternative brand will display “Farm to Shop” carbon footprint data, certified by the Carbon Trust, on its top 30 selling products. The information will initially…

A shift to organic farming and the use of novel feeds such as seaweed could help Scotland’s farming sector significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 25 years. A new report by the Organic Policy, Business and Research Consultancy, commissioned by WWF Scotland, concluded that the country’s agricultural sector could easily achieve the 35%…

Tesco is measuring the full environmental impact of 20 popular foods. The new metric is part of the retailer’s ambition to reduce the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket by 50%. The foods – including fruit, meat, fish, snacks and drinks – will be assessed against seven criteria, each with its own weighting:…

Tesco has committed £10m to a new initiative that aims to ensure deforestation-free soy in food supply chains. The funding will support soy farmers in the Cerrado region of Brazil to protect native vegetation and transition to producing soy that uses only existing agricultural land. Tesco will contribute £10m over five years to the Funding…

Supermarkets are being urged to introduce water dispensers and refill stations for soft drinks into their stores to help tackle plastic pollution. Research from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Greenpeace found that sales of plastic water bottles from six leading supermarkets which provided year-on-year figures increased 8.2% last year, despite growing public awareness about…

Millions of coffee and sugar farmers face impoverished livelihoods next year as prices rise but not enough to match the cost of production. Rabobank’s outlook, Supply slide saves grounded demand, tracks the prospects for a basket of 10 key agri-commodities in 2020, including coffee, sugar, palm oil and soybeans. The oversupply of coffee and low prices…

More people than ever are relying on food banks to feed themselves, according to new figures from the Trussell Trust. The charity gave out over 820,000 emergency three-day food parcels in the six months between April and September, a 23% increase on the previous year and up from the 492,000 parcels handed out in the…

Sales of vegan ready-meals have overtaken vegetarian ones for the first time and more and more people are adopting “seagan” – vegan plus seafood – diets, according to this year’s Food & Drink Report by Waitrose. The report is based on new OnePoll consumer research of people across Britain (not just Waitrose & Partners shoppers),…