Ultra-processed foods are a key driver of the global plastics pollution crisis - Nature Food The plastic waste generated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is a key driver of the global plastics crisis. Recognizing the integral role of plastics in UPF production is essential to developing a more socio-ecological perspective on these food products. This Comment identifies the linkages between the rise of UPFs and the rise of plastic packaging, calling for a renewed research agenda.

new comment by myself, @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social @katesievert.bsky.social @kimanastasiou.bsky.social and Joe Yates in @natfood.nature.com on ultra-processed foods and the global plastics pollution crisis

Why does #finance matter in #foodsystems?

Great question! If you want to find out the answer, don't miss the Hothouse's July #SavingTheWorld webinar, with @katesievert.bsky.social.

📅 17th July 2025
🕧 12:30pm AEST
🔗 hothouse.anu.edu.au/event/why-fi...

@preventioncentre.bsky.social

At last, a victory for rivers over megafarms: now councils can’t treat toxic waste as someone else’s problem | Charles Watson We won a high court case against Shropshire council’s plans for a new polluting poultry unit. Now a precedent has been set, says River Action founder Charles Watson

"This judgment sets a critical precedent. Local planning authorities can no longer treat each factory farm unit as isolated when together they create a systemic environmental crisis." 🙌

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The controversial return of Brazil’s billionaire beef barons The world’s largest meatpacker, JBS, listed in New York on Friday, marking a dramatic turnaround for the Batista brothers

Political corruption, conflicts of interest, taking public money, fixing prices, ecological harm, escaping conviction - this is the consistent story of Big Food and Ag companies - they aren't just 'more efficient' - they got that way by stepping on others

www.ft.com/content/d293...

A new tax to help Australians kick their fast fashion addiction - The Australia Institute France has become the first country in the world to tax ultra-fast fashion brands like Temu and Shein.

France has become the 1st country to tax fast fashion garments, made by the likes of Temu & Shein.

As the world’s biggest consumer of textiles per capita in the world, our research shows that Australia could implement a similar scheme to reduce our mountainous issue of fashion waste. #auspol

🇺🇳 Treaty on Transnational Corporations and their Supply Chains with regards to Human Rights 🌐 Global Campaign to Reclaim People Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity ✊🏽 https://www.stopcorporateimpunity.org #BindingTreaty #StopCorporateImpunity #StopTNCimpunity

🇺🇳 Treaty on Transnational Corporations and their Supply Chains with regards to Human Rights

🌐 Global Campaign to Reclaim People Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity
✊🏽 https://www.stopcorporateimpunity.org

#BindingTreaty
#StopCorporateImpunity
#StopTNCimpunity

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy to share this new article just published in Food Policy journal! We show that concentrated corporate power matters for people's agency within food systems.

Open access! Highlights and abstract below

Another excellent & helpful paper from Jennifer Clapp & colleagues explaining why excessive corporate power in food systems (& beyond) needs to be addressed. Highly recommend! May be of interest @criticaltakes.bsky.social @katesievert.bsky.social @hfsaus.bsky.social

The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.

RFK Jr's "MAHA" report came out last week. It misinterpreted data, had broken links to some citations, and cited 7 articles that don't exist.

That last one is a hallmark of AI hallucinations.

How much of the MAHA report was AI generated? 🤔

www.notus.org/health-scien...

@tammois.bsky.social

UK government dropped health push after lobbying by ultra-processed food firms Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals guidance for retailers in England changed after campaign by global food firms

taking the opportunity to shamelessly promoting my research on corporate power and UPFs off the back of @theguardian.com's investigative work

we need to start thinking about industry strategies in terms of a wider political economy of delay

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The informal governance of public-private partnerships in UK obesity policy: Collaborating on calorie reduction or reducing effectiveness?

I used a lot of FOIs for a research project on multistakeholder partnerships and the role of the FDF - hard to think of a trade association that’s been more effective at lobbying policy makers

www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publicati...

Great to see this get the attention it deserves @theguardian.com @thesoilassociation.bsky.social @rob-percival.bsky.social @andrewgregory.com

Israeli leaders could literally say "we will genocide until there is no more genocide to be genocided" and the world will still be like "gosh it's so complicated"

👀Absolutely fascinating insight into the tone the UK food industry feels it can take when lobbying public authorities to amend food policy to their liking.

Reads more like demands of a disappointed boss than an industry stakeholder talking to govt authorities…

UK government dropped health push after lobbying by ultra-processed food firms Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals guidance for retailers in England changed after campaign by global food firms

I spent the half-year working on this investigation. Extraordinary influence of UPF lobby behind the scenes.

'UK government dropped health push after lobbying by ultra-processed food firms' 👇

www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

China cancels U.S. pork shipments after tariffs raise prices World’s biggest importer has started welcoming more supplies from countries such as Brazil.

Trade war bites agrifood markets: China cancels 12k tonnes of US pork orders and seeks to buy instead from Brazil.

www.feedstuffs.com/market-news/...

Thanks for sharing Rob 🙏🏻

It was also revealed this week that one of JBS’ subsidiaries was the largest donor to Trump’s inauguration….! No connection, I’m sure.

‘National champions’ in global meat supply chains: implications for governance and corporate power in food systems National champion policies in BRICS countries pose challenges for governance in global meat processing markets as they increase concentration, reduce competition and enhance corporate power in food...

JBS - the world's biggest meat company - has been approved for NYSE listing, a move that is likely to exacerbate deforestation in the Amazon

@katesievert.bsky.social and colleagues have done a fascinating analysis on how the company has become so powerful

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Embattled Meat Giant JBS Cleared for NYSE Listing, Was Trump’s Largest Inauguration Donor The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cleared JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, for listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday, and the company announced it will hold a shareholder vote on the listing on May 23. Environmental organizations, animal welfare groups, and investors have been fighting to keep the Brazilian company from achieving an IPO for about a year and half based on its record of bribery, corruption, and environmental destruction. Many of those groups decried the SEC’s approval of the registration. In one statement, Laura Fox, a research scholar in Yale Law School’s Law, Environment, & Animals Program, said that by not resolving allegations that the company made misleading claims about its role in driving climate change and biodiversity loss, the SEC failed in its obligation to protect investors.

Embattled Meat Giant JBS Cleared for NYSE Listing, Was Trump’s Largest Inauguration Donor

Read the latest from the Food Policy Tracker. ➡️ buff.ly/Mk2Un24

And if you were wondering why the state-supported growth of a Brazilian meat company might matter to anyone else ...

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

New on Critical Takes:

How "national champions" from Brazil and China are becoming global giants in the meat industry.

criticaltakes.org/society-and-...

Fascinating take from @katesievert.bsky.social and co-authors on power shifts in an industry with huge effects on health, workers and nature.

We wrote a piece on our national champions paper for Critical Takes! Check it out criticaltakes.org/society-and-... 🥩

@diarmidos.bsky.social @ipes-food.org

One week until this #SavingTheWorld webinar with guest Professor @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social, hosted by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse.
📆17th April
🕥10:30am AEST
🔗Register for the Zoom link: hothouse.anu.edu.au/event/titans...

@anuregnet.bsky.social @uwaterloo.ca @anuagrifood.bsky.social

🔥new commentary in World Nutrition

'Use your Power'

worldnutritionjournal.org/index.php/wn...

The paper is partly a riposte to the industrial meat lobby, which has (successfully) appropriated NOVA to entrench meat-rich diets and their vested interests. We show that industrial animal exploitation and ultra-processing share common system drivers, linked to financialisation and corporatisation.

Common Leverage Points to Address the Health, Environmental Sustainability, and Justice Challenges of Financialised Food Systems - Food Ethics Issues with current food systems have been problematised through various lenses, including concerns about the dominance of intensively produced animal-source foods (ASFs) or ultra-processed foods (UPF...

🔈 Excited to share our new paper, led by the brilliant @katesievert.bsky.social, in which we encourage a common framing & approach for addressing unsustainable production & consumption of both ultra-processed foods 🍩🥤 & intensively produced animal-source foods 🥩

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Ultra-processed foods and industrial meat are two sides of the same coin: products of food systems shaped by financial actors, shareholder value maximisation, and corporate consolidation.

Check out our new paper 👇

Thrilled to see our ecological regulation paper on food systems out! @katesievert.bsky.social has it nicely stitched up in her thread!