Martin White

New study quantifies how food production drives species extinction risk – with enormous variation across foods and regions

Read...
📖the full story 👉 buff.ly/4pbcVHt
🔖 the full paper in Nature Food buff.ly/JZBEVLn
🍽️ More about Mandala here buff.ly/WOHbQrI

New study quantifies how food production drives species extinction risk – with enormous variation across foods and regions

🌍 New research from the Mandala Consortium and Cambridge Zoology shows the scale of species extinction risk driven by food production, with huge differences across foods & regions. Impacts can vary by up to 1,000x depending on what we eat & where it’s produced. buff.ly/4pbcVHt 🧵 1/7

Key action areas for transforming the UK food system: insights from the Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS) Programme project portfolio | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences The UK food system is a driver of the public health crisis of non-communicable disease, is linked to the cost-of-living crisis, and contributes to climate change, biodiversity loss and soil…

In an accompanying review @martinwhite33.bsky.social, who leads the Mandala Consortium, and colleagues set out 27 practical ideas to transform food systems for the better, covering farming, manufacturing, supply chains & what ends up on our plates.

buff.ly/7e8hte7

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In this BMJ paper, @martinwhite33.bsky.social and colleagues present a new MRC and NIHR framework that provides an integrated guide for using a natural experimental approach to evaluating population health and health system interventions.

Read the paper at buff.ly/cEXl6km

Honoured and grateful - many thanks. Sorry to have not been there this year!

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Takeaways can negatively impact the diet and diet-related health outcomes of local residents

Local authority urban planners can deny planning for new takeaways in management zones around schools

But what are the long term impacts of these exclusion zones?

Read - buff.ly/S04RDSP

From PhD to PI in ten 'easy' steps Our warts-and-all account of what it's like to do public health research.

>10 years old but still as relevant - 10 tips for progressing from PhD to PI from @martinwhite33.bsky.social

fuseopenscienceblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/from...

Sugary drinks, processed foods, alcohol and tobacco are big killers: why the G20 should add its weight to health taxes The G20 should acknowledge that diseases like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes are part of a system in which commercial actors are causing ill health.

Karen Hofman and Susan Goldstein cal for G20 to implement health taxes to tackle the rising tide of NCDs. The numbers are staggering, the arguments compelling.
theconversation.com/sugary-drink...

THRIVING Food Futures logo. On a white background there is the word 'thriving' in green. On the left is a picture of a plate, leaf and fork all overlapping in green. But artistic, like.

Our new research hub on the co-benefits for health of sustainable diets has just got itself a BlueSky account! Follow @thrivingfoodfuture.bsky.social for info about the project.

Cool logo, eh?

An evaluation of mandatory calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector Future of Food seminar: Professor Jean Adams

Next week we welcome @jeanmadams.bsky.social to Oxford for our Wednesday seminar. Professor Adams will be talking about mandatory calorie labelling and what it reveals about public health policy making.
Join in person @oxmartinschool.bsky.social or online 👇
www.futureoffood.ox.ac.uk/event/an-eva...

Surprisingly not!

In other news, the weather is bueno and the jacarandas in bloom...

I have more to say about this, but will maybe wait until I've heard and seen more...

At #ECO2025 @jeanmadams.bsky.social and @harryrutter.bsky.social answering some difficult questions with vaguely unpopular but insightful answers. #systemsthinking @easoobesity.bsky.social

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

Webinar: Introducing the updated framework for using natural experiments to evaluate population health interventions

Fri 23 May
12:00 - 13:15

Register at events.teams.microsoft.com/event/f01e66...

We are hiring! We're looking for two post-doc researchers to help us deliver a randomised controlled trial of group model building to address inequalities in diet in English local authorities.

Two 3y posts, ideally starting in July. Closing date 4 May.

Full details: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50905/

Designing more environmentally sustainable hospital menus The Mandala Consortium is a research project focusing on transforming urban food systems for planetary and population health. Can changes to inpatient paedia...

Researchers for the Mandala Consortium studied the environmental sustainability of inpatient paediatric menus, while assessing the potential to maintain/improve the nutritional value and the appeal of the dishes, and the related costs to the NHS.

Watch - buff.ly/AGZDHIe

Written by the Unit’s Prof. @jeanmadams.bsky.social and published in PLOS Medicine, this perspective reflects on the importance of both life and social scientists utilising the NOVA system to investigate “the key questions of both which foods, and which aspects of food systems, cause the most harm”.

A head-on shot of the finished drystone wall, showing the full arch and the even, tight stonework. The three large protruding stones, meant to hold a bench, are clearly visible. Behind, a stand of thin trees in early leaf frames the scene.

A close, angled view of the wall from the right-hand side. The depth of the wall and the precise fit of the stones are visible. The three bench supports jut out confidently, and the coping stones curve cleanly along the top edge.

A wide view of a newly built drystone wall, recessed into a grassy bank with a light woodland backdrop. The wall features a curved arch of upright coping stones along the top and three protruding flat stones spaced across the middle, intended to support a bench. Earth around the wall is still rough from the recent build.

Just finished this 5m long drystone seating area on the banks of the loch.

It will hold a single piece of oak across the three protruding stones to form a bench.

Built by hand, no mortar, just time, attention, and stone. All materials sourced locally.

#Scotland #Nature #Environment #Sustainable

That is fabulous - well done! I just hope the seat isn't going to be too high for people with short legs! This seems to be a common problem in a number of public places...

Agree Pete, but the bigger gains will come from the uprating of the tax in line with inflation, albeit this is going to be staggered over years...

Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy consultation

A few thoughts on the UK government proposal to amend the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.

TL;dr good on milk drinks, threshold change could backfire, missed opportunity to align with environmental policy on plant-based milks.

🎙️How can we make food that is good for health, societies, the planet and the economy?

Governments need to develop food strategies that are comprehensive, that cross all government departments and really take a holistic view - says @martinwhite33.bsky.social
@mrcepid.bsky.social

pod.fo/e/2c3eac

Bans on junk food advertising in outdoor spaces derailed by industry lobbying Councils trying to bring in policies to protect the public from unhealthy food adverts face a “tobacco playbook” of tactics to stymie their plans, such as financial warnings and claims advertisers “ca...

Important investigative piece in @bmj.com Nice video explainer...

Bans on junk food advertising in outdoor spaces derailed by industry lobbying www.bmj.com/content/389/...

The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

You have to read this article.
"The forces we are up against have made peace with mass death. They are treasonous to this world and its human and non-human inhabitants."
By @naomiaklein.bsky.social and @astra.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

After 21 years at my dream job, I’m very sad to announce my early retirement from the National Institutes of Health. My life’s work has been to scientifically study how our food environment affects what we eat, and how what we eat affects our physiology.

So sorry to hear this Kevin. So many terrible stories emerging from the US right now. Our hearts go out to you. But also know that scientists around the world pledge solidarity with you as you stand up for the truth. Let us know if there's any way we can help or offer support.

Political ideology and trust in scientists in the USA - Nature Human Behaviour In this Registered Report, Gligorić et al. find that liberals in the USA tend to have higher trust in most scientists compared with conservatives. However, they find no evidence that a series of inter...

liberals show higher trust in most scientists. 5 theoretically grounded intervention strategies to improve conservatives’ trust in scientists were all unsuccessful, suggesting that trust in scientists reflects relatively stable attitudes
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We did an analysis for the House of Lords Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity to look at the overlap between foods high in salt, fat and sugar (HFSS) and ultra-processed (UPF). We extended the analysis and it is published today (open access):

nutrition.bmj.com/content/earl...

Just came across this - Government's open access evaluation registry. Lots of recent key public health policies (e.g. SDIL) are not mentioned at all - so either they've not been evaluated (by gov) or not got into the registry yet. Clearly work in progress...

civilservice.blog.gov.uk/2025/03/31/p...