CRPR University of Exeter

This is Big Doughnutty News... It's been a long time coming but it’s finally out - the all-new 2025 Doughnut launches today. And with this third version of the Doughnut come many significant firsts:   - It's peer-reviewed and published open-access in Nature, the leading science journal. You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/eDXKEsZq - It's co-authored by me and Andrew Fanning, my brilliant 'crunch-data-for-breakfast' colleague at DEAL, who has taken the Doughnut's quantification to a whole new level.   - Together we've turned the Doughnut from a static snapshot into an annual monitor for tracking trends in global social and ecological change, starting from 2000, so far up to 2022 - and we'll be updating it every year from here on, so it will always be current.   - We've unrolled the Doughnut to make a new diagram which we have affectionately started calling 'the Baguette' (you'll get it when you see it). It clearly shows that, while the global economy has doubled in GDP terms over the last two decades, many global social shortfalls have been (too slowly) reduced, and many ecological crises have gone even further into overshoot.   - We've disaggregated the Doughnut by clustering countries into three groups - the poorest 40%, middle 40% and richest 20% - and this makes starkly visible the concentrated responsibility for planetary overshoot amongst the richest nations, in contrast to the concentration of human deprivation amongst the poorest.   - To accompany the launch of this new version of the Doughnut I've written a paper, short and sweet, called The Evolving Doughnut - setting out the ideas that first inspired the concept, and how and why it has changed over its three iterations. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eF5vS2Mt - There's also an interactive webpage at Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) for exploring the details of all the Doughnut’s dimensions. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eQBqR_CD So there's lots to dive into. We are delighted that many people include Doughnut diagrams in their presentations and we'd love to ensure that everyone is aware of and has access to this latest version - so please do repost this news to help spread the word. Doughnut 1.0 was first published way back in 2012, meaning that the Doughnut is now 13 years old - yes, a teenager, just starting out on the infamous phase of life which is all about being volatile, unpredictable, rebellious and transformative. Bring it on.

⁉️ Why are food prices still rising? Food prices have surged in recent years, and the latest figures show food inflation climbing again to 5.1% in August. What’s struck me is how much of the coverage (including the BBC News’, linked below) has echoed the food industry’s pre-budget talking points: blaming higher minimum wages, employer NICs, and things like packaging taxes for keeping prices stubbornly high.    Yes, those factors matter. But they don’t tell the whole story.   When you dig into the data, two things stand out: [1] The price rises are concentrated in a small group of foods [2] The production of these foods have all been hit by extreme weather, made more likely by climate change 🚨 Foods affected by extreme weather are rising over four times faster than everything else 🚨 Prices for butter, beef, milk, coffee and chocolate have jumped 15.6% in the past year, compared with just 2.8% for other food and drink. These items make up only 11% of a typical shop, yet account for nearly 40% of total food price inflation. As highlighted in the Bank of England’s August Monetary Policy Report ‘…dry weather conditions are pushing up the production costs of beef and some dairy products in the UK and elsewhere, as cows must be fed silage earlier in the year due to less grass growth.’ Alongside a major outbreak of bluetongue hitting milk production in Europe, the risk of which is known to be increased by climate change, this has tightened the availability of milk and cream, pushing up prices. It’s not just homegrown food. The UK imports around 40% of its food. Cocoa prices have more than tripled in three years after extreme heat and flooding devastated harvests in West Africa. Similarly, coffee prices spiked sharply through late 2023 and into 2024, driven by droughts in Brazil and Vietnam. According to the FAO, it takes around a year for these shocks to hit consumers — and the effects linger for at least four. So yes, labour and tax policy play a role. But if we only point fingers at wages and regulation, we miss the bigger picture: a food system already buckling under climate disruption. Central banks are clear that climate change increases food prices in ways they cannot control or predict, creating systemic risk to our food system. There is no monetary policy lever they can pull to address this. 🌍 Only by reducing our emissions to #netzero and bringing balance back to our climate will we limit the impact of climate change on food prices in the future. - Full Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit analysis: https://lnkd.in/dmAX9pv6 - Financial Times write up here: https://lnkd.in/dqujt9RV - DailyMail.com: https://lnkd.in/dN_yGq2w - BBC piece: https://lnkd.in/diuQbpdD

🚨 Nearly six million adults are still struggling to afford healthy, nutritious food - meaning they are cutting back on meals or skipping them entirely. Our latest Food Insecurity Tracking data shows: 🔹 One in 10 households are affected by food insecurity 🔹 This rises to almost one in seven households with children 🔹Struggling families are sacrificing healthier foods like fruit and veg Levels of food insecurity can reduce or increase depending on the policy choices made by government - as highlighted by our latest report Roadmap to Reducing Food Insecurity in the UK. Read our new report: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eBiWhSNG Learn how today's inflation figures are affecting food prices: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eB73FAR9 Listen to our upcoming podcast, available from 12pm on Friday (Oct 24), for analysis of the data here: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e9j36ghm Food, Farming and Countryside Commission Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming Eating Better Soil Association Health Equals School Food Matters Chefs in Schools Bite Back Nuffield Foundation Sue Pritchard Vic Harper Stephanie Slater MBE Barbara Crowther Alison Garnham Child Poverty Action Group UK Women's Support Network (WSN) The Association Of Directors of Public Health (UK)

And so now we come to possibly the focus groups I've been looking forward to the most. #Farmers - it is your turn. We are holding two focus groups in November specifically to bring farmers together to provide their voice to shaping science and technology. If you are a farmer please do join us at Norwich Research Park on Monday 10th November: sign up here - https://lnkd.in/eHUWR6SB Or at the Angel & Royal Hotel, Grantham on Tuesday 11th November: sign up here - https://lnkd.in/eARvQnsZ Please spread the word. #Agriculture #Farming #Research #Norwich #Grantham #Lincolnshire #Norfolk