The Centre for Food Policy

Christina is Deputy Director of the Centre for Food Policy, City University of London. She is a registered nutritionist and has worked in public health nutrition ~20 years in Australia and Europe. Christina's research aims to inform the implementation and evaluation of food-related policies and interventions which optimise population nutrition, reduce inequalities and protect our planet.

See Dr Anna Isaacs' full staff profile

Dr Anna Isaacs is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy. She is currently working on a series of projects for the NIHR-funded Obesity Policy Research Unit, exploring how food policies can better support positive nutritional outcomes, particularly in areas of deprivation. More broadly, Anna is interested in exploring how social, political, economic, and environmental factors shape experiences of health and wellbeing in different contexts, how these factors leads to health inequalities, and what policy can do to address this. She has expertise in a range of in-depth qualitative and participatory methods, and experience of working with diverse communities in areas of deprivation.

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Rebecca is a Lecturer in Food Policy in the Centre for Food Policy. A former BBC radio producer and food journalist, Rebecca's research focuses on the interaction between food policy and the media. Her PhD took as a case study UK Department of Health recommendations on red and processed meat consumption and cancer 1993-2011, looking at the ways policies were developed and policy interaction with UK print media. Following completion of her PhD, Rebecca worked as a Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow on the Food Systems teaching programme IFSTAL (Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning) and as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow on the EU funded research project QUEST (Quality and Effectiveness in Science and Technology Communication), exploring science journalism as part of a wider programme looking at science communication across Europe. Her research interests include food policy, food in the media, food systems, food systems teaching and learning, food poverty, food banks, food security and science communication.

See Dr Rebecca Wells' full staff profile

Follow Dr Rebecca Wells at twitter.com/wellsrebecca

As a Research Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy, Mark is responsible for establishing and leading new, interdisciplinary projects exploring public policy solutions for healthy diets in the UK and internationally. Mark’s primary research interests centre on seeking to better understand peoples’ lived experiences of local food environments, and how these findings can contribute to more effective and inclusive food policy.

See Mark Spires' full staff profile

Dr Christian Reynolds is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Food Policy, City University, London; and an adjunct Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield, and at the Barbara Hardy Institute for Sustainable Environments and Technologies, University of South Australia.

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Charlotte Gallagher Squires is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Food Policy. She is currently working on a study for the NIHR-funded Obesity Policy Research Unit, exploring how COVID-19 has changed families' relationships with food and the food environment. More broadly Charlotte is interested in how peoples' understanding and experience of health is socially, culturally, politically and historically situated.

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Stephanie is a Research Assistant, working on the SHEFs project (Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems) and the 'No Regrets' Actions project. She also contributed research to inform the development of England's National Food Strategy.

See Stephanie Walton's full staff profile

Sabine Parrish is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy. She is currently working on the Family Food Experience - London study, where she supports all arms of the project and leads the qualitative data collection. With a background in food and medical anthropology, she has conducted ethnographic work in the United Kingdom, United States, and Brazil.

See Sabine Parrish's full staff profile

Christopher is an urban geographer based at the Centre for Food Policy. His research draws on political economy and political ecology perspectives, as well as participatory visual methods, to examine intersections between urbanisation, planning, inequality, and food systems governance. Christopher is a Research Fellow on a large interdisciplinary action research programme, FixOurFood (fixourfood.org); part of a work package that examines and contributes towards developing the policies, governance structures, and decision-making processes that are necessary to transform the UK’s food systems.

See Christopher Yap's full staff profile

Paul is a post-doctoral research fellow and public health registrar based at the Centre for Food Policy, City University. His research takes a mixed methods approach to explore the relationship between human health and the built and natural environment, with a particular focus on food policy, obesity and the social determinants of health.He is currently working on a series of projects for the NIHR-funded Obesity Policy Research Unit, exploring how policy across government could be better aligned to address drivers of obesity; exploring how COVID-19 has changed families' relationships with food and the food environment; and understanding how people can be placed at the heart of food systems policy.

See Paul Coleman's full staff profile

Tanya Zerbian is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy. She is currently working on a project funded by the Transforming UK Food Systems Programme Annual Project Synergy Fund to map and critically unpack knowledge-policy interfaces with regards to food systems in the UK.

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Rachel is a research fellow working at the Centre for Food Policy on HEALTHEI: Health Economic Analysis Incorporating Effects on Labour outcomes, Households, Environment and Inequalities for Food Taxes. Along with her colleagues, her project investigates media portrayals of unhealthy food taxes in domestic news sources. The project is funded by the NIHR and is a collaborative research project between three universities, led by the University of Sheffield and including City, University of London.

See Rachel Heading's full staff profile

Rosalind is interested in the sustainability of food systems, and has studied the social aspects of sustainability in the UK’s industrial food system, as well as working on food system governance in research projects in the UK and EU. She is director of the Food Research Collaboration, based at the Centre for Food Policy, which aims to make constructive links between academia and civil society to drive progress towards more sustainable food production and consumption.

See Dr Rosalind Sharpe's full staff profile.

Anthony is a communications and policy professional with extensive experience at the intersection of business, communications and politics. His international career has included work with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the British Chamber of Commerce, the Food and Drink Federation, the United States Senate and for several political campaigns. In 2018-2020 he studied for an MSc at the Centre for Food Policy, where his dissertation examined the political and lobbying complexities of the reauthorisation of glyphosate in the European Union. Prior to working in communications and advocacy, he gained a Master’s degree in EU politics from the London School of Economics’ European Institute.

Harriet is the Food Research Collaboration's Research Officer. She works on the 'Sustainable Food Hubs' project, researching local and sustainable food supply chains in the UK. She is currently working towards an MSc in Environment, Politics and Society at UCL, as well as working for NGO Better Food Traders as the Data Project Lead.

See Harriet Hammans' full profile.

Martin is Professor Emeritus in Food and Health Policy at Centre for Food Policy at City, University London. He originally trained as an environmental health officer in Dublin. After working in the north west of Ireland he developed an interest in the public health and health promotion aspects of the work. He spent some time working in the Irish and the English health services managing health promotion and public health services respectively.

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Follow Professor Martin Caraher at twitter.com/MartinCaraher

Tim Lang has been Professor of Food Policy at City, University of London's Centre for Food Policy since 2002. He founded the Centre in 1994. After a PhD in social psychology at Leeds University, he became a hill farmer in the 1970s in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire which shifted his attention to food policy, where it has been ever since. For years, he's engaged in academic and public research and debate about its direction, locally to globally. His abiding interest is how policy addresses the mixed challenge of being food for the environment, health, social justice, and citizens. What is a good food system? How is ours measured and measuring up?

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Follow Professor Tim Lang at twitter.com/ProfTimLang

Elaine is the Centre for Food Policy’s Coordinator. She supports a wide range of activities including its events (such as the Food Thinkers webinars and the annual City Food Symposium), communications, as well as office coordination. She has more than ten years’ experience working in Higher Education, having previously worked in a variety of event management, student and academic support roles at the University of London.

Adrian is the Project Manager of the Family Food Experience Study - London research project funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) which is examining inequality in childhood obesity in London. He is responsible for project managing all aspects of this collaborative project led by the Centre for Food Policy working with researchers at Durham University, University College London & the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is responsible for coordinating all project elements and communicating with research partners and local stakeholders in order to deliver a high-quality study within the project timeline and resources.  Adrian has extensive experience of managing projects in the health sector whilst working in the NHS, international consultancy, NGOs and UK charities.

Céire is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Food Policy. Her interest in early capitalist food production prompted her current studies at City University. Her belief is that thoughtful, intersectional policy can effect political and cultural change within our food system. Céire's work supports the Centre's upcoming Food Symposium in 2023.

Harvey Ells is looking at how different English street markets in the UK are reflected in wellbeing – whether markets’ role is the creation of retail-related social capital and what this means for policy.

Amanda McCloat is working on policy issues related to the place and location of Home Economics in the secondary school curriculum in the Republic of Ireland. Her focus is on why and how Home Economics education and its role in the curriculum is established while in areas such as the UK it has lost its focus.

See Amanda's full profile

Natalie Neumann is assessing policy’s role in supporting farmers’ markets in the UK, asking: are they reaching all levels of society and creating equality in access to locally farmed and nutritious food?

Jessica Brock is looking at what difference co-designing and co-creating actions with young people makes to the development and delivery of policy and actions, to create an urban environment that enables healthier food choices.

See Jessica Brock's full profile

Our Food Policy MSc

Discover how to change the food system for the better on our unique MSc in Food Policy at City. The MSc is for people who care about food and want to gain a strong, critical grasp of food policy as a field of scholarship and practice. Full details can be found on the course pages. The modules Food and Public Policy and Political Economy of Food are also available to study as continuing professional development courses.

Our Food Policy PhD / MPhil

Our PhD / MPhil in Food Policy at City educates students wanting to gain deeper insights into food policy - the way it is made, how it is designed, and its effects. It is an advanced route into academic work in food policy as well as other professions. It will help you acquire the skills to become a professional researcher; explore a topic of interest to you in-depth, and contribute original work which will extend the current knowledge base to influence and change food policy. Full details can be found on the course pages.

Our PhD programme has a cohort of students studying a diversity of food policy topics and actively engaged in the life of the Centre. It offers early and mid-career professionals the opportunity to situate detailed research within the bigger picture and engage with live policy issues.

UK Food Systems Centre for Doctoral Training, 2021-2027

City is one of the 9 universities managing the new UKFS-CDT, which will train over 60 interdisciplinary doctoral researchers capable of leading the UK towards a resilient, healthy and inclusive food future. The first cohort starts in autumn of 2021, with a first year spent at University of Greenwich and thereafter students will move to a university partner, including City.

Our CPD courses

Further details of our continuing professional development courses are available here.

Graduates from our Masters and PhD programmes run NGOs, progressive food businesses, work in governments, and UN or international agencies, and have established great careers in health advocacy, journalism and academia.

Read about some of our Food Policy alumni and what they are up to now, or ‘a day in the life’ of alumni Kawther Hasham, Researcher, Nutritionist and Campaigner at Action on Sugar and Sky Cracknell, an artisan jam entrepreneur.

Each year the Worshipful Company of Cooks and the Worshipful Company of Farmers award prizes for outstanding dissertations. We are delighted to have their continued support, as are our students:

Winning the Worshipful Company of Cooks Food Policy Dissertation Prize was an honour. On a personal level, it meant a lot to me that the energy and effort I’d put into my dissertation had been recognised in such a way. I do not doubt that it has helped enormously with my professional development as well; I was awarded a fully-funded PhD at the University of Oxford to continue my masters project in 2016. The award of academic prizes makes up part of the selection criteria for prospective PhD candidates, so I genuinely feel that the Worshipful Company of Cooks Food Policy Dissertation Prize played a significant part in my success at being given a place here at Oxford.

Lauren Bandy, 2014 winner of the Worshipful Company of Cooks Dissertation Prize

I was utterly delighted to receive the Worshipful Company of Farmers Food Policy Dissertation Prize. As a mum of two kids who had not written an essay for nearly twenty years the MSc in Food Policy was very challenging for me, in many ways. I worked really hard and to have this recognised with the Prize was wonderful. Following my Masters course I decided to do a PhD, and I am sure that the Prize helped me win a scholarship.

Annie Connolly, 2014 winner of the Worshipful Company of Farmers Dissertation Prize

I was surprised and delighted to win the Worshipful Company of Cooks dissertation prize given the quality of candidates at the Centre of Food Policy. It was an honour to be invited to accept the award among so many exceptional talents from all areas of food. The prize is not only a recognition of my research into healthy food behaviours, but is a great reminder of the importance of integrating academic discussion with other industries and careers to bring about positive change across the food system and create opportunities for collaboration. The award has subsequently supported my ambition to further my career into food policy as I recently accepted a role as an advisor to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Clara Widdeson, 2016 winner of the Worshipful Company of Cooks Dissertation Prize

I was delighted to win the Food Policy Dissertation Prize from the Worshipful Company of Farmers. To receive the award, I was invited to join a special luncheon where I had the opportunity to engage with British farmers in meaningful discussions on how my research in the sustainability of animal agriculture impacts their work on the ground as well as how they are collectively thinking about sustainability and health of British agriculture as a livery company. I can’t imagine an award for my research that would mean more to me than the recognition of farmers themselves, upon whom our whole food system depends.

Christiana Wyly, 2017 winner of the Worshipful Company of Farmers Dissertation Prize

Assessing food policy interactions across government: A policy coherence analysis (Jan 2022 – Jan 2023)

Unhealthy eating practices associated with obesity and weight gain are influenced by a range of interacting factors, including but not limited to, ease of access to unhealthy food, financial insecurity and prompts in food environments. These diverse drivers of dietary behaviour cross the remit of numerous government departments, from health to education and environment. However, different departments understandably have different priorities and metrics which drive their work, potentially resulting in a lack of policy coherence across government. A first step in supporting the development of coherent food policy is to undertake a policy coherence analysis.

The purpose of a policy coherence analysis is to understand how existing food policy interacts across government in order to support synergies and interconnections between economic, social, health and environmental policy areas. The rational for this proposed research, therefore, is to understand food policy coherence within the UK and to determine how government policy could be better aligned to address the drivers of obesity. This will be achieved through a series of in-depth collaborative interviews with civil servant and policy makers both within DHSC and other government departments. This project is led by Dr Paul Coleman.

Who is making Food Policy (ongoing)

The objective of this project is to identify who makes food policy across government to stimulate questions about how decision-making could be improved to take a more coherent approach to policy-making across the food system. The project is a collaboration between the Food Research Collaboration (FRC) and the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems project (SHEFS). Four short Briefs have been published for the SHEFs countries – England, South Africa, India and Australia – with more in the pipeline. Each brief identifies the key government departments that make policy affecting the food system, and briefly describes the main policies, with a thematic focus on the SHEFS priority of policies for sustainable, healthy and equitable food systems. This project is being undertaken in partnership with SHEFS. The project lead is Prof Corinna Hawkes.

HEALTHEI (Health Economic Analysis incorporating effects on Labour outcomes, Households, Environment and Inequalities) (Oct 2022 – Mar 2025)

Eating unhealthy foods leads to excess weight and health-related issues. Some experts think that putting taxes and subsidies on food will encourage healthy eating. This in turn will reduce obesity-related health issues and create fewer differences in health between more and less advantaged communities. It is thought that if you put up the price of unhealthy foods, people will eat less of these and choose healthier foods instead. The success of a policy like this depends on factors such as how businesses respond, whether changes actually improve diet, and whether any changes happen which aren’t expected.

The purpose of the HEALTHEI study is to talk to all stakeholders about what the next food taxes should be, and what they should be on. We will look at the way taxes might affect the whole food system, and will estimate the effects on health, NHS costs, employment, the economy and environment.

The project is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield and Teeside University and is funded by the The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The project leads at City are Dr Rebecca Wells and Dr Christian Reynolds.

Reducing plastic packaging and food waste through product innovation simulation (Jan 2021 - Aug 2023)

This research project’s aim is to expand and enhance the piloted Household Simulation Model (HHSM). To achieve this it will simulate the impact of interventions on plastic packaging and food waste generation practices for a range of key food products, differentiating between different household/demographic types and modelling a greater range of interventions and product changes. It will incorporate the assessment of plastic packaging changes and food waste reduction trade-offs with environmental and economic impact metrics. Key to its success is building a network/user base of academics, policy makers, and industry stakeholders for the HHSM and its outputs.

The project is a collaboration between the Centre for Food Policy and the Universities of Sheffield Centre for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (CEES) | CEES | The University of Sheffield , Greenwich Natural Resources Institute - Home Page (nri.org) and Kent Growing Kent & Medway - Research at Kent. This Enabling research in smart sustainable plastic packaging (SSPP) – UKRI project is led Dr Christian Reynolds, supported by Adrian White, project manager.

Food systems actions for environmental sustainability, nutrition and livelihoods (Sept 2021 - Nov 2022)

The project aims to identify actions to reorient food systems towards environmental sustainability and improved nutrition, while protecting livelihoods. It represents the second phase of the project “42 policies and actions to orient food systems towards healthier diets for all”, co-led by the CFP, GAIN, and Johns Hopkins University. Combining expert input with recommendations made in international reports on food systems, the team will compile a menu of potential options for increasing the environmental sustainability of all activities related to food production, distribution and consumption.

A co-benefit analysis will then be used to ascertain which actions have the highest potential for positively affecting both nutrition and the environment. The team will also list major potential trade-offs linked with the environmental actions, to offer policymakers a comprehensive view on which recommendations are most likely to work according to the current consensus, and what negative consequences they may have. The final lists of actions, potential co-benefits, and trade-offs will be incorporated in the Food Systems Dashboard.

The project has been funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and is led by Prof. Corinna Hawkes, Stephanie Walton, and Sebastiano Caleffi.

Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) (2018–2023)

The Centre for Food Policy is leading on the policy component of the SHEFS project with the objective of identifying how policy can enable both sustainability and health in food systems in South Africa, India and the UK. It involves engagement and co-creation of solutions with policy-makers to address food system challenges, through formats like Transformation labs. This project is being conducted in partnership with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University College London, University of Aberdeen, the Food Foundation, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, The Royal Veterinary College, the School of Oriental and African Studies and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. It is funded by the Wellcome Trust, and at the Centre for Food Policy led by Prof Corinna Hawkes.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (SFTC) Food Network+ Extension (2020-2023)

This is an interdisciplinary community working to provide a sustainable, secure supply of safe, nutritious, and affordable high-quality food. The network harnesses the STFC capabilities in (a) data science, (b) technology and (c) facilities for better understanding and addressing food challenges via themes of (i) Sustainable production, (ii) Resilient supply chains and (iii) Improved Nutrition and Consumer Behaviours. The goal of the network is to support policy makers and the food industry through the application of STFC physics technology to agri-food issues. The network achieves this through funding pilot projects where STFC research and technology is applied to solve agri-food problems. These pilots are then scaled through additional research and partnerships to reshape the food system. It is led at City, University of London by Dr Christian Reynolds.

Food Systems Policy Choices Initiative (2020-2023)

The initiative aims to provide an overview of how the food system could leverage its transformational power towards improving diets, recognizing the interconnections and competing demands of other food systems goals; taking environmental, gender, and economic factors into consideration. The outputs of this initiative will be practical and actionable resources to inform decision-making by policymakers and funders. They will include a compendium of evidence and practical policy briefs on how existing food system policies have played out to influence diets in different contexts, identifying synergies and unintended consequences. Different sources of evidence will be integrated, such as scientific studies, policy analysis, practical examples, and lived experiences.

We will convene an advisory group to ensure our outputs are comprehensive, high quality, practical and useable by the food systems policy community. We are working in partnership with Results for Development (R4D) and have been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is led by Prof Corinna Hawkes.

FixOurFood (2021-25)

FixOurFood is a large, interdisciplinary research programme that aims to understand and build pathways towards food systems transformation in Yorkshire and across the UK. The programme focuses on three research areas: regenerative farming; hybrid economies; and sustainable and healthy food for children. The Centre for Food Policy (Prof Corinna Hawkes and Dr Christopher Yap) is leading cross-cutting research that specifically examines and contributes towards developing the policies, governance structures, and decision-making processes that are necessary to transition towards fairer and more sustainable food systems. FixOurFood is led by Professor Bob Doherty at the University of York, with partners at the University of Leeds, Cranfield University, and the University of Manchester, as well as local partners across Yorkshire. For more information, please visit: fixourfood.org/.

What policy options will be effective in encouraging healthy feeding practices among infants and young children? (Jul 2020 – Sep 2022)

A qualitative, longitudinal study exploring how parents transition from feeding their infants milk, to solid foods. The study is engaging parents with babies currently aged 4 – 6 months, 10 – 12 months and 16 – 18 months from high, middle and low-income groups from across England. The methodology consists of in-depth interviews and photo-elicitation activities. The study, which was conducted virtually due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, is exploring the complex range of factors that influence caregivers across the socioeconomic spectrum when deciding what food and drink to purchase for their infant children. The goal is to generate evidence that will enable us to identify policies that can create the necessary conditions to support healthy infant feeding practices. It is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) as part of the Obesity Policy Research Unit. The project is led by Dr Anna Isaacs and Dr Paul Coleman.

Food in lockdown and beyond (Sept 2020 - Dec 2022)

A qualitative, longitudinal study exploring families’ changing experiences of food and the food environment in light of COVID-19 in England. The study involves engaging 60-80 families from across the socioeconomic spectrum in three case study sites (the London Borough of Brent, Bradford District and Folkestone and Hythe District) in a series of in-depth interviews and creative participatory methods. The study, which is being conducted virtually due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, is exploring the ways in which families’ experiences of, engagement with, and feelings about food and food environments have changed since the onset of COVID-19. The goal of the project is to determine if and how existing public health policies aiming to prevent and reduce childhood obesity could be adapted or augmented in light of any changes. It is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) as part of the Obesity Policy Research Unit. The project’s lead is Dr Anna Isaacs. You can find out more on the study website.

How children experience food environments in their daily lives: a global project with UNICEF (to Dec 2022)

This project is supporting UNICEF regional and country offices to put together a picture of daily life of how children interact with food environments in their countries. The focus is on capturing, illustrating and communicating how food systems influence the diets of children in the context of their lived realities, such as their assets and resources, the cultural aspects of food and social norms. The study is launching in the Philippines, and will expand to include other countries of the world. The intended outcome is that UNICEF, government and nutrition stakeholders are more informed about the role food environments play in influencing children’s diets, and more ready to implement the needed combination of actions to enable food systems to deliver better diets for children. It is led by Prof Corinna Hawkes.

Family Food Experience Study – London (Sept 2020 – Jun 2023)

The study is investigating how diet-related policy interventions are being experienced by lower-income children and households in London in order to identify how these policies and interventions could be added to or adapted to have impact on inequalities on obesity. We are using both quantitative (household surveys and participant physical measurements) and qualitative (go-along interviews and group model building exercises) approaches to gain insights and ultimately make recommendations to local authorities on how their policies and interventions can be adapted in order to be more effective. We are working closely with stakeholders in London to inform the focus of this study and ensure the study is relevant to users. We are partnering with University College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Durham University, and NatCen Social Research. We are also working closely with community members in study communities to inform and guide the study, as well as with local authorities. This project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and is managed at the Centre for Food Policy by Adrian White. You can find out more on the study website.

The Nourished Child Project (Apr 2020 – Dec 2022)

The aim of this study is to define and communicate what a systems approach to improving the quality of diets among children under 5 and women of childbearing age would look like in urban settings to address the double burden of malnutrition in the Western Cape, South Africa. To achieve this aim we are using multiple, primarily participatory methods to seek to:

• understand how existing systems that influence nutrition (food systems, urban conditions, system of existing interventions) combine to influence diet quality in the study population;
• develop a systems approach to optimise interactions and create coherence between these systems to improve diets; and
• maximise the benefits of the findings in the study setting and reap the benefits for other jurisdictions regionally and globally.

Methods to this end include policy and intervention scans, community member in-depth interviews and surveys, virtual transect walks, food environment mapping, and stakeholder group model building exercises. We are working closely with the Western Cape and City of Cape Town governments to inform existing policy efforts, primarily the province’s Nourish to Flourish framework. Our goal here is to improve coherence between existing actions by taking a systems approach to understanding their individual and collective impacts from a lived experience perspective. We are partnering with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, academics at Stellenbosch University and the Southern African Food Lab, UNICEF , and a number of local government offices. This study is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and overseen at the Centre for Food Policy by Dr Mark Spires.

Peas Please People’s Engagement Assessment (Dec 2019 - Jun 2023)

As part of their ‘Peas Please’ initiative, the Food Foundation are engaging with people across the UK to learn how to more effectively increase vegetable access and consumption, as well as encourage people to advocate for actions to this end themselves. In addition to directly advising on these people’s engagement activities, the Centre for Food Policy’s involvement includes the documentation of this unique approach, as well as the assessment of its ability to reach its intended objectives. This assessment is being conducted using a mixed methods approach including direct observation, participant surveys, focus group discussions, and online photo elicitation workshops. As part of this approach, we are exploring and documenting experienced barriers to vegetable consumption and assisting with communicating these effectively to policy makers and private sector actors. Our intention is that as a result of sharing findings from this assessment, alongside outcomes from other ‘peoples’ engagement activities’, we will be able to make specific public and private sector policy recommendations on how to improve existing policies and actions, ultimately increasing vegetable access and consumption. In addition to partnering with the Food Foundation on this assessment, the Centre for Food Policy is working directly with a range of non-governmental organisations across the four nations of the UK. This assessment is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and overseen at the Centre for Food Policy by Dr Mark Spires.

Integrating dietary guidelines into food production policies for better health and environmental outcomes (Sept 2022 - Sept 2025)

PhD candidate Niamh Kelly  is currently undertaking her PhD project as part of the UK Food Systems Centre for Doctoral Training. This research project aims to explore how dietary guidelines can be incorporated into food production policies to better align food production with the recommended diets. This will be done by mapping current food production policies in the UK to understand the context of the policy landscape. Relevant policy documents will then be analysed alongside stakeholder interviews, to gain insights into how these policies influence the types of foods that are produced. Using the results from these steps a framework or method will be developed to help integrate dietary guidelines into the policy process. A case study will also be carried out to look at the potential land use and biodiversity impacts of aligning the food supply with dietary guidelines, using species distribution modelling.

Understanding the factors that influence dietary transitions of migrant women in the UK, and the wider implications on the food system (Sept 2022 – Sept 2025)

This PhD research seeks to understand the factors that influence dietary transitions among migrant women in the UK, and the wider implications this has on the food system. The research takes on a mixed-methods approach and will involve data mapping and analysis, policy and food systems audit and mapping, as well as interviews and focus group discussions to explore migrant women’s’ food perceptions, beliefs, and practices around food. Photovoice and group model building will also be used to co-create and co-design envisioned food policy and interventions with participants based on their lived experience. The research will then link these understandings to public health action and policies in the UK and ultimately provide evidence towards better public health governance, particularly for migrant populations. The project is part of a UKRI-BBSRC- funded doctoral training programme focused on developing a healthy and sustainable food future and is led by Olive Zgambo.

In what way do English primary schools currently address food literacy? How could food literacy improve primary  school food education policy to support transitions to sustainable diets? (Sept 2022 – Sept 2029)

Schools are widely considered as the best place for food education, yet it remains underutilised as a food systems policy tool, with policy recommendations often focused on school meals. This research aims to contribute to the evidence about how English primary schools address food education and how food literacy can be applied to improve food education policy that equips children with the skills and knowledge they need to consume sustainable diets.

Through the lens of food literacy - a comprehensive term that includes sustainability, sociocultural topics and food skills – this research will include:

• Analysis of what food education is called in primary education
• Mapping primary food education system actors and activities,
• Case studies of English primary schools to understand how curriculums and teachers address food literacy
• Co-creation of food literacy tools for school staff.

This Doctoral Studentship is funded by the School of Health and Psychological Sciences at City, University of London and is being undertaken by Kim Smith.

Understanding the significance of ‘partnerships’ as a food system governance mechanism (Sept 2022 – Sept 2025)

This PhD project is investigating the nature of food system governance in the UK. In the first stage, a typology is being developed of the diverse multi-actor governance arrangements currently operating in the UK food system under the umbrella term of ‘partnership’. Second, a case study will be conducted to identify how ‘partnerships’ function in the context of a current food-related environmental challenge. This study will combine a qualitative analysis of the policy process with Social Network Analysis to provide insights into the complex governance landscape with the aim of identifying implications for food system transformation. This interdisciplinary project is funded by the Transforming UK Food Systems Strategic Priorities Fund as part of the UK Food System CDT and is being undertaken by Naomi Fallon .

Reduced meat in school food procurement: perspectives from council officers in local authorities in England (August 2022 - August 2023)

Public food procurement holds an important role in realising healthy and sustainable diets; school food in particular represents the largest proportion of food procurement in England. The need for increased consumption of plant-based food and the reduction of animal- based products is strongly supported in literature and as such, this research looks to better understand the change process that leads to reduced meat in school food procurement (SFP).

A series of interviews with council officers will be used to explore the motivations, enablers and barriers to implementing meat reduction strategies in SFP in England. This research forms part of a Pre-Doctoral Local Authoity Fellowship (funded by NIHR) and is being led by Lana Simpson who also works as a programme manager in public health for two local authorities in London.

Our Food Thinkers seminar series features speakers concerned with the possibilities and challenges of integrated food policy. Here you can find recordings and presentations, where available, of previous seminars.

January 2023 Food Thinkers: Who’s Setting the Table? Countering the Corporate Capture of Food Systems Governance

With Sofía Monsalve, Secretary General of FIAN International

The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) was a watershed moment in drawing attention to corporate influence over public food governance. Many civil society organizations, social movements and food system scholars were deeply troubled by what they considered to be the corporate capture of global food governance that could undermine the public good, as well as the rights of people and communities to engage with food systems decision-making - and decision-makers - on their own terms. Based on a new briefing note by IPES-Food, this talk will examine the implications of the growing influence of food and agribusiness corporations on the international governance of food systems, and proposed measures to address it.

Thursday 19 January 2023

Watch the January 2023 Food Thinkers recording

November 2022 Food Thinkers: From Mr Oldknow’s Christmas pudding to Bridget Jones’ ‘New Year’s Day Turkey Curry Buffet’: Empire and the British diet

With Lizzie Collingham, food historian

Cravings for sweetness and spice appear to be a matter of personal taste. In fact they are the product of the forces of empire. The British know that tea is Chinese and curry from India but they persist in thinking of one as a typically British drink and the other as the British national dish. This talk traces the way in which the empire embedded foodstuffs from other places in the British national diet and how they became essential to the British performance of Christmas as a national ritual.

Wednesday 23 November, 5.15 - 6.45 pm GMT, online

Watch the November Food Thinkers recording

September 2022 Food Thinkers: Immaculate conception of data: agribusiness, activists and their shared politics of the future

With Kelly Bronson, the University of Ottawa, Canada

With Jessica Duncan, Wageningen University, the Netherlands

May 2022 Food Thinkers: Small Food Bakery: Re-imagining food systems through bread

With Kimberley Bell, founder and head baker of Small Food Bakery

Bread is at the heart of food culture in many countries around the world. Yet the agricultural, economic and social systems that create it are rife with extraction and exploitation. Working by a different set of principles than commodity grain systems, small food businesses like bakeries provide an imagination space for communities to think about social structures differently. But what shift in our imaginations would we need to enable more enterprises to start working in ways that honour people and planet? Can bread be an entry point for re-imaging meaningful work or city life? How can it help us think differently about the connection between food and agriculture?

17th May 2022

Watch the May 2022 Food Thinkers recording

April 2022 Food Thinkers: Food Oppression

With Andrea Freeman, University of Hawaii, USA

Why do white supremacists love milk? Why are young people the targets of relentless food marketing – in schools and on social media – that makes them sick? Are our food choices really choices at all? Why is there such a stark racial divide in food-related illnesses and deaths? This talk explores how cooperation between the government and large food and agricultural corporations creates food oppression. It explains how racial stereotypes and popular myths about personal responsibility serve as a cover for this oppression. It traces food oppression back to colonization and enslavement and wonders what a food revolution might look like.

26th April 2022

Watch the April 2022 Food Thinkers recording

March 2022 Food Thinkers: Food Politics 2022: Advocates Unite!

With Marion Nestle, New York University, USA

Hunger, chronic disease, and climate change post severe challenges for advocates, as almost any potentially effective policy is certain to encounter strong food industry opposition. How should food systems advocates deal with this situation? This presentation addressed that question from the standpoint of personal experience. In her presentation Professor Nestle shared her personal and professional story of how she became an academic advocate for healthier and more sustainable diets, with examples from her nearly half-century career.  An inspiring talk for food policy advocates everywhere.

23rd March 2022

Watch the March 2022 Food Thinkers recording

February 2022 Food Thinkers: Rethinking Food Policy from Feminist Perspectives

With Nozomi Kawarazuka, Social and Nutritional Sciences Division, International Potato Center, CGIAR

Capitalist global agri-food systems are increasingly facing socio-ecological challenges such as the exploitation of labour and natural resources and the production and perpetuation of inequality at multiple levels. Feminist scholars point out that capitalism’s socio-ecological challenges are driven by ideologies, practices and research frameworks that devalue women’s roles in non-economic activities in the household such as childcare, food provisioning and wellbeing. Similarly, natural resources play significant roles in sustaining economic activities, but they are often neglected in accounts of how capitalist systems work.  This allows (food) production systems to exploit women’s unpaid labour and natural resources/energy.

In this webinar, Nozomi introduced recent feminist political economy approaches which look at interdependent relationships among economic activities, non-economic socially valuable activities, and natural resources. She drew on recent research on women agribusiness entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Myanmar to demonstrate how food systems are maintained by women’s unpaid labour and intergenerational reciprocal support, their own risk-taking and the changing nature of natural resources. The discussion provided an opportunity to discuss the potential contribution of feminist political economy approaches to strengthening interdisciplinary research to bring about systemic change towards more equitable and sustainable food systems.

23rd February 2022

Watch the February 2022 Food Thinkers recording

January 2022 Food Thinkers: Farming beef in Veganuary

With Fidelity Weston, Farmer and advocate for grass-fed livestock farming

January is the designated month for “Veganuary,” an annual campaign run by a UK non-profit organisation of the same name that promotes and educates about veganism. In this webinar Fidelity talked about the experience of being a beef farmer in Veganuary, and explained why, in her view, raising livestock on grass and then eating the meat can play a part in restoring nature, maintaining healthy diets and reducing farming’s climate impacts. She spoke about the many different ways of producing beef, with different effects on the environment. The consumer needs to be able to appreciate and understand those differences so they can make positive choices over what they eat. With the introduction of the UK Government’s 25-year Environment Plan and the post-Brexit Agriculture Act, there are huge opportunities but also potential difficulties for farmers needing and wanting to change their farming methods. Farmers are often seen as ‘the problem’, but they are also key to the solutions needed to restore our biodiversity and help combat climate change. Realistic support – from policy-makers and the public – is needed during this period of great change. She would advocate for “Regenuary” as the way forward.

26th January 2022

Watch the January 2022 Food Thinkers recording

December Food Thinkers: How the Other Half Eats: the Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America

With Priya Fielding-Singh, University of Utah, USA

Inequality in America manifests in many ways, but perhaps nowhere more than in how we eat. In this virtual talk, sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh draws on her years of field research to bring us into the kitchens of dozens of families to explore how—and why—we eat the way we do. At the heart of Fielding-Singh's talk will be covering her powerful and timely new book, How the Other Half Eats: the Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America. The book unpacks nutritional inequality in America through an examination of class, race and health, intimately following four families across the income spectrum in an exploration of the meaning of food itself. By diving into the nuances of these families’ lives, Fielding-Singh lays bare the limits of efforts narrowly focused on improving families’ diets through increasing their access to healthy food. Instead, she reveals how being rich or poor in America impacts something even more fundamental than the food families can afford: these experiences impact the very meaning of food itself. Once you've taken a seat with Fielding-Singh at dinner tables across America, you'll never think about class, food, and public health the same way again.

8th December 2021

Watch the December 2021 Food Thinkers recording

November Food Thinkers: Is there food on the table at COP26?

With Dr Tara Garnett, TABLE, University of Oxford and Paula Feehan, Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London

The UN climate meeting in Glasgow, COP26, is one of humanity’s last opportunities to work collectively to limit global warming to less than 2°C. The Centre for Food Policy marks the occasion with a special ‘Food Climate Thinkers’ event, bringing together the reflective voices of a veteran analyst and a Food Policy student.

Food and climate breakdown are inextricably linked. Food systems are responsible for around one third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and represent some of the most important routes to reducing emissions and stabilizing the climate. The fact that we now take this for granted is due in part to Tara Garnett, who more than two decades ago set up a small NGO, the Food Climate Research Network, to highlight the connections. The FCRN has now expanded into Table, which continues the work. In this talk, Tara will reflect on how perceptions of the issue have changed over time, and how she learned that assumptions and values are as important as facts in the process of enabling change.

Meanwhile, though a growing body of research provides evidence on the potential of dietary change to help tackle climate change, food – and particularly consumption – has historically received less consideration in climate policy than, say, the energy and transport sectors. Paula Feehan’s research looked at the extent to which food consumption featured in selected countries ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ – the targets that nations at the COP commit to working towards as part of the global effort to rein in climate change. Paula asks, has evidence about the importance of dietary change been integrated into national climate plans? If not, why not, and what are the potential pathways for change?

10th November 2021

Watch the November 2021 Food Climate Thinkers recording

October Food Thinkers: Corporate concentration and power in the agricultural inputs sector: what implications for the global food system?

With Jennifer Clapp, University of Waterloo, Canada

Today’s agricultural inputs sector is highly concentrated, with just a handful of firms dominating global markets for key inputs including seeds, agrochemicals, farm machinery and fertilizers. Corporate concentration in the sector has long roots that date back over a century, and recent mergers and acquisitions across the sector have brought new attention to the power such market dominance gives the firms at the top. In this talk, Jennifer Clapp examined the pathways by which concentrated firms in this sector have long exerted power to shape markets, technological innovation, and policy—both directly and indirectly—in ways that matter for food system outcomes. Today’s agricultural inputs sector is highly concentrated, with just a handful of firms dominating global markets for key inputs including seeds, agrochemicals, farm machinery and fertilizers. Corporate concentration in the sector has long roots that date back over a century, and recent mergers and acquisitions across the sector have brought new attention to the power such market dominance gives the firms at the top. In this talk, Jennifer Clapp examined the pathways by which concentrated firms in this sector have long exerted power to shape markets, technological innovation, and policy—both directly and indirectly—in ways that matter for food system outcomes.

27th October 2021

Watch the October 2021 Food Thinkers recording

September Food Thinkers: Can we have it all? Considering the trade-offs in achieving both human and planetary health

With Jess Fanzo, Johns Hopkins University, USA

In the context of the broad global trends of population growth, the climate crisis, and inequitable diets, food systems need to be re-oriented to ensure they can produce enough food that nourishes the world. At the same time, food systems must decrease the pressure on biodiversity loss, conserve land and water resources, minimize air and water pollution, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The current COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an additional level of pressure on the governance, functionality, efficiency, and resilience of food systems, with potentially long-lasting implications. This re-orientation includes moving towards on-farm sustainable food production practices, lessening food loss and waste, addressing poverty by creating jobs and decent livelihoods, and providing safe, affordable, and healthy diets for everyone. This is a lot to ask of an already entrenched system involving diverse actors with diverging priorities and motivations. Food policy is central to changing systems, and bold policies must be applied to accelerate and incentivize economic, societal, and technological transformations towards a more socially just and sustainable global food system. But policy decisions come with synergies, trade-offs, and short- and long-term, often unexpected consequences. In a world of uncertainty, can we have both human and planetary health—can we have it all? This seminar explored that question through a global lens that took the audience through a range of sticky debates that plague food system transformation and governance.

29th September 2021

Watch the September 2021 Food Thinkers recording

July Food Thinkers: What next for food taxes and subsidies? Lessons from pricing policies to address food and nutritional issues

With Shu Wen Ng, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Dr Ng has been central to efforts to evaluate the impact of food taxes for almost a decade and has most recently been working evaluating the impact of food subsidy and financial incentive programmes. In her Food Thinkers, she will take us through the options for pricing policies that increase the price of unhealthy beverages and foods (e.g., taxation, tariffs) or to decrease the price of healthier beverages and foods (e.g., subsidies, cash transfers) to improve diets. She will set out the growing global evidence around how, when and what about these policies seem to work ‘better’ in improving diets and longer-term health. Her talk will provide some examples from across the globe that show how these solutions may be possible. Although there are still many unknowns about the design, targeting, level, sequencing, integration, and implementation of pricing policies, there is already clear evidence that health taxes—particularly sugar drink taxes—are cost-effective. Meanwhile, the evidence on healthy incentives is starting to grow. Dr Ng will show that it is particularly critical to consider the context when designing effective pricing policies. If well-designed and implemented, she will make the case they can achieve the goals of reducing consumption of unhealthy beverages and foods, improving dietary quality, narrowing existing nutritional and health disparities, and encouraging economic and social development. Nonetheless, pricing policies alone will not succeed. Political will to prioritize well-being, protections against industry interference, and public buy-in are necessary alongside additional supportive policy measures such as marketing and labelling regulations. Jurisdictions should consider these pricing policy issues and their contexts carefully, in collaboration with community partners and researchers, to design multi-duty actions and to be prepared for future windows of opportunities to open for policy passage and implementation.

15 July 2021

Watch the July 2021 Food Thinkers webinar recording

June Food Thinkers: Fishery Contributions to Food and Nutrition Security under a Changing Climate

With Christina Hicks, Lancaster University

Fish are rich in multiple micronutrients, essential fatty acids, and protein, providing a powerful contribution to the diets of over 3 billion people, and a particularly valuable source of nutrition for vulnerable and marginalised peoples. Over 90% of the world’s fishers are small scale, the majority of whom live in Africa or Asia, where malnutrition is most prevalent. However, marine ecosystems are amongst those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Climate induced habitat destruction and species relocation mean much of the tropics are projected to experience large declines in catch potentials, while areas closer to the poles are expected to experience gains. These shifts in species abundances and availability impact the micronutrients available to coastal populations, with ramifications to human health, cultural identities, and economies. But, climate pressures are operating on an already uneven playing field. Aquatic food systems generate wealth in centres of wealth. These benefits in turn exert pressures onto lower income regions where aquatic food systems provide critical welfare sustaining functions, such as the provision of livelihoods and nutrient dense foods in areas where these are often lacking. However, when fisheries management can support more sustainable catches, climate induced changes to fisheries can result in increased nutrient yields. Similarly, when fisheries and nutrition policies are sensitive to gender and social difference, aquatic food systems can support more equitable outcomes. Thus opportunities exist to sustain the nutritional benefits of aquatic foods and support more equitable distributions of aquatic food system benefits. These opportunities include investing in local fisheries management, developing policies that acknowledge the structural drivers of injustice, and ensuring coordination exists between fisheries- and nutrition-related policies.

29 June 2021

Watch the June 2021 Food Thinkers webinar recording

May Food Thinkers: Food in a Changing Climate

With Alana Mann, University of Sydney

The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) has declared a climate emergency in which we have perhaps 10 years to stall a tipping point that leads to catastrophe, and possibly human extinction. Food systems, responsible for up to 37 per cent of global emissions, are widely cited as part of the problem. Prevalent discourses promote technological solutions and put the onus on eaters to change their consumption practices. In her talk Alana Mann contests these approaches, arguing that we must acknowledge and address the ecological and economic legacies of colonialism in our food systems, and promote the value of diverse food cultures as sources of resistance and resilience.

20 May 2021

Watch the May 2021 Food Thinkers webinar recording

April Food Thinkers: Food systems planning in cities: the power of engaging citizens to inform urban food policy and planning

With Tammara Soma, Simon Fraser University, Canada

In her talk, Dr Soma discussed an innovative way to map “assets” in cities to inform food policy and planning decisions. Used by the “food system planning” community, food asset mapping is a tool used by planners, policymakers or academics to identify food assets, such as supermarkets, street vendors, and/or food banks. To date, food asset mapping has not included ecological and cultural assets important to food system resiliency. Further, what are mapped as “assets” may not reflect the lived experiences of marginalized communities. Tackling these concerns, Dr Soma shared the results of a Canadian study applying “citizen science” led food asset mapping with participants from Indigenous and diverse communities in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia.

22 April 2021

Watch the April 2021 Food Thinkers webinar recording

February 24 Food Thinkers: Changing the Essence of Food

With Anna Taylor, The Food Foundation

In this seminar Anna discussed the opportunity which 2021 offers to change thinking about our food and the system which gets it to our plates. She examined where thinking is changing among food system actors and identified where the chinks of light are emerging. Anna reflected specifically on food insecurity in the UK, how free school meals became a presiding feature of the pandemic, and what this now means for how we feed our children. She gave her view on the vital role which we all play in generating leadership and catalysing action.

24 February 2021

Watch the February 24 Food Thinkers webinar recording

February 3 Food Thinkers: What it will take to deliver on the promise of the Food Systems Summit in achieving the SDGs?

With Agnes Kalibata, United Nations

In this seminar, Dr Agnes Kalibata laid out the emerging vision for how the Food Systems Summit can empower people to leverage food systems as accelerators of progress to realize the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, Dr Kalibata spent 2020 working with UN leadership, Member States, and stakeholders around the world to set the vision and preparatory process for this “People’s Summit” and “Solutions Summit”. She shared the latest progress, and reflected on what she identifies as the critical needs in 2021 in order to deliver on the Summit’s promise.

3 February 2021

Watch the February 3 Food Thinkers webinar recording

January Food Thinkers: What type of leadership is needed to transition to a sustainable food system? The experience of WE Lead Food

With Shima Barakat, University of Cambridge

While the importance of diversity in leadership has been understood for a while, it is only recently that the evidence has become overwhelming. Let’s take three clear areas, making the economic, social and environmental arguments: 1. Closing the gap between women and men’s entrepreneurship could add an additional £250 billion into the UK economy, equivalent to 4 years of economic growth. Extrapolating this estimate to a worldwide context would yield potentially hundreds of billions of pounds or dollars for the global economy. 2. Building resilient communities needs women leaders as they navigate adverse conditions and deliver more favourable outcomes. 3. Women Leaders build organisations that embrace sustainability practices up to 7 times more than their male-only lead counterparts, making these organisations sustainable for their shareholders and sustainable for the planet and societies they are embedded in.

Clearly, ‘doing’ leadership as we’ve always done it is no longer good enough. Doing no harm is also no longer good enough. We can see now the sort of leadership that is purpose driven, entrepreneurially delivered. This talk will explore these themes and illustrate how WE Lead Food, a programme for women leaders on the food sector, builds a network of leaders, equipped with an entrepreneurial toolkit to magnify and expedite the effects of transforming the food sector to one that is resilient, sustainable and inclusive.

21 January 2021

Watch the January Food Thinkers webinar recording

December Food Thinkers: The framing of food policies in the media: what next for improving population health in the COVID-19 world?

With Shona Hilton, University of Glasgow

There are increasing calls for the food industry to be held to greater account in shouldering a hefty part of the blame for Covid-19’s deadly toll. Governments around the world are facing increased pressure for upstream measures in tackling the obesity crisis and related non-communicative diseases. Such policies are likely to force the reformulation of processed foods and prohibit the promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks responsible for driving so much ill health. In such politically charged health debates stakeholders seek to present evidence and arguments for or against policies in line with their interests. Framing of debates in the media is a strategy used to influence public opinion and the political agenda. Given that the successful introduction of upstream food and nutrition policies is a highly political enterprise involving a complex network of stakeholders who seek to influence policy debates, it is useful to learn lessons from the successful introduction of past policies.

In this seminar the introduction of the UK’s Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) and Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol in Scotland is used to show how the stakeholders presented arguments via the news media to promote frame that would advance their interests. These insights have relevance for how we communicate and hold the global producers and marketers of unhealthy commodities to greater public account in this new Covid-19 world.

9 December 2020

Watch the December Food Thinkers webinar recording

October Food Thinkers: Big Livestock Versus The Planet

With Carina Millstone, Feedback Global

In this talk, Carina Millstone of NGO Feedback will present the pressing climate, biodiversity, human health and security case, especially in light of COVID-19, to end industrial meat and dairy production. She will present research findings on the scale of global finance propping up this industry, highlighting the need for structural and regulatory changes to move towards Paris-aligned diets. Establishing a parallel with Big Oil, she will argue that food system transformation requires mobilisation of civil society around a ‘food divest- invest’ ask, aimed at eroding the social legitimacy of the meat corporations and their financiers- and of extractive agriculture as a whole.

21 October 2020

Watch the October Food Thinkers webinar recording

September Food Thinkers: Grappling with complex realities: designing food interventions to work in context?

With Meena Daivadanam, Uppsala University, Sweden

The degree to which interventions to influence the foods people eat are effective, typically depends on their fit to the context in which they are delivered and the population they target. Contexts modify the impact of interventions, and the target population - their food-related practices and other cultural and social norms and personal factors – influence if they adopt them or not. If they are to work, interventions – including policies – need to be designed based on an understanding of both. In her Food Thinkers talk, Dr Meena Daivadanam will provide examples of how interventions can be re-shaped and re-sized to be more effective in context and for the target population.  She will talk about how to filter the  hard-scientific evidence with numbers and percentages through appropriate context and target population lenses so interventions can be re-shaped and re-sized into different strategies - converting recommended servings of fruits and vegetables into local measures, or gamifying healthy or unhealthy foods. During this translation, there is always some loss in terms of details or accuracy and some gain in terms of fit or applicability. Meena will talk about the role of formative research in aiding this process: how are food decisions made; who makes them; what is good food? Obtaining these answers require the active participation of, or consultation with relevant stakeholders, including members of the target population. She will present some examples from research projects in India, Sweden and Sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda and South Africa), where contexts shaped the interventions and interventions were in turn re-shaped to fit the population it was intended for.

24 September 2020

Watch the September 2020 Food Thinkers webinar recording

July Food Thinkers: Reframing the obesity narrative in the wake of COVID-19: placing people at the centre

With Johanna Ralston, CEO, World Obesity Federation

The complex interplay between obesity and food systems has been exacerbated by a narrative in which words and images misrepresent the drivers of obesity and fault those living with obesity for what is in reality a complex chronic disease shaped in part in response to the obesogenic environment. The role of lived experience has been overlooked in supporting policies, and the differences across geographies have been poorly understood. This session will look at narratives of obesity and propose a better, more accurate story that places people at the centre, using words and images that are translatable across cultures and languages, framed around an inter-related set of approaches rather than single, siloed solutions. This approach requires alignment across sectors, with common language on the environmental, social, and commercial determinants of obesity.  As obesity has been shown to be an independent risk factor for COVID-19 complications, and as concerns grow about the impact of COVID and extended lockdowns on unhealthy weight, the right framing is of critical importance as a part of “building back better.”

15 July 2020

Watch the July 2020 Food Thinkers webinar recording

Considering the relationship between food, precarity and poverty in public health

With Dr Claire Thompson, University of Hertfordshire

The notion of precarity is increasingly relevant to health. For public health and food policy, this can be framed as precarity around the social determinants of health leading to particular subjectivities and materialities of poverty and deprivation. In which case, the lived experiences of dietary health inequalities, including food poverty, the use of food banks, and interactions with obesogenic food environments, can be understood as symptomatic of this precarity.  

The coronavirus pandemic has amplified precarity around the social determinants of health for vulnerable groups. The economic shock resulting from measures to contain the spread of the virus has created further vulnerability and precarity among people from a gradient of socioeconomic groups that are now struggling to cope. This is very much apparent in the difficulty experienced by people from a range of backgrounds, but most especially those on low incomes, in feeding themselves and their families in a consistent, socially acceptable, and healthy way during the lockdown.

16 June 2020

Watch the June 2020 Food Thinkers webinar recording.

Delivering an emergency food service to people in London during the COVID-19 pandemic

With Kemi Akinola, Brixton People’s Kitchen and Be Enriched

Kemi Akinola spoke about Be Enriched and Brixton People's Kitchen. The two organisations have joined forces due to COVID-19 to deliver an emergency food service across two boroughs for people not clearly able to access the national service.

She discussed how the need for the service and people accessing it have been changing and continue to change, how COVID-19 advice and regulations affect certain groups more than others as well as the knock on effects not immediately seen. She shared information about a mobile greengrocer created as a response to observations of the lack of availability of fresh fruit and vegetables in certain areas of Wandsworth, and how recent work on the COVID-19 emergency project is influencing how this venture is going to be delivered.

28 May 2020

Watch the second May 2020 Food Thinkers webinar recording.

Women in the food business: redesigning food companies for sustainable nutrition and better livelihoods

With Barbara Bray MBE, Alo Solutions Ltd

Food industry consultant Barbara Bray presented a vision for food businesses for the future, a future where businesses prioritise sustainable nutrition, environmental eating and transparent supply chains. She gave examples of companies who already have a focus on sustainable nutrition and of the work she now does supporting companies to take a healthier, more sustainable way.

Given the significant stress the current food system is now under as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barbara also described what impact the on-going situation could have on our food supply and how businesses may adapt.

7 May 2020

Watch the May 2020 Food Thinkers webinar recording

February 2020 Food Thinkers: Once Brexit is done, what happens to food? An international trade law perspective.

With Professor Fiona Smith, University of Leeds

The UK is scheduled to depart from the EU on January 31 2020. 11 days later, at the February Food Thinkers event, Professor Fiona Smith talked about the immediate and longer-term implications on trade law and how this will impact on the availability and cost of different types of food in the UK. An expert in Brexit and Trade, Professor Smith used her background in international trade law to give us a better understanding of some of the implications that the Brexit deal and subsequent negotiations will have upon what food is available, and for whom, in a post-Brexit UK.

11 February 2020
London, UK

Watch the February 2020 Food Thinkers seminar recording

January 2020 Food thinkers: Looking under the radar: Why understanding food supply chains is so vital for redesigning the food system.

With Lisa Jack

Food supply chains are a core component of modern food systems. While on the surface such chains involve a straightforward process of getting food from farm to fork, these chains deeply embed practices involved in day-to-day transactions which operate under the radar. Understanding these practices – which operate in food supply chains around the world - is vital because their impact is to fix food systems into patterns that are very difficult to change. They thus have major implications for our ability to transform food systems. Most of these deeply embedded, day-to-day practices are legal and go unquestioned, such as discounts and commercial income. Just occasionally, they stray over the line into fraud, and then come to light. Underneath all of them is the attitude that retailers and consumers want prices that come from hard trading - but the service and quality that come from long term relationships.

In this talk, Professor Jack will examine some of these practices and attitudes, and ask what it would take to fundamentally transform a food system. She will show that the answer lies in questioning a peculiar feature of the industry maintained by these practices: on the one side, very narrow margins for profit and error; on the other, very wide margins for waste, shelf-life and choice, reflecting where power and inequality lie in the system. To achieve a fair and sustainable system providing affordable and nutritious food for all, Professor Jack will argue that we need to think about systems that re-balance marginal thinking and transform the system from the middle outwards.

View the recording of the January 2020 Food Thinkers seminar

22 January 2020
London, UK

June Food Thinkers: What does viewing food as a system and resilience mean for the practice of coherent policy making?

View recording of June Food Thinkers here.

24 June 2019
London, UK

March Food Thinkers: City Region Food Systems: What, Why, How?

With Michael Hamm

This Food Thinkers event discussed the "City Region Food Systems" approach to moving the global food system towards greater sustainability and equity. Climate change, water stress, population growth, and continued urbanization are the challenges that threaten to negatively impact global food security.

In this presentation, Professor Hamm sought to shine a light on the opportunities of thinking more regionally about our food system, within a global context. That is, to consider strategies that maximize the sustainable production of food on our plates within a region, while also sourcing foods outside the region that are produced with a similar set of embedded characteristics. In the London area (and across England) this would mean a significant increase in fruit and vegetable production throughout the year. Can this be done in a way that reduces the carbon footprint of the food supply? Can this be done in a way that reduces other environmental impacts of the food system – such as phosphorus and nitrogen cycles?

View the recording of the seminar: March Food Thinkers

27 March 2019
London, UK 

February Food Thinkers: A Sustainable Future for Food, Health and Planet?

With Dr Sandro Demaio (CEO of EAT), Prof Corinna Hawkes (Director, Centre for Food Policy & EAT-Lancet Commissioner, Prof Tim Lang (Centre for Food Policy, EAT-Lancet Commissioner), Baroness Rosie Boycott (journalist & food campaigner) and Helen Browning (Chief Executive, Soil Association & FFC Commissioner). Chair: Sue Pritchard (Director of the RSA Food, Farming & Countryside Commission).

Can we feed a future population of 10 billion people a healthy diet within planetary boundaries?

To answer this question, EAT gathered 37 of the planet’s foremost experts who, for the first time ever, propose scientific targets for what constitutes a healthy diet from a sustainable food system – as published in the EAT-Lancet ‘Food in the Anthropocene’ report.

We co-hosted our February Food Thinkers with the RSA Food, Farming & Countryside Commission to convene EAT-Lancet Commissioners, RSA Food, Farming & Countryside Commissioners and public health experts to discuss and debate the findings of the report and the actions required for systemic change.

20 February 2019
London, UK 

January Food Thinkers: Bittersweet Brexit - where are we heading with our food and farming?

With Charlie Clutterbuck

With Brexit events moving so quickly, this talk will be a moving feast. The context is that UK food and farming could change more now and more quickly than in the last 70 years. Brexit is a moment of food system restructuring.

Charlie’s talk will focus on the role of human labour in farm and food provision, asking: (1) Why did it barely feature in UK politics of food when it is so central to how the food system actually works? (2) What does this say about UK food policy debate? (3) Was the silence about food labour part of what delivered the 2016 Brexit referendum vote? (4) What are the food labour issues which now need to be addressed, whatever happens in Brexit politics? (5) How can we make labour more central to our understanding of the transition to a sustainable food system?

Q&A and discussion will then be opened to the audience.

This event is free to attend, tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis so please register to secure your place.

23 January 2019
London, UK 

Food Thinkers Christmas Special

Our 2018 Food Thinkers Christmas Special this year launched the 2018 Global Nutrition Report.

We were delighted to welcome guests speakers:
The Rt Hon Alistair Burt MP, Minister of State for International Development
Dr Jessica Fanzo, Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer in the Nutrition and Food Systems Division (ESN) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Professor Corinna Hawkes, Director, Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London
Dr Johanna Ralston, CEO, World Obesity Federation
Gwen Hines, Executive Director for Global Programmes at Save the Children

View the recording of the seminar: Food Thinkers Christmas Special 2018

Food Thinkers October 2018: Can public health solve obesity, hunger and malnutrition by focusing on the lived experience of food and eating?

With guest speaker Professor Wendy Wills; a sociologist, nutritionist and Professor of Food and Public Health at the University of Hertfordshire, where she is the Director of the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care.

This talk considered the extent to which a focus on the ‘lived experience’ of food and eating could bring about change in public health. Wendy proposed types of framework that can incorporate lived experience and envisaged ‘who needs to do what’ if contemporary tales of obesity, hunger or malnutrition can truly be used beyond driving media headlines.

View the recording of the seminar: Can public health solve obesity, hunger and malnutrition by focusing on the lived experience of food and eating?

Food Thinkers September 2018: Preference - the missing ingredient in food policy.

With guest speaker Bee Wilson; food journalist and author.

This seminar explored the role of preference in food policy, considered a few examples of whole populations changing their food preferences in a healthier direction, encouraged by food policy and highlighted the work of a new charity called Flavour School which is using the Sapere method of sensory education pioneered in Scandinavia to help children in the UK develop new and more varied preferences for fruits and vegetables among other foods.

View the recording of the seminar: Preference  - the missing ingredient in food policy

Food Thinkers June 2018: Research gaps that need to be filled to generate more nutrition promoting public-private action

For our June Food Thinkers we welcomed Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improving Nutrition (GAIN) and World Food Prize Winner 2018.

This presentation explored potential areas where more and better public-private engagements can advance nutrition, asking what is holding back these engagements and what research can do to inform and facilitate them and make them more likely to deliver.

View the recording of the seminar: Research gaps that need to be filled to generate more nutrition promoting public-private action.

Download Lawrence Haddad's seminar presentation.

Food Thinkers March 2018: Trust is a must - food policy in an age of doubt.

John Coveney, Professor of Global Food, Culture and Health at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, discussing consumer trust in food and food systems.

View the recording of the seminar: Trust is a must: food policy in an age of doubt

Food Thinkers December 2017 - A Christmas Special Panel Debate: What will get people cooking again? The role of public policy.

With guest panelists:
Rosie Boycott, Chair of the London Food Board
Professor Martin Caraher, Professor of Food and Health Policy, Centre for Food Policy
Amanda McCloat, Head of Home Economics, St. Angela's College, Sligo
Catherine Maxwell, Founder & Director, The Any Body Can Cook Community Interest Company
Marjon Willers, Specialist Dietician for Schools and Early Years, Islington Health and Wellbeing Team

Chaired by Professor Corinna Hawkes, Director, Centre for Food Policy View the recording of the debate: What will get people cooking again? The role of public policy.

View the recording of the debate: What will get people cooking again? The role of public policy.

Food Thinkers November 2017: Addressing hunger in America - cheap food or food with values?

Andy Fisher, leading US expert on community food security and author of Big Hunger,  discussed the politics of this hunger industrial complex, and provided three examples of programs that seek to modify federal nutrition programs to promote a more integrated vision of food sovereignty, health, and sustainability.

Listen to the recording of the seminar: Addressing hunger in America - cheap food or food with values?

Food Thinkers September 2017: Addressing the global burden of obesity and undernutrition through integrated systems thinking and policy coherence.

Professor Boyd Swinburn and Dr Anne Marie Thow explored frameworks that can facilitate a more integrated approach to addressing the problem of the co-existence of obesity and undernutrition in the world today.

View Professor Swinburn's presentation slides.

View Dr Thow's presentation slides.

View the recording of the seminar: Addressing the global burden of obesity and undernutrition through integrated systems thinking and policy coherence.

Food Thinkers June 2017: The intersectoral approach to food and nutrition security in Brazil - how it was built and where we stand today.

Renato Maluf, Professor at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London, shared his experience of building a National Plan for Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil.

View the recording of the seminar: The intersectoral approach to food and nutrition security in Brazil - how it was built and where we stand today.

View previous Food Thinkers and Food Bites on our YouTube channel.

The 2020 City Food Symposium special event: Harnessing the Power of Youth to Transform Food Systems for Health and Sustainability

8 December 2020
Online

In the midst of a climate emergency, and with poor diets established as the world’s leading cause of ill-health, the need for effective and equitable public policy to transform food systems for health and sustainability has never been greater. At the same time, the voices of youth demanding change are getting louder. How can these voices be heard and included to drive the policy changes needed?

At this special Symposium event we heard from young food system leaders in the UK and internationally in a series of pre-recorded short talks posted online at the start of the day. This was then followed by a live Q&A session with some of the speakers held via Zoom in the evening. Watch recordings of the series of short talks and the live Q&A session.

Participants included:

* Pierre K. Cooke Jnr, Youth Voices Technical Advisor, Healthy Caribbean Coalition
* Ben Ebbrell, Founder and Chef, SORTEDfood
* Tasha Mhakayakora, Youth Board Co-Chair, Bite Back 2030
* Amanda Namayi, Youth Advocate, Zero Hunger
* Emily B. N’Dombaxe Dola, Storytelling Director, Youth4Nature
* Kajal Odedra, UK Director, Change.org
* Mafalda Gonçalves, Pedro Gonçalves and Zuzanna Burzynska, members of the CO-CREATE Youth Declaration Task Force
* Lianne de Bie, Director, Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN) Netherlands

The aim was to give young leaders a platform, provide a taster of youth leadership in the food system, and lay out some of the key issues and questions to be addressed at a larger, in person event in 2021 (date to be announced). It also provided the perfect opportunity for anyone who is interested in engaging with youth policy, advocacy and research to join the conversation.

The event was generously supported by the Worshipful Company of Cooks.

The 2019 City Food Policy Symposium - How to develop and deliver a national food policy: a global perspective

30 April 2019
London, UK

The 2019 City Food Policy Symposium explored what lessons have been learned about the development and delivery of national food policies and the benefits and pitfalls of taking an inclusive and integrated approach.

In the morning session, participants heard from speakers around the world on global efforts to develop and deliver integrated approaches to food policy at a national and city level.

In smaller workshop groups in the afternoon, participants worked together to devise strategies and tactics for taking an inclusive approach to moving forward.

• The workshops used methods that fostered shared learning to develop new insights to inform the development and delivery of national food policies anywhere in the world.
• They were also an opportunity to test and refine workshopping methods to be used to facilitate public participation in the process of developing national food policies.
• The recommendations stemming from the workshops have, along with the learnings from the rest of the Symposium, been included in the forthcoming Symposium Report on “How to develop and deliver a national food policy: a global perspective.”

The day concluded with a panel discussion between experts from across the world of food to discuss the question of developing and delivering a national food policy here in England.

Presentations

Listen to Dr Kelly Parsons’ presentation, ‘How ready is England for a national food policy?’, delivered at the 2019 City Food Symposium.”

In this video, Olivier de Schutter outlines his hopes for a Common Food Policy for the EU.

In the following video Anna-Karin Quetel sets out the key concepts behind the National Food Strategy for Sweden, implemented in 2017.

Watch Cecilia Rocha talk about the pioneering Food and Nutrition Security Policy introduced in Brazil’s city of Belo Horizonte in 1993.

Biraj Patnaik talks about India’s National Food Security Act (also known as the Right to Food Act), which was written into Indian law in 2013.

City Food Symposium 2018: Connecting people with food policy

The 2018 City Food Policy Symposium explored how gathering evidence of lived experiences of food challenges - how citizens and communities experience, explain and respond to them - can inform more effective, equitable and empowering policy solutions.

Participants, including guests from government, NGOs, research, business and those in civil society discussed why evidence of experiences is important in crafting effective policy solutions to problems disproportionately affecting marginalised populations, such as food insecurity; obesity, diet-related ill health and malnutrition; food related environmental degradation; and precarious work.

The morning sessions included short presentations by experts concerned with different aspects of food – from obesity to food insecurity, the informal food economy to farming - about how these inclusive approaches can make food policy and food systems more effective and equitable.  We learnt from experiences in the UK and internationally, from countries rich and poor.

• The afternoon workshops featured the process of gathering and translating evidence of lived experience from:
• the public (with a focus on developing a national food policy for the UK post-Brexit)
• marginalised groups (with a focus on how to effectively address food poverty, malnutrition, obesity and diet-related diseases, nationally and internationally)
• the food system workforce (with a focus on creating more inclusive food economies for farmers and labour on the land, nationally and internationally).

See the full programme here.

The output of the symposium will be a report bringing together a shared understanding of the value of gathering evidence of lived experiences and how this evidence can be most effectively translated into transformative action.

Download Professor Corinna Hawkes scene setting presentation. (If you would like to copy and/or redistribute these sides please contact foodpolicy@city.ac.uk for permission.)

A selection of the video contributions from the Symposium are available on our Youtube Channel

This event was generously supported by the Worshipful Company of Cooks.

City Food Symposium 2016

The Centre for Food Policy held its sixth City Food Symposium on 12th December 2016 which considered how to develop, design and deliver food policies more effectively in the 21stcentury and in the wake of Brexit.

The programme of events

• The speakers
• Watch videos of the 2016 event

City Food Symposium 2015

The Centre for Food Policy held its fifth City Food Symposium on 14th December 2015 focusing on the food and agricultural implications of the UK potentially leaving the EU.

• Read the 2015 report

City Food Symposium 2014

The Centre for Food Policy held its fourth City Food Symposium on 15 December 2014 focusing on Sustainable Diets, kindly supported by the Worshipful Company of Cooks.

• Read the 2014 report

City Food Symposium 2012

The Centre for Food Policy held its third City Food Symposium on 12 December 2012 focusing on the state of food policy in local practice, kindly supported by the Worshipful Company of Cooks.

• Read the 2012 City Food Symposium briefing

City Summer Food Symposium: Ecological Public Health (June 2012)

This mini-symposium discussed whether ecological public health - which proposes that human and eco-systems health are co-dependent - needs to be the central policy framework. The event was chaired by Dr Fiona Sim and incorporated presentations from Dr Caroline Lucas, Dr John Middleton, Dr David Pencheon, and Dr Geof Rayner.

Read our new report, ‘Linking middle-chain actors to the environmental impacts of food producers and consumers: Underlying drivers and policy implications.’

Read our research brief, ’45 Actions to orient food systems towards environmental sustainability: co-benefits and trade-offs’ and accompanying list of references.

Read our position statement in response to the multiple global crises impacting food systems.

Centre for Food Policy Research Brief. Who is making food policy in Australia. May 2022

Read our Session brief, A ‘lived experience of food environments’ international decision makers panel: Enhancing policy impact through improved research evidence translation and communication.

Read our Research Brief, Understanding Lived Experience of Food Environments to Inform Policy: An Overview of Research Methods.

Read our latest Centre for Food Policy brief. ’42 policies and actions to orient food systems towards healthier diets for all’.

Centre for Food Policy Research Brief. Who is making food policy in India. October 2020

Centre for Food Policy Research Brief. Who is making food policy in South Africa. October 2020

Read the Centre for Food Policy Research Brief. Who is making food policy in England. October 2020

Read the report of the 2019 City Food Symposium: How to develop and deliver a national food policy: a global perspective.

Read our response to the EFRA Committee COVID-19 and Food Supply Inquiry.

Read our sixth Rethinking Food Policy Brief ‘Public sector global food governance’.

Read our Centre for Food Policy Annual report for 2019.

Our fifth Rethinking Food Policy Brief ‘Policy coherence in food systems’ is now available to read.

Read our fourth Rethinking Food Policy Brief ‘Embedding food in all policies’.

Read our third Rethinking Food Policy Brief ‘Integrated Food Policy: What is it, and how can it help transform food systems?’.

Our second Rethinking Food Policy Brief ‘Understanding the food system: Why it matters for food policy’ is now available to read.

Read the first in our series of Rethinking Food Policy briefs Tackling food systems challenges: the role of food policy

Read the Centre for Food Policy Brief on our work: our purpose, goals and what we offer

Read the Centre for Food Policy Strategy 2017-2021

Read about our history in Centre for Food Policy 1994-2016: teaching, researching and influencing policy

Read the report of the 2018 City Food Symposium: How can evidence of lived experience make food policy more effective and equitable in addressing major food system challenges?

Read the summary document of the 2018 City Food Symposium:Why engage with evidence of lived experience as a means of addressing major food systems challenges?

Read the report from the Centre for Food Policy looking at the food systems sweet spot: Connecting food systems for co-benefits: How can food systems combine diet-related health with environmental and economic policy goals?

Professor Corinna Hawkes on food policy

Why food poverty persists

Professor Martin Caraher’s 2017 TEDx talk on how, even in developed cities, thousands of people experience food insecurity.

You can view Food Thinkers seminars and Food Bites on our YouTube channel.

Please visit our academics’ individual profiles to see their full list of publications or a chronological list of all publications can be found below.

The Food Research Collaboration works with academics across disciplines and CSOs across sectors, in an interlinked production model to produce state-of-the-art briefing papers to improve UK food policy.

You can access all FRC briefing papers here