What did citizens find?

The Council saw flourishing businesses, organisations and initiatives who are meeting the needs of their communities and were impressed by the level of innovation in Cornwall.

But members of the Council were also struck by the fact that many local families suffer from food insecurity and are unable to afford the healthy, sustainable food grown nearby. What’s more, the organisations addressing these issues and trying to get good local food to local people face a chronic lack of funding. The Council also heard how unfair supermarket and supply chain practices in farming and fishing impact on farmers and fisher, who can struggle to make ends meet and attract young talent to the sector.

Working with local leaders from Cornwall, they identified the conditions necessary for Cornish food to thrive:

• Fair contracts and pricing for producers: pricing doesn’t currently reflect production realities, or share risk equitably, needing more enablers for cooperative models for farmers and growers

• Infrastructure that connects production to consumption: more investment is needed in processing facilities, storage, and distribution networks

• Procurement that supports collective approaches: cooperative and collective approaches are needed to allow producers to access markets and institutions

• Capital investment in proven approaches: capital investment is lacking to enable long-term planning and emphasis on ‘what works’

• Education and pathways into food work: jobs in the Cornish food system are not aspirational or valued enough

What is the Citizen Advisory Council?

The Citizen Advisory Council is a group of diverse citizens from across the UK, who are working with government on the development of the new Food Strategy. They bring with them a lived experience of the UK food system and a focus on what works for them, their family, their community and future generations of people living in the UK. In this phase of work, they are investigating what national government can learn from what's already happening in different places to transform food.

Find out more here.

Who was involved?

The following Citizen Advisory Council members led the What Works Here Inquiry in Cornwall:

Jo-Ann McLoughlin, England
Maria Chukwu-Nsofor, London
Ruth Amaeze, East Kent
Siddhi Pandit, London

The following people and organisations were involved in the inquiry:

Matthew Thomson and Mary Rose Surfleet, Sustainable Food Cornwall
Dr Eunan O'Neill, Director of Public Health for Cornwall
Chris Ranford, Cornish Fish Producers Organisation
Mark and Inez Williams, Presingoll Farm
Dan Sargison, Incredible Edible Redruth
Claire Judd, WellFed
Holly Whitelaw, Gleaning Cornwall
Joyce Duffin, Transformation CPR
Lucy Jones, Cornwall Food and Farming Group
Emma Pate, Great Cornish Food Store
Sally Pyner, Kehelland Trust
Andrew Brewer, farmer
Martin Webster, oysterman
Elliott Kett, Pysk

Next steps

In addition to coming to the Cornwall area, members of the Citizen Advisory Council have travelled to York and North Yorkshire, Liverpool & Merseyside and the North East Combined Authority. The next step is to present their findings to politicians and government officials through a series of reports, events and meetings – with representatives of the Council expected to meet with Defra Minister Eagle later this year.