The Food Conversation is the UK’s biggest ever deliberation on food, bringing together people from across the country to ask, what do we really want from food?

Through a series of online and in-person deliberations, citizens looked at the science of what we eat and how we eat it – as well as some of the major challenges within food, from the influence of big corporations to environmental impacts. They are considered many of the policies proposed over the years to tackle these challenges.

So far, our findings show that across political divides and demographics, people see food as unfair, unhealthy and unsustainable. Rather than worry about a nanny state, they back strong government intervention on food.

Ahead of the publication of the final #TheFoodConversation report later this year, we caught up with participant Pat about how food fits into her life, her experience of The Food Conversation and what she thinks needs to change when it comes to food.

Pat is a retired mum-of-two and a grandmother. She spent her career working in early years education and is still involved in education-based initiatives around Birmingham, where she still lives. Pat joined the FFCC’s second wave of The Food Conversation and since then, Pat’s noticed that the people around her are beginning to see the dysfunction in the food system.

“I now talk about food and what needs to change all the time – with my friends and family and associates. People are already waking up to the effects of ultra-processed food because it’s been in the media so much. But not many realise just how powerful Big Food really is and the influence they have over what we eat. Once they do, questions about who’s responsible for regulating this start getting raised.”

“These big businesses are essentially telling us what to eat through pricing, marketing and what’s available on the shelf – and the people I talk to don’t want this. The government needs to start being proactive about rebalancing the power.”

The dominance of Big Food – and its effect on both our health and the economy – has hit the headlines in recent months. In November, our report, written by Professor Tim Jackson, showed that unhealthy food was costing the UK £268bn through the direct and indirect costs of diet-related ill health.

It’s a staggering figure. When citizens in The Food Conversation find out about how food companies profit from making people sick, they are shocked – and this is across demographic and political lines. Pat says: “We were all different ages, cultures, backgrounds – a really diverse group of people. And of course, our opinions and perspectives around food were personal. But we learned a lot from each other and at the end of the day we mostly agreed on what needed to be done.”

So, what is Pat’s personal perspective when it comes to food? After growing up in a household where food was a priority, she’s seen a seismic shift in the way families shop, cook and eat.

“I had a wonderful upbringing where both parents cooked – even my father, all those years ago – and everything we ate was freshly prepared. Back then, there were no supermarkets. We used to go together as a family to the butchers, the greengrocers, the bakery. And when I had my two children, even though there wasn’t much money, I would make sure they were getting nutritious food cooked from scratch.”

Now in her 70s, Pat thinks it’s much harder to eat healthily. “The challenges of eating well now are huge. Firstly, healthy food is much more expensive than unhealthy food. Good bread, for example, costs a lot of money – but you can walk into a supermarket and pick up a sliced white loaf for 65p and there’s very little goodness in it.”

Alongside nutrition and health, Pat is also concerned about marketing. “Adverts for unhealthy food are everywhere and this is how younger generations experience food. Luckily, my granddaughter has been brought up eating a wide variety of fresh, wholesome foods, but not every child has that privilege.”

Like many other citizens involved in The Food Conversation, Pat believes that a fair, healthy and sustainable food system starts with better policy. Having worked in early years schooling during her career, Pat knows the power of education but thinks that, at the end of the day, the buck stops with the government not individuals. “Good food means a good foundation in life – and I’d love to see food education embedded in education from the very start. But the government have a lot to answer for.”

At the same time, Pat thinks the younger generations are already pretty switched on to the health and environmental impacts of food. “There are so many young people who get food and want to address issues like climate change through food. They’ve got ideas that we need to invest in.”

She is, for example, a fan of the pioneering work taking place in the farming industry around agroforestry. “It’s amazing that farmers are finding new ways to produce food without harming the environment – and we need government to support them. Finding out about innovations like that has been a really valuable part of The Food Conversation.”

For Pat, the worsening climate and nature crises call for some urgent and radical action – including a shake up in how government tackles food-related issues. Thinking ahead to the future, Pat says: “This world is precious, we need to look after it for the generations to come. We have a Minister for Defence and a Minister for Education, why can’t we have a Minister for Food?”