Findings from the first chapter of The Food Conversation are out. Find out more here.

This week the UK's biggest ever national conversation about food launches. Kicking off in two locations this summer, we are gathering citizens to understand what people really think about food and talk about how we can fix food, fix the planet and fix our health. In the autumn the project will continue – building over the next 6-12 months to ultimately cover all four countries of the UK. The impetus for the project builds on the call for a national conversation from the People’s Plan for Nature.

What we eat and how we eat it is just the beginning of a much bigger conversation. We’ll ask who is really in charge of decisions about food? How fair is the current system? Is it giving us what we need? We’ll explore the fact that food does so much more than just feed us, and the way it is produced is one of the biggest contributors to the nature, climate and health crises facing us today.

For the first phase over 24,000 invitations have been sent out through a randomly selected postcode lottery in Birmingham and Cambridgeshire. From this selection a representative group of citizens will meet in each area, over a three-week period, and hear a range of perspectives from people who have been working in this space for some time. They will look at policies which have been put forward over the years, explore issues such as power and fairness in the food system, and much more. Starting in autumn 2023, the second phase will take a similar approach but will engage citizens from locations across UK nations.

For media enquiries, contact Rebecca Renfro Rebecca.renfro@ffcc.co.uk or 07810378815