A lot of people claim to know what ‘people’ think
They say “people don’t want a nanny state” or “people choose to eat junk food” and don’t want to be told what to eat.
But has anybody ever asked you what you REALLY want from food?
How does it work?
We started The Food Conversation in 2023 through a series of workshops with a representative group of citizens in Birmingham and Cambridge, and it will now continue around the UK throughout the rest of 2024. The whole process is designed to be easy to understand and engaging, so that everyone – no matter what their background or interest – can participate. Nonetheless, it is methodologically robust, enabling in-depth conversation and deliberation (similar to approaches developed for citizen assemblies).
Taking place in 10+ locations around the UK, each set of workshops (sometimes known as citizen dialogues or deliberative dialogues) will involve about 30 citizens who are broadly representative of their location and invited through a postcode lottery by Sortition Foundation. They will spend 20+ hours together discussing and debating the issues, will hear from speakers and will explore case studies, examining not whether the way food works now needs to change, but how.
We are sharing what we find with policymakers and businesses in the run up to the election.
A citizens’ call to action
In March 2023, citizens involved in the People's Plan for Nature published their recommendations, setting out the urgent actions needed to protect and renew nature. Among them was a call for a national conversation on diet to better support nature.
FFCC responded to this with a plan to hold a national conversation on food, asking people what they expect from government and business when it comes to food – and how the food system can deliver more for health, nature and climate.
Lots of organisations, academics and charities have been working on these issues for a long time.
We have drawn on the expertise and experience of a wide range of organisations so far, including WWF, National Trust, RSPB, Soil Association, FOLU, WRAP, National Federation of Women’s Institutes, Sustainable Food Trust, Food Ethics Council, Green Alliance, Which?, Local Trust and European Climate Foundation.
If you would like to join this project, we would love to hear from you.
The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission
FFCC commissioned the first conversations that started in June 2023. FFCC was set up to explore practical and radical solutions to the climate, nature, health and economic crises of our time.
Through evidence, research, telling stories of change and much more, we seek to involve and communicate with citizens, and advocate for new ideas and new solutions.