For too long, government has been told that people don’t want things to change: “Nobody wants a nanny state, businesses only make what people want to buy, most people just want cheap food”…and so on.

But is it true? Or are these familiar tropes just lobbyist lines designed to undermine political will and confidence to lead change? The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission’s (FFCC) The Food Conversation set out to find out – over two years it hosted 12 assemblies with a diverse set of citizens from communities around the country. The overarching question was; “So, what do we really want from food?”.

A Citizen Manifesto was launched last month, outlining what people want from their food. And this month, FFCC will also publish its final report from this phase of The Food Conversation.

The author of that report, Mhairi Brown, will present the report’s main findings in this webinar, a few days ahead of publication.

About Mhairi

Mhairi Brown is head of food futures at the FFCC. She is a Registered Nutritionist specialising in public health and food policy who is passionate about creating healthy food systems that support the health of people and the planet. She leads food and health work for the Commission, including the Food Conversation. Prior to joining FFCC, she led policy and international workstreams at Consensus Action on Salt, Sugar and Health. There, she developed and advocated for policy proposals to reduce excess and unnecessary levels of salt and sugar from foods and drinks sold in the UK, and collaborated with stakeholders in Malaysia, Morocco, China and Peru to translate this work globally.

Mhairi holds a BSc in Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and a Masters in International Public Health Nutrition at the University of Westminster. She is now a PhD candidate with Queen Mary University of London, evaluating food and health policies in the UK.

About this webinar series

This webinar is part of a monthly series run by AFN Network+ which explores net zero in the UK agri-food system with leading movers and shakers. Expect deep and varied insight from across the sector, including farmers, scientists, policy analysts, community leaders, retailers, politicians, businesses and health professionals. The series is organised by Jez Fredenburgh our Knowledge Exchange Fellow, with oversight from Prof Neil Ward, AFN Co-lead and Professor of rural geography. Jez and Neil are based in the School of Environmental Sciences, and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at the University of East Anglia.