The Transforming UK Food Systems SPF Programme is an interdisciplinary research programme that will help transform the UK food system within a global context by addressing 2 over-arching questions:
- If we put healthy people and a healthy natural environment at the heart of the food system, what would we eat, how would we encourage people to eat it, and where would that food come from? What would we grow and manufacture in the UK and what would we need to import?
- In delivering this transformed food system, what interventions would be needed across government, business and civil society?
This programme will consider the complex interactions between health, environment, economic and behavioural factors across the food system, while taking into account wider needs for different groups in society.
Interventions for transformation
Recognising the global nature of food supply chains and that the UK imports approximately 46% of the food it consumes (UK food security report 2021: theme 2: UK food supply sources 2021), it is important to consider the foods that we might need to import, export, produce and consume to transform the UK food system.
The successful project aims to develop a blueprint for a coordinated set of policy interventions to support the transition to healthy and sustainable diets in the UK. The interventions considered will include:
- fiscal and trade policy measures
- food supply and value chain structural innovations
- industry-led initiatives that can facilitate and support the transition to healthy and sustainable diets
