Food, Farming and Countryside Commission

Liverpool & Merseyside: what works here? Findings from the Citizen Advisory Council's inquiry for the Food Strategy.

Citizens will be meeting with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary @angelaeagle1.bsky.social, MP for Wallasey in Merseyside, next week to discuss their findings from inquiries across the country.

🚨Read the report and find out more: ffcc.co.uk/liverpool-me...

📈 Good food should be good business, and those businesses should be rewarded, rather than businesses that prioritise profit over health....

@alderhey.nhs.uk @scousescene.bsky.social @exploreliverpool.bsky.social

💔 Local food partnerships rely on goodwill and short-term support, rather than the secure footing needed to drive change - grant funding dependency means food projects are set up to collapse....

🗺️ High streets are filling with fast food and vape shops while good food businesses struggle - local planning has a role to make sure healthy food is easy to access....

🍽️ Food deserts persist because the physical links – transport, markets, distribution – between where food is grown and where people live are missing or underfunded...

@paulabarkermp.bsky.social @ianbyrnemp.bsky.social @sfoodbanks.bsky.social

Today, a new film and report from the third ‘What Works Here Inquiry’ in 📍Liverpool & Merseyside is out, coordinated by @feedingliverpool.org. Some key findings from the citizens who led the inquiry:...

@anneliesemidgleymp.bsky.social @kimjohnsonmp.bsky.social @dancardenmp.bsky.social

💪 In Liverpool & Merseyside, people are building their own solutions to get good food to communities.

➡️Find the report & film here: ffcc.co.uk/liverpool-me...

@lpoolcouncil.bsky.social @lpoolcityregion.bsky.social @kindlingtrust.bsky.social @alchemickitchen.bsky.social @lucyantal.bsky.social

Why do some communities have easy access to organic eggs, while others have easy access to blueberry vapes and cherry vodka?

Dominic reflects on visiting food projects in #Yorkshire as part of a citizen-led inquiry

Report out now! foodfoundation.org.uk/news/whats-d...

@ffc-commission.bsky.social

🥦As a member of the Citizen Advisory Council, she is bringing those everyday realities directly into the policymaking process to help shape Defra’s new Food Strategy.

👉Read Rebecca’s story: ffcc.co.uk/field-guide-...

➡️Citizens are helping to shape Food Strategy: ffcc.co.uk/food-strategy

🍟Rebecca speaks about the pressures families face: tight budgets, limited time and a food environment saturated with ultra-processed convenience products – resulting in a system that makes healthy choices harder than they should be.

🍎Working with schools across the country, Rebecca sees first-hand how many children rely on school lunches as their most consistent meal of the day. Yet school food is still too often underfunded and undervalued. For Rebecca, that’s not just a policy gap – it’s a fairness issue.

🩶In our latest #FieldGuideForTheFuture, Rebecca – a mum, food educator and Citizen Advisory Council member – shares why good school food and lived experience must be at the heart of food policy.

🗣️“We need policies that make nutritious food the easy choice, not the hardest one”

🛋️Read Citizen Advisory Council member Rebecca's Field Guide here: ffcc.co.uk/field-guide-...

➰See how the Citizen Advisory Council are helping to shape Defra's new Food Strategy: ffcc.co.uk/food-strategy

York & North Yorkshire: what works here? A citizen-led inquiry for the Food Strategy

The full findings will help inform the new Food Strategy, with citizens meeting with Defra Secretary Angela Eagle and other politicians next month to discuss this work.

➡️Watch the film, read the report & find out more: ffcc.co.uk/yorkshire-wh...

@ynyca.bsky.social @lukecharters.bsky.social

🎒 Great work is already happening in the region, including the auto-enrolment of children for #freeschoolmeals, which citizens think could be rolled out elsewhere

🌱 Local farm businesses are struggling to compete in a system dominated by multinational corporations – but local procurement could be a way forward

@keirmathermp.bsky.social

Citizens heard from leaders across the food system, including Mayor @davidskaith.bsky.social and found:

⚡Strong devolved and joined-up leadership on food is having a real and positive impact on people living and working in Yorkshire

Yorkshire leading the way on food 💡

Today, a new film and report from the second ‘What Works Here Inquiry’ in York & North Yorkshire is out, coordinated by ‪Deliciously Yorkshire and ‪FixOurFood.

👉Film & report here: ffcc.co.uk/yorkshire-wh...

@ynymayor.bsky.social @ynydeputymayor.bsky.social

KFC, Nando's, and others ditch chicken welfare pledge as demand soars Wingstop, Burger King, and others have walked away from an industry commitment to avoid using fast-growing chickens

🍎Citizens are also clear: they want government to hold large food businesses to account – rather than relying on promises that can be dropped when commercial pressures intensify.

👉BBC article: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

➡️What citizens really want from food: ffcc.co.uk/food-strategy

🌿In FFCC’s work with citizens across the UK, people consistently say that high animal welfare standards are important to them – they want good quality, healthy and sustainable food from British farmers who are paid a fair wage.

‼️It’s also yet another reminder that self-regulation doesn’t work, despite repeated claims by the food industry that there’s no need for strong government intervention. As soon as profit margins are threatened, commitments are quickly revised or abandoned.

🏭Industrial and factory farming doesn’t just fall short on animal welfare – it’s responsible for widespread damage to our rivers and natural environment – and doesn’t reflect the kind of food and farming system that citizens and farmers want in the UK.

🐔Very disappointing to see some of the UK’s biggest restaurant chains pull out of the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a science-based framework designed to improve chicken welfare across food supply chains.

🗞️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🚨What citizens really want: ffcc.co.uk/food-strategy

Julie Skentelbery - 19/02/2026 - BBC Sounds Daytimes with Julie Skentelbery, where Cornwall comes to talk. Call: 0808 100 1039.

💡Insights from the citizen-led ‘What Works Here Inquiries’ will feed into the government’s new Food Strategy. Next up, the Citizen Advisory Council are publishing findings from York and North Yorkshire.

👂Listen to the full segment on BBC Cornwall from 43 mins: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

🥛Without this infrastructure, supply chains and local food resilience remain fragile. As Matthew points out, Cornish farmers were recently forced to get rid of thousands of gallons of milk when dairy lorries were unable to reach them following disruption after Storm Gorretti.

🔗Here, Matthew talks about one of the key findings from the report: the need for stronger infrastructure that connects food production to consumption, ensuring that what is grown locally can also be processed and eaten locally.

🌊Following yesterday’s report launch, Julie Skentelbery spoke to Sustainable Food Cornwall’s Matthew Thomson and Kehelland Trust’s Sally Pyner about what national government can learn from Cornwall – and what local organisations need to do their work even more effectively.

Great to hear the Citizen Advisory Council and Cornish ‘What Works Here Inquiry’ featured on BBC Cornwall this morning💥

👉Listen from 43 mins in: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

📚Read the report: ffcc-uk.files.svdcdn.com/production/a...

🎞️See citizen insights in this film: ffcc.co.uk/cornwall-wha...

💥 NEW film & report: What can government learn from Cornwall’s food system?

Today, we are publishing initial findings from a citizen-led investigation into local success stories and challenges in 📍Cornwall's food system.

🔗 foodfoundation.org.uk/news/what-ca...

#foodsystems #healthyfood #cornwall

Cornwall: what works here? Findings from the Citizen Advisory Council's inquiry for the Food Strategy.

The full findings will feed into the development of Defra’s new Food Strategy, offering new insights into how national government can help regional food systems thrive – and what they can learn from work already happening to transform food.

➡️Full film & report here: ffcc.co.uk/cornwall-wha...