Dan Crossley

Food Issues Census 2024/25: A Wake-Up Call for UK Food and Farming — The A Team Foundation Food Issues Census 2024-25 draws on insights from ~130 civil society organisations to highlight the challenges, priorities, and opportunities facing those working in, and organising around, food and f...

Food Issues Census 2024-25 is a wake up call for UK food and farming. Now is the time to invest in civil society activity on food and farming!

Check out our guest blog for the A Team Foundation, one of the funders of the Census

www.ateamfoundation.org/blog-1/2025/...

Mark #WorldFoodDay and celebrate the majority world's food providers who, while respecting #PachaMama and #Nyeleni, cooperate to provide 80% of world's peoples with food through #biodiverse #agroecological systems and #FoodSovereignty

eg: bsky.app/profile/fao....

@foodethicscouncil.bsky.social

Image of planet Earth - looking at the Americas surrounded by blue sea

Today is #WorldFoodDay. This year's theme is "Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future". We're firm believers in the need for joining hands and in promoting food as a vehicle of peace. Solidarity to all those working for food justice. There is much work to do. Change food, change the world.

🐄🐓🐖 I'd argue livestock, managed sustainably, can play an important role in future. But at a population level, we do need to reduce our meat consumption. How fast, how far and how will remain contentious.

➗ 'What we should eat' will remain controversial, as there are so many vested interests out there. Not all meat and not all plants are produced equally, hence we need to be careful about lumping everything into homogenous food groups.

🥩 At a global average, it talks of a dietary target no more than two servings of poultry, 1 serving of red meat (with a hamburger given as an example - interesting in itself) and 2 eggs per week. The work acknowledges the variety of diets in different parts of the world

🌏 EAT Lancet 2.0 is out! On what has changed in what constitutes a 'Planetary health diet' since the original EAT Lancet report in 2019, Walter Willett said 'almost nothing'. Lots of more recent science backs up what was in the original Planetary Health diet.

Thanks Harleen. Good question. Lots of potential answers to that, but I’d probably say we need a Food Act (to put good intentions into legislation) and need to sort out social security (so that everyone knows where their next meal is coming from)

Agreed Guy (although she’s Environment AND Food & Rural Affairs Secretary - always annoys me when the food bit in particular gets missed out! 😊)

The image is of a judge's gavel in front of a selection of foods, including a bunch of bananas, some eggs and an apple

In a guest column for The Grocer, Chair of the Food Ethics Council @eltasmith.bsky.social, writes about why a right to food is needed in the new food strategy for England www.foodethicscouncil.org/opinion/miss...

“…when farming scales, the value placed on food, on farmers, community connection, habitat creation… all become casualties”

Check out the latest blog on our website from Ian Pigott

Our exec director @dancrossley.bsky.social was lucky enough to be at Groundswell yesterday.
An amazing buzz around regenerative and agroecological food & farming

We're delighted to share that Elta Smith is new Chair of the Food Ethics Council. Under the rotating Chair model we have operated for several years, Elta has taken over the Chair role from Albert Tucker, for the next yr

You can read Elta's biography here: www.foodethicscouncil.org/who-we-are/o...

Gov'ts must work harder to address root causes. Invest in prevention, to take burden off NHS. Diet-related ill health costing UK £268bn p.a. (Prof Tim Jackson), i.e. >£10 per person per day. On Spending Review day, UK Gov't should invest properly in UK agriculture and better food systems.

Visual of the cover image of Food Issues Census 2024-25 report, the third survey of UK civil society

Watch 'Food Issues Census 2024-25 unpacked' webinar back: www.foodethicscouncil.org/insights/foo...
Recommended for Civil society organisations involved in UK food & farming + current/ potential funders: learn about opportunities for collective impact, inform your strategy & better target funding.

Register now to explore the findings from #130 organisations involved in food & farming in the UK. Hopefully see you online on Wednesday!

What do civil society organisations working in, and organising around, food & farming want – from each other, from funders, from alliances & networks? Join this online webinar and explore insights from Food Issues Census 2024-25.

“new reciprocal market access on beef” 🤔

👇

Am looking forward to joining Dan Byam, Aoife Allen, Clementine Hain-Cole and Christian Reynolds for this panel. Do join if you can!

We live in an instant world, where everything's about immediacy, instant gratification and quick fixes. We think it can be different.

As part of this, how we think about the impacts of our work is really important. I'm interested in who's thinking differently about impact. Who can we learn from?

I've been proud to chair the Advisory Group for the Food Conversation. It was brilliant to meet members of the public who have been involved in the process at the House of Lords yesterday. They spoke powerfully to Daniel Zeichner and other MPs & peers. My key message: listen to what people tell us!

👇

Really enjoyed speaking to students at @foodpolicycitysg.bsky.social just now, exploring the question ‘what should food systems be for?’ and how might we measure success?

So, what do we really want from food? Latest findings from The Food Conversation

Later this month, we're publishing the final Citizens' Manifesto from #TheFoodConversation – and bringing citizen voices to decision-makers around the UK.

Find out more about the project so far 👉 ffcc.co.uk/so-what-do-w...

International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds quits over aid cuts Dodds delayed her resignation until after Keir Starmer's meeting with President Trump, saying he had needed a united cabinet.

Kudos to Anneliese Dodds for showing principle and courage by resigning

Minister Anneliese Dodds quits over aid cuts www.bbc.com/news/article...

Disappointing to see the UK government cuts its aid spending - we need to be internationalist and recognise our responsibilities internationally, not try to ‘impress’ Trump….

Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap - National Preparedness Commission About this report Your Content Goes Here Since World War ll, the UK has experienced a revolution in food. Diets, supply and tastes have changed and become more used to more plentiful, diverse and ...

Still going through it, but Prof Tim Lang's new UK civil food resilience report is a must-read. Pleased to see our Food Policy on Trial that explored UK public food procurement get a mention - and to be described as a "small but respected NGO"👍
nationalpreparednesscommission.uk/publications...

Rachel Reeves backs Heathrow expansion saying third runway is 'badly needed' - live updates The chancellor says the airport is at

Huge mistake 🤦‍♂️

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg...

Determination + hope. I agree w/ Anna Taylor that that’s what we need to transform food systems.

Was at Food Foundation’s ‘Broken Plate’ launch in Westminster.

Must-read report paints bleak picture of state of UK food systems, but brings challenge & inspiration via citizen ambassador photo stories