FAQ

Taking place around the UK, each set of workshops (sometimes known as citizen dialogues or deliberative dialogues) involved about 30 citizens who are broadly representative of their location and were invited through a postcode lottery by Sortition Foundation. They spent 20+ hours together discussing and debating the issues, hearing from speakers and exploring case studies, examining not whether the way food works now needs to change, but how. They considered different policy and practice changes that have been proposed by others, including the National Food Strategy, and identified what to prioritise and by whom.

The 12 locations for the deliberative workshops included: Birmingham, Cambridgeshire, Northumberland, East Kent, West Yorkshire, South London, Cornwall, South Wales, North Wales, Belfast, the Lothians, and the North Highlands, Shetland and Orkney.

In each location, 30 citizens were recruited via a ‘Sortition Approach’, a stratified sampling method which enables the formation of a ‘mini-public’ representative of the community in which the dialogue is based.  

Demographic criteria included gender, age, ethnicity, disability, education, index of multiple deprivation, urban/rural and people on all sides of political debate. 

Over 118,000 invitations were sent across the locations, resulting in over 340 citizens participating in The Food Conversation across the U.K.  

During the workshops, citizens heard from academic experts, local leaders, national politicians, food retailers, businesses, farmers and more (see below FAQ for full list of speakers).  

The aim of the citizen workshops was to better understand the kinds of changes citizens are looking for in the food system from business, government and civil society. 

In addition to the formal ‘recruited’ Food Conversation across 12 locations in the UK, we also built partnerships with organisations to help extend the reach and scale of the project. Local community partners have hosted over 70+ food conversations, reaching even more citizens across the UK.  Initially reaching 300+ citizens through the workshops, ultimately the project will involve thousands of people through national polling and work with local partners, membership organisations and more. 

The findings from these Food Conversations will feed into the final report to be released in 2025. The results will be kept strictly separate from the Food Conversation in the knowledge that these local conversations are not necessarily a representative sample of local demographics. However, the results will be interesting and important to compare to the broader project, potentially creating a ‘groundswell’ for food-systems change.  

The first citizen workshops started in June 2023 and expanded to include locations around the UK in 2024, finalising with a ‘National Summit’ in November 2024.

These citizen workshops are sometimes known as ‘citizen dialogues’ or ‘deliberative dialogues’, and involve bringing together a group of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to explore a topic together. Through online and in-person meetings, they learn more about the issue, have informed discussions, and work together to reach a shared understanding on the best course of action. 

Consistent with citizen dialogues exploring the climate and nature crises, we started with the premise that there are problems in the food system that need to be tackled. We aren’t asking citizens to come up with new ideas, but rather testing their appetite for a variety of policy ideas and interventions proposed in the last 10 years. 
 
In 2024, citizens from each location spent 20+ hours together discussing and debating the issues, hearing from speakers and exploring case studies, examining not whether the way food works now needs to change, but how. They considered different policy and practice changes that have been proposed by others, including the National Food Strategy, and identifying what to prioritise and by whom. Participants have also come together for a national summit on the 19th November 2024, to reflect across the four UK nations and share their views directly with senior policymakers.

The facilitation was led by Hopkins van Mil and supported by TPX Impact. Both agencies have a great deal of experience conducting similar deliberative processes across the UK.  

The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (ffcc.co.uk) commissioned the project - but 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.

Taking place in locations around the UK, each set of workshops (sometimes known as citizen dialogues or deliberative dialogues) involved around 30 citizens who are broadly representative of their location and invited through a postcode lottery by Sortition Foundation. There were 12 sets of workshops, with over 340+ citizens taking part.

Demographic criteria include gender, age, ethnicity, disability, education, index of multiple deprivation, and urban/rural and we were careful to include people on all sides of political debate. 

In addition to the in-depth citizen workshops, citizens and commmunity groups can now also create their own conversations and use a toolkit to help shape the discussion – which has so far involved hundreds more citizens in the project.

Who are the citizens hearing from?

In our workshops, citizens hear from a diverse range of perspectives on food, including from academics, farming voices, industry representatives, policymakers and NGO leaders. They each offer expertise and experience in different parts of the food system. Here's a summary of the speakers and panellists who have taken part in The Food Conversation so far. 

Introduction to Food Systems:

• Prof. Angelina Sanderson Bellamy, Professor of Food Systems at UWE Bristol (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Wales – June 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024). 

• Prof. Sarah Bridle, Professor of Food, Climate and Society, University of York (UK - March 2024; Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Wales – June 2024) 

Food System Inequalities:

• Prof. Charlotte Hardman, Professor of Psychology of Eating Behaviour, Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Wales – June 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Prof. Rebecca O’Connell, Professor of Food, Families and Society, University of Hertfordshire (UK - March 2024) 

• Dan Crossley, Executive Director, Food Ethics Council (Q&A, UK - March 2024) 

Ultra-Processed Food (UPF):

• Dr. Yanaina Chavez-Ugalde, Research Associate, University of Cambridge’s MRC Epidemiology Unit (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• Kristin Bash, Chair, Food Special Interest Group, Faculty of Public Health, University of Sheffield (UK - March 2024; Wales – June 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Dr. Chris van Tulleken, Associate Professor, UCL (Video recording - Summer 2023) 

Industrial Food Production:

• Sarah Wakefield, Executive Director at Eating Better (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024) 

• Andrew Stark, Senior Research and Policy Manager, Eating Better (UK - March 2024; Wales – June 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

Nature, Farming and Sustainability:

• Alec Taylor, Head of Policy at WWF (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• Joe Stanley, Farmer and Head of Sustainable Farming at the Allerton Project (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• Tom Clarke, Farmer (Video - Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Summer 2023, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• George Hosford, Farmer and Former NFU Chair for Dorset (UK - March 2024) 

• Liz Bowles, CEO, Farm Carbon Toolkit (Summer 2023) 

• Shea Buckland-Jones & Alex Phillips, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Biodiversity Policy Officer, WWF Cymru (Wales – June 2024) 

• Delyth Lewis-Jones, Head of Environment, Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) (Wales – June 2024) 

• Julie Thomas, Family Sheep Farm (Speaker Panel; Wales – June 2024) 

• David Wilson, Earth Time Farming (Speaker Panel; Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• James Smith, Loddington Farm (Video, (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024, Wales – June 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• Jonny Blair, Northern Ireland Livestock Farmer (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024)  

• John Martin, Head of policy and advocacy, RSPB NI (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Claire Daly, Head of policy and advocacy, WWF Scotland (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024)  

• Davy McCracken, Head of Department, Integrated Land Management, Hill & Mountain Research Centre, Head of Department, Scotland's Rural College (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Will Frazer, Northern Ireland Farmer/Director of Hillmount Holdings (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Bronagh O'Kane, Northern Ireland Livestock Farmer (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

Food Policy and Governance:

• Prof. Tim Benton, Distinguished Fellow, Chatham House (Video recording – UK - March 2024; Summer 2023; Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Wales – June 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Prof. Nick Pearce, Director at the Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath (Video recording -UK - March 2024; then available to all citizens in all waves as further reading) 

• Dr. Kelly Parsons, Research Associate, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; UK - March 2024; Summer 2023, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• Prof. Mary Brennan, Chair of Food Marketing and Society, University of Edinburgh (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Philippa McKeown-Brown, Head of Food Policy and Emerging Markets at the Consumer Council, (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024)

• Dr. Ludivine Petetin, Reader in Law, University of Cardiff (Wales – June 2024) 

• Carwyn Jones, Former First Minister of Wales (Speaker Panel; Wales – June 2024) 

• Claire Moriarty, Chief Executive at Citizens Advice and ex-permanent secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Video, Speaker Panel; Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

• Robin Gourlay OBE, Previous advisor to Scottish Government on Public Sector Food and Drink Policy (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

Child Nutrition:

• Dr. Vicky Sibson, Director of First Steps Nutrition (Video recording - UK - March 2024; then available to all citizens in all waves as further reading) 

• Claire Hislop RNutr (Public Health), Organisational Lead – Food & Physical Activity, Public Health Scotland (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Dr. Aileen McGloin, Director of Nutrition, Safefood (Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

Food Environment and Public Procurement:

• Katie Palmer, Programme Manager, Food Sense (Wales – June 2024) 

• Courtney Scott, Ex FFCC Director of Policy & Research (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Wales – June 2024) 

• Mhairi Brown, FFCC Head of Food Futures (Cornwall and South London, July 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Carolyn Steel, Author of Sitopia (Recording, Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Wales – June 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024) 

Danish Food Policy Experience:

• Lise Walbom, CEO of Food Nation Denmark (Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024; Wales – June 2024, Cornwall and South London, July 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

Business and Retail Perspectives:

• Amy McDonnell, Senior Sustainability & Social Impact Manager, Danone (Speaker Panel; Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024) 

• Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability, Nestle (Speaker Panel; Kent, West Yorkshire, Northumberland - April 2024) 

• Judith Batchelar, Formerly Sainsbury’s (UK - March 2024; Summer 2023) 

• Joe McDonald, Head of Corporate Affairs at Asda NI (UK - March 2024; Northern Ireland and Scotland, September 2024) 

• Mark Grant, Associate Director at Levercliff Associates, ex-Senior Buying Manager at Tesco’s (Speaker Panel; Wales – June 2024) 

• Edward Morgan, Group Corporate Social Responsibility & Training Manager at Castell Howell Foods (Speaker Panel; Wales – June 2024) 

Charity Leaders and NGOs:

• Denise Bentley, Founder a First Love Foundation (Summer 2023) 

• Heather Buckingham, Trussel Trust (Summer 2023) 

• Helen Browning OBE, CEO, Soil Association (Summer 2023) 

• Emma Marsh, Executive Director, Digital Technology, Communications and Campaigns, RSPB (Summer 2023) 

Local Government Insights:

• Justin Varney, Birmingham City Council (Summer 2023) 

• Sarah Pullen, Birmingham City Council (Summer 2023) 

Citizens also heard from a panel of local actors in each location:

• South Wales:

  • Abi Reader - Deputy president NFU Cymru and mixed farmer

  • Ali Taherzadeh - SPLO Down Community Food Cooperative and research in sustainability transitions and food systems

  • Jonathan Tench Director of Well-being Economy at The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

• North Wales:

  • David Wylie - Food lead at Menter Mon

  • Geraint Davies - Farmer and NRW (EA) Board

  • Robyn Lovelock - Ambition for North Wales

  • Mabon Ap Gwynfor - MS for Dwyfor Meirionydd

• Kent:

  • Steve Oram - Kent Veg Box

  • Carol Ford - Kent Fresh Produce Task Force

  • Zoe Rodda - Lily's Social Kitchen

  • Huw Jarvis, Kent County Council, Growth, Environment and Transport Programme Manager

• Cornwall:

  • Lucy Jones - Cornish Food Box Company

  • Lynne Dyer - Growing Links

  • Rachel Wigglesworth, Cornwall County Council, Director of Public Health

• South London:

  • Damien Conrad - The Felix Project

  • Shiraz Sheriff, Croydon Council, Public Health Principle

• Northumberland:

  • Tom Burston - Sheep Farmer

  • Sarah Bredin-Kemp - Full Circle Food Project

  • Hannah Davison, Northumberland County Council Senior Climate Change and Sustainability Manager

• Yorkshire:

  • Juli Thompson - Food Savers

  • Sonja Woodcock - Food Wise Leeds

  • Cllr Abigail Marshall Katung, Lord Mayor of Leeds

• Northern Ireland:

  • Collin Coffey, Public Health Agency

  • Beth Bell, Carrick Greengrocers and Food Ethics Council

  • John McLenaghan, Ulster Farmers Union

• Lothians:

  • Ellen Scott, Cabinet Member for Education and Young People, Ward Councillor for Midlothian South

  • Daniel Wight, Tyninghame Community Farm

  • Elizabeth Massie, Pressmennan farm, near Dunbar

• CSROS:

  • Dennis Overton, Chair, Scottish Food Commission

  • Sally Crowe: Hawkhill Farm, Keith, Caithness

  • Bryan Dods; Project Officer; Caithness Voluntary Group

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).

Experience suggests that the best conversations arise when the structure is not overly prescriptive, so we are trying to leave room for conversations to evolve naturally amongst participants. The discussions are loosely focused on themes including Food & health; Food, farming & land use; Food & justice; Food, climate & nature.

The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) which has commissioned the Food Conversation work, adheres to an ethical funding policy. 

The ethical funding policy ensures that funding is not accepted from any organisation seeking to influence FFCC’s work or independence. FFCC is funded by a small number of independent foundations –including  Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Rothschild Foundation, The Aurora Trust, King Charles Charitable Fund, and Animula, and none of these plays any part in the design or delivery of the Food Conversation, although they are interested in the outcomes.  The Northumberland wave was funded by Northumberland County Council to help them create a local food plan. They have also not influenced the content or process. 

The Food Conversation is led by FFCC, which has commissioned Hopkins Van Mil and TPX Impact to help us design and facilitate the conversations. More in Common has been commissioned to conduct nationwide polling, and BB Partners helps us deliver advocacy and media outcomes. FFCC’s work is overseen by its Board and Commissioners.

FFCC has also formed an independent Advisory Group to advise on the methods and content of the Food Conversation.  Chaired by Dan Crossley, the Advisory Group’s purpose is to act as trusted advisors, providing expertise, advice and input into the Food Conversation.  

The membership is drawn from academia and civil society alongside FFCC Commissioners, all with an active interest, and expertise in,  different aspects of Food Systems change. Members have been invited via personal invitation, based on their credentials and authority in their field. Members participate in the Advisory Group in a personal capacity, meaning the views and insights they share on the Food Conversation AG do not necessarily represent the views of the organisations they work for. 

The Food Conversation’s Advisory Group’s objectives are to: 

• Provide scrutiny and challenge of ongoing Food Conversation delivery, including the design of the methodology and key inputs to the process (e.g. expert speakers). 

• Inform and advise on strategic development of the Food Conversation project. 

• Introduce and facilitate connections and opportunities where appropriate. 

You can see the full membership list here. 

The Food Conversation's extensive and representative citizen workshop sessions in Birmingham and Cambridge in 2023 were reinforced by the findings of a nationally representative More in Common poll of 2,000 people - which shows that UK citizens across all demographics, age and political groups reject ‘nanny state’ concerns and want the government to do more to fix food. Read the news story.

More recently, polling in March 2024 unearthed the real and growing food crisis in the UK.

Explore our full findings here.

The Food Conversation is now regularly cited in media and parliamentary debate, providing evidence of citizens concerns about food and highlighting their call to transform the way we eat, produce and grow food.

Consistently we heard from citizens that they want farmers to be paid fairly for their work, for food to be produced in ways that limit damage to nature and climate, and for everyone to be able to afford healthy, nutritious food. They overwhelmingly want government to lead change and they want businesses that damage the health of both people and planet to be held accountable.

Building on the success of the workshops, it’s now possible for community groups and citizens to run their own Food Conversation with a free, open access online toolkit, which features films with expert speakers, session plans and more. So far, over 70 local Food Conversations have taken place, with more and more happening every week across the UK.  

Participants from the workshops joined the Citizens Food Summit, which took place on the 19th of November in Westminster, to share their views directly with senior policymakers.