A joint AFN Network+ and Food, Farming and Countryside Commissions webinar.

Citizens are frustrated with the extreme imbalance of power and profit in the food system, and want political leaders to bring radical change. That was one of the conclusions from the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC)’s engagement with citizens up and down the UK as part of #TheFoodConversation.

Who holds the power in the food system and who is profiting? What is the impact of this inequality and corporate control on farmers and growers, our health, nature, and ability to tackle climate change? What can be done about it?

In this joint webinar with the FFCC, our speakers share insights from their latest research, which the organisation undertook following concerns raised by citizens in #TheFoodConversation – and explain why questions of power and profit need to rise up the political agenda.

We’ll explore the headlines from two major reports by the FFCC: The first, Tim Jackson’s The False Economy of Big Food, found that unhealthy diets were costing the UK £268bn a year, but the investment for everyone to eat well was far smaller. The second, the forthcoming Paying the Price, looks at the impact of the push for cheap calories on farming businesses, the agri-food chain, and on communities, nature, food security and resilience.

About Charlie

Dr Charlie Taverner is the FFCC’s farming policy lead. He is an experienced researcher and writer with a professional and personal background in food and farming.

He has a PhD in History from Birkbeck, University of London, specialising in food production, trade and consumption in the past. Before joining FFCC, he was a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, part of an international project on the history of food and drink in Ireland. His first book, on London’s street food sellers, was published in 2023.

Previously, Charlie worked as a business and farming journalist. He was a reporter at Farmers Weekly, mainly covering the dairy, beef, sheep and pig industries, and his writing has appeared in a range of national and trade publications.

He was brought up on his family’s dairy farm in Devon, where they make very good ice cream. He now lives with his partner and son in North London.

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.

Outside of work, Mhairi can often be found hiking, gardening, and dedicating a disproportionate amount of time to preventing her cats from interrupting work calls.

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, and 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.