Building a better food system: health, sustainability and community in Bristol 

Local and national food thinkers came together at We The Curious earlier this month to explore how rethinking local food systems can boost health, reduce environmental impact, and tackle food inequality across the city. Bristol Food Network’s Heloise Balme was there and reports on how you can get involved in this work. 

The University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute for the Environment hosts an annual lecture exploring some of the most urgent challenges of our time. This year’s theme, ‘Rethinking food and nutrition for the planet’, felt particularly timely and pertinent to our Bristol Good Food work, drawing a full house at We The Curious on Wednesday 8 October.  

Opening the event, Professor Guy Howard, Director of the Cabot Institute, reminded us just how deeply food shapes our lives. It can be a marker of cultural identity, a weapon in times of conflict, or simply a source of comfort and reward. Yet, as he highlighted, our food system is riddled with inequality: one in seven UK households faces food insecurity. Its environmental toll is equally stark, with food production the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss and responsible for around 30% of global carbon emissions. 

Nonetheless, Guy acknowledged the incredible role that food systems can play in improving our natural environment and our health, and the rest of the lecture highlighted many positive, inspiring examples of how this change is taking shape. 

Food systems thinking 

The key speaker was Kath Dalmeny, CEO of Sustain, who campaign for food systems policy and practice change. Sustain is also one of the founding organisations behind the Sustainable Food Places network, which has helped establish an incredible 120 food partnerships nationally (all carrying out similar work to our own Bristol Good Food 2030 Partnership).  

Kath reflected on the increasing awareness of links between food and both human and planetary health. This is – of course – great news, but we cannot rest on our laurels, rather we need to grab hold of that awareness and together keep driving change. 

Her speech had a strong theme of systems thinking running throughout it. This means the consideration of how a decision in one area of our food system (say farming, transportation, processing and production, selling, eating, or dealing with waste) has an impact on other areas.   

Systems thinking can present opportunities to transform both human health and the environment through food. Kath talked of how farmers manage the majority of the UK’s land, and therefore we must support them to do that in a way that supports and improves the natural environment. Since leaving the EU, the UK government has made steps to reward and support farmers for sustainable practices. Even more needs to be done here. For farmers to produce food that’s good for us and the planet, they also need to be paid fairly and to have enough, consistent demand.

Given the UK’s public institutions serve around two billion meals annually, their food procurement presents a brilliant opportunity to support more local and sustainable food production. Professor Kevin Morgan has recently published a book on this topic, and we will be talking about it with him and a panel of local experts on Tuesday 11 November here in Bristol, so please come along if you’re interested in this topic. Find out more. 

The ‘SNEAK’ project 

Public institutions can also play a role in developing social eating practices that support citizens consuming a healthy, nutritious diet. At The Cabot Institute’s research showcase ahead of the lecture, academics Professor Jeff Brunstrom and Doctor Annika Flynn shared their ‘SNEAK’ project, which has tested clever menu changes within the University of Bristol’s catering to reduce the carbon footprint of meals chosen by students, while also providing greater nutritional value. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, and it’s hoped the model can be replicated in other public institutions. Read more about ‘SNEAK’ on the Bristol Good Food 2030 blog. 

Understanding the impacts of our changing food system 

Applying a systems lens helps us to understand and identify key food issues driving environmental degradation and poor public health. Kath cited stats that in the past 60 years, meat production has increased by more than 90% while the population has only grown by 20%.   

This global dietary shift has huge implications, with meat production playing a role in increased carbon emissions, environmental degradation (for example, through greater agricultural run-off from animal waste and loss of rainforest for cattle grazing), and increased land use for animal feed production. Sustain projects that a reduction of 50% in UK meat consumption would cut UK agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by 25–40% and require 23% less land for food production. 

Driving change though policy and collective action 

When it comes to national policy levers and the opportunity to drive positive, systemic change, Kath enthusiastically referenced Sustain’s estimate that £3 billion could be raised from a potential new tax on foods that are high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) – this could be reinvested into ensuring citizens can access healthy food more easily. Societal inequality is a considerable driver of diet-related health issues, and in the panel discussion following Kath’s speech, there was much discussion on how community-led, localised activity demonstrates success in addressing this.  

The panel, which included Sophie Healy-Thow and Rose Ndulu-Ndolo, cited many inspiring examples of how individuals and communities across the globe are driving forward food systems change, driven by the gaps and needs they see within their communities. Imagine what more could be achieved in the UK if some of that potential £3 billion were diverted to support communities in continuing to deliver this work? 

As Kath said, ‘we can all be food systems actors’ – expressing her firm belief in the power of togetherness to do amazing things. In our work coordinating the Bristol Good Food 2030 Partnership, we see this every day in examples of our brilliant partners bringing about local change – be that through a community food growing space, free cookery classes or food pantry – and, over our 15 years doing this collective partnership work, we know that when we connect these different actors to each other, we generate yet more initiatives, and together have an even greater impact.  

At Bristol Food Network, the CIC coordinating the Bristol Good Food Partnership, we truly believe in the power of togetherness and would like to invite you to join us. Your organisation can join the Bristol Good Food 2030 Partnership and connect with others to deliver local change. As an individual, you can subscribe to our newsletter and find out what’s going on in Bristol’s Good Food Movement, how you can get involved and make changes yourself.  

Join us in making Bristol’s food system good for us and for the planet.