Sustainable Places Research Institute delivers annual keynote lecture

Sustainable Places Research Institute welcomed one of the UK’s leading experts in food policy, Professor Tim Lang, to deliver the Institute’s annual keynote lecture.

Professor Lang has been Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy since 2002 after founding the Centre in 1994. For years, Tim has engaged in academic and public research and debate about its direction, locally to globally. His abiding interest is how policy addresses the mixed challenge of being food for the environment, health, social justice, and citizens.

Professor Lang’s lecture explored the state of the already-stretched UK food system. By many measures, Professor Lang argued, it is unsustainable, contributes to massive health externalities, and is locked into an economic dynamic which squeezes primary producers.

The lecture looked at what can be done about the state of the UK’s food system and addressed whether Brexit – whatever its form – will make anything better. Professor Lang also examined whether a regional-based UK food system could provide us with healthy and sustainable diets.

Attendees also took part in a discussion about how UK farming and food can contribute to a rebuilding of ecosystems, including discussion on how a benchmark diet could be applied to UK consumers, and its implications for health and eating habits.

You can watch the lecture and discussion in full on our YouTube pages.

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