Rethinking the food system for health, climate and nature

The 2021 UK National Food Strategy Review combined data driven evidence with wide stakeholder engagement to diagnose serious problems caused by the food system, develop policy recommendations to tackle them and build a social and political mandate to act. 

While the review’s recommendations were aimed at the UK government, the approach taken and many of the messages that emerged from the analysis have more universal relevance. This policy insight argues that a data-led approach to improving the food system, using the National Food Strategy as its blueprint, can be used as a platform for the UK to display global influence.   

The UK can show global leadership by acting on the findings of the NFS review domestically and demonstrating how the food systems can be transformed. Similar to the role the government played helping the International Energy Agency internationalise the UK 2050 pathways calculator for decarbonising energy, it should also work with the FAO to use the review as a starting point for analysis to inform a global 1.5 °C food system pathway rooted in quantitative analysis and democratic decision making.