Our discussion focused on food security in Part 4 of our webinar series.
This is the fourth in a series of talks and discussions that are being coordinated by Alicia Hull with Citizen Network.
Alicia was joined by guests:
The panel was chaired by Simon Duffy, President of Citizen Network and Director of Citizen Network Research.
Sabrina Espeleta of War on Want outlines the enormous and growing level of world hunger. She explains how a few global corporations control the vast majority of food production and supply and markets exploit the food market, leaving communities, especially in the Global South at great disadvantage. Local peasant farmers are now organising to achieve food sovereignty, seeking to farm in ways in harmony with nature and to meet local needs. The Global North needs to respect the rights and autonomy of these people rather than to continue the pattern of exploitation.
The presentation is below:
Dan Crossley of the Food Ethics Council explores our personal responsibility for thinking about and behaving differently with food. He outlined some of the creative actions citizens are taking around the UK and the need to address issues of hunger, nutrition and our connection to where food really comes from.
Dave Beck of UBI Lab Food and the University of Salford explores the explosion of food banks in the UK since 2010 and the politics of a poverty industry that seems unable to end growing UK poverty. He sets out the case for basic income as part of a strategy to end food banks.
After the presentations the panel discussed whether the idea of food poverty is really helpful or should we just focus on poverty; the dangers of talking about food without thinking about agriculture and land ownership and the gulf between the urban and rural experiences; and what is the way forward.
You can read more about this webinar series and work here.
This webinar took place on 6 July 2023.
nature & economics, Sustainability, England, Webinar