Everyday food security: Place-making through community organising in the UK

Posted on June 16, 2022 by geofoodie

Earlier this week (14 June 2022), I participated in a conference as a keynote speaker on urban landscapes in transformation, hosted by SLU Urban Futures in Sweden. Unfortunately, I had to attend virtually because of airline disruptions. It was a really interesting conference with excellent research focusing on how we might make more inclusive and sustainable foodscapes for all. This is the presentation I gave at the conference. Thank you for inviting me to participate.

Pillars of food security–highlights the need for multiple types of resources

What happens in place when the range of resources are undermined

How do we approach resilience in a food context

What food activities do in communities with regard to changing our relationships with food

What food in communities do with regard to changing our relationships with each other

What food in communities does with regard to changing our relationships with ourselves

What it looks like if we get it right. More than food.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about this research.

Beanstalk Global Podcast for Healthy and Sustainable Food

Posted on September 30, 2020 by geofoodie

Last week I participated in a webinar for a group of people who are concerned about healthy and sustainable food. The podcast focused on food insecurity. Participants in the webinar included Barbara Bray, Mark Driscoll and Jacqui Green, who have founded the group, as well as Tom Amery, MD of The Watercress Company and Ben Thomas, Environment Manager from Waitrose & Partners, and me.

You can watch the facebook live recording of the webinar below, but it was also broadcast live on Linked In and will be available from the Beanstalk Global web page soon. There is a bit of natter at the start of the broadcast which is not really related to the webinar, which starts at about 2 minutes in.

Webinar hosted on Beanstalk Global re: Food insecurity.

How some food businesses in Sheffield coped and adapted during the March-May COVID lockdown

Posted on September 22, 2020 by geofoodie

In the spring and summer of 2020 I interviewed some of Sheffield’s local food businesses to see how they coped in lockdown. What I found was agility and inventiveness and collaboration, but also care for the food that is provided, for the people who eat that food, and for the local place. What is clear from these interviews, when taken together, is that in emergency situations we need a local supply chain with people working in the food sector that are embedded in the community if we are going to strengthen and build resilience.

In this post I share the video interviews with Our Cow Molly, a local dairy producer, Food Works a social enterprise that works with surplus food, and Regather Coop.

Interview with Ed at Our Cow Molly

You can find all three video interviews on the University of Sheffield Institute for Sustainable Food here.

Elaborating Food Ladders

Posted on August 14, 2020 by geofoodie

In this post I provide an elaboration of the Food Ladders framework. This elaboration provides greater detail in terms of how to identify activity and where it sits on the the ladders. There are three ladders in the Food Ladders approach: 1. Food access and nutritional value, 2. Social, and 3. Economic.