Eat for our Future: Your Climate Questions Answered
Last month we held a joint public webinar with Cambridge Global Food Security exploring how we can all Eat for our Future, as part of the Cambridge Zero Climate Change Festival. The event was designed to give attendees the chance to ask our expert panel their questions on how to eat in a more climate-friendly way. Over 50 advance questions were received, and more were submitted live during the event itself, which had over 100 attendees.
Find below an overview of how the event went and some of the key thought provoking questions that were answered. Report originally appeared on the Global Food Securities website.
Overview
Topics addressed included the virtues of being vegetarian; how we, as consumers, can influence big corporations and government policy; how to educate children about the climate impact of food; sustainable sea-food; palm oil; soy; traffic-light labelling to indicate carbon footprints; plant versus dairy milks; food poverty and the importance of eating locally-grown food.
The panel summed up by answering a question from Georgia Nixon ‘What are the big global hurdles for transitioning to a lower carbon diet?’
Jason O’Rourke’s answer was children’s lack of knowledge about cooking and diet. He believes it’s essential for the next generation to know about the environmental impact of their food, and to learn how to cook and appreciate food.
For Ann Mitchell the biggest hurdle is the control of our food system by a small number of big companies. She told us that the way to get over this is to celebrate local producers and ensure that local produce is available to all.
Sarah Bridle agreed. She believes that we should use our influence as consumers, as she said, ‘When we make choices about what to eat, we influence the food system. Our food choices drive decisions made by food producers, supermarkets, and governments - just look at what is happening with the reduction in plastic packaging.’ She believes that by demanding change and refusing to buy unsustainable produce, the public can drive change.
Giles Yeo pointed out the universal availability of cheap, ultra-processed food as a global problem, he called for change to ensure the cheaper item is always the healthier item.
Emma Garnett identified corporate influence in policy making, from those wishing to maintain the status quo, as a key global factor slowing transition to lower carbon diets. Adding that, ‘We need to compel politicians to act because inaction is not an option.’
Many other fascinating questions were asked ranging from how to get kids into eating vegetables, balancing health vs environment and how to create a food system that meets the need of both and the stigma around avocados and controversial plant milks such as almond and soya.
For instance, when asked about taking into account the high water usage of almond milk, the panelists pointed out that although it might have a high water use compared to other plant milks, cow milk also involves a very high usage as well! And apparently almond and soy milk are not just a modern trend - they have actually been around for hundreds of years!
See here for a full record of the panel’s written answers to some of the audience's questions.
Watch the full recording of the webinar below and see all the answers yourself.
The Panel
Dr Sarah Bridle is Professor of Food, Climate and Society, University of York. She is a transdisciplinary researcher driven by the need to tackle climate change. Her book, Food and Climate Change - Without the Hot Air was published in 2020 by UIT Cambridge and is available to download for free. For other free resources please go to her website http://sarahbridle.net.
Ann Mitchell is a director of Cambridge Sustainable Food, having been involved since its creation seven years ago. A retired primary school teacher, she hopes to help shape a fairer, more sustainable and less wasteful food system.
Dr Emma Garnett is Prince of Wales Junior Research Fellow in Sustainable Consumption at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, which is part of the University of Cambridge. She is interested in understanding how to equitably overcome economic, political and social barriers to conserving biodiversity and reaching absolute zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr Jason O’Rourke is the Headteacher of Washingborough Academy, co-founder of TastEd sensory food education. He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on School Food and the British Nutritional Foundation’s Education Working Group and is currently working with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
With thanks to Lucía Arce Cubas for providing technical support for this event.
This Cambridge Zero Climate Change Festival 2021 event was organised by Cambridge Sustainable Food and the University of Cambridge Global Food Security IRC. It is part of EIT Food's Annual Food Agenda project funded by the EU.
Eat for our Future Campaign
This event was run as part of our Eat for our Future Campaign: Climate Diet Campaign. The campaign aims to inform businesses and the local community about how to eat in a climate-friendly way, and inspire them to take the Climate Diet pledge. This might involve appetising ideas for using those leftovers and trying easy ways to enjoy more plant-based recipes.
Our campaign has been set up to help the people of Cambridge to be part of the solution too - through their daily diet. Take the climate pledge as an individual or a business here.
