New People's Plan for Food seeks input

Citizens are being called on to join a new democratic gathering of views on the future of British food, to provide an up-to-date and in-depth insight into what the public want from their food system for government and policymakers.

A series of workshops will begin this summer and take place across the UK, facilitated in the format of mini citizen's assemblies and building on the recent work done around a People's Plan for Nature. The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC), which is behind the initiative, said it plans to use the findings to create "a new conversation around food."

A spokesperson for the FFCC said: "In our work over the last few years, we consistently hear from citizens that they are interested in the future of food, and worried by the lack of access to healthy food for themselves and their families. Yet again and again, we hear politicians and the media repeating a mantra that ‘people don’t want a nanny state’ and don’t want to be told what to eat.

"We plan to explore this question further, bringing citizens into a major new national conversation about food and the food system."

The new inquiry will begin in summer, online and in locations around the UK. More infomation will be announced via the FFCC website in due course.