Boyle, Neil Bernard, Jenneson, Victoria, Okeke-Ogbuafor, Nwamaka, Morris, Michelle A., Stead, Selina M., Dye, Louise, Halford, Jason C.G., and Banwart, Steven A. (2024) Connected Food: First Steps for an Ambitious National Food Strategy. Nutrients, 16 (19). 3371.

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Abstract

Background: The global food system faces growing pressure from population growth, climate change, wealth inequity, geo-political instability, and damage to the ecosystems on which our food supply depends. Fragmentation of the priorities and needs of food system stakeholders—citizens, food producers, food industries, governments—compounds the problem, with competing or misaligned interests increasing the risk of failure to adequately meet the needs of those that form, and are served, by the food system. Growing consensus on the need for transformative system level change to address the problems facing the food system is yet to be significantly reflected in strategic action.

Methods: The national food strategy of the UK is offered as an exemplar to discuss the need to promote more coherent and ambitious visions of transformative change that acknowledge the complexity of the food system as a whole. We draw upon cross-sectoral experience to distil the needs, priorities, and key food system tensions that must be acknowledged to promote transformative systems change that equitably delivers healthy sustainable diets, contributes to a resilient global food system, and protects the environment.

Results: Greater coherence, ambition, and consideration of the food system as a whole are needed if a UK national food strategy is to contribute to significant transformative change.

Conclusions: To promote this, we advocate for (1) a food system digital twin to model and test potential food system interventions or legislation; (2) a citizens’ forum to inform and co-develop a cohesive national food strategy; and (3) increased cohesion and integration of food system governance within government to drive a coherent, ambitious national food strategy.

Item ID:	85441
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2072-6643
Copyright Information:	© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Date Deposited:	13 May 2025 03:06
FoR Codes:	30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3006 Food sciences > 300606 Food sustainability @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280101 Expanding knowledge in the agricultural, food and veterinary sciences @ 100%
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