Dan Crossley, Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council, has penned a great write-up of the Square Meal panel at last week’s Oxford Real Farming Conference:
“Add a sprinkling of Square Meal panellists to a full house of farmers and sustainable food champions, stir gently, simmer, and then bring to the boil.
The result: a lively Square Meal debate at the Oxford Real Farming Conference!
The ‘appetiser’, served up expertly by Vicki Hird, took the form of a quick overview of how and why the Square Meal alliance had formed. 10 organisations with a diverse range of interests (9 leading NGOs plus the Food Research Collaboration from City University, London) came together to jointly demonstrate the overwhelming evidence of the need for a major change of national food and farming policy. The alliance is calling for an integrated and long-term approach to the future of land use, food, farming and the countryside, based on wide public engagement and benefitting society as a whole.
‘First course’ was a series of short two-minute injections from members of the Panel to introduce respective sections of the report – Professor Tim Lang (City University London) on health, yours truly (Food Ethics Council) on food, Mike Clarke (RSPB) on environment, Rob Macklin (National Trust) on farming and Philip Lymbery (Compassion in World Farming) on leadership.”