Transformations towards a Regenerative Food System (FixOurFood)
The Transformations towards a Regenerative Food System programme (FixOurFood) has a vision to transform food systems (FS) across the UK towards being 'regenerative'. Our current food systems are responsible for major social and environmental impacts, such as poor diets, ill health and major environmental degradation and threaten the long-term wellbeing of people and the planet. Because many aspects of ecological and human health have already passed critical thresholds, new regenerative approaches are needed that go beyond just reducing harm to sustainable levels and instead develop food systems that have dynamics that 'spiral up' social, economic and environmental benefit for all.
Our work focuses on shifting trajectories towards regenerative dynamics in three inter-related systems of: healthy eating for young children, hybrid food economies and farming. This enables us to consider not just the food chain (farming to fork) but also its outcomes, such as food security (availability, access and utilisation of food), quality, safety and social welfare, as well as how these aspects interact with social, economic and environmental drivers.
To achieve this, our research has been developed with a range of food systems stakeholders from farming, industry, civil society and national and regional government. By working with these diverse stakeholders, we aim to change the Yorkshire food system and use the learning, to inform change efforts in other parts of the UK and beyond.
FixOurFood is part of the £47.5M 'Transforming the UK Food System for Healthy People and a Healthy Environment Strategic Priorities Fund PF Programme' which is delivered by UKRI, in partnership with the Global Food Security Programme, BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, Defra, DHSC, PHE, Innovate UK and FSA. Visit their website here.
Our main research questions are:
(1) What do regenerative systems look like? and (2) How can transformations be enabled so we can get to regenerative food systems?
Our work has six main outcomes for Yorkshire and beyond:
- New visions of regenerative food systems
- Scalable innovative interventions (e.g. new models of food procurement and environmentally sustainable menus for schools and early years settings; educational resources/activities linking healthy diet and climate change such as remote/interactive farming platform for schools; hybrid business models like food hubs, community urban vertical farms; a UK wide model to predict impacts of scaling regenerative farming, linking of regenerative farming produce to schools and anchor institutions procurement)
- New policies and governance mechanisms (such as the Food Systems Council for Yorkshire) to ensure impact well beyond the programme
- New metrics and platform to help guide and drive transformation (e.g. new data for National Food School monitoring; and an open-source codebase with quantitative systems models to co-create a new metrics dashboard for food systems transformation)
- New narratives for different stakeholders to support cultural change
- Bringing together different stakeholders, information and new ways of thinking to ensure long-term transformational intent. Overall, our cutting-edge science that uses co-creation and action-oriented methods aims to actively shift trajectories towards new kinds of regenerative food systems in Yorkshire. It also aims to produce cutting-edge science about how to achieve transformation of food systems towards the new concepts of regenerative futures. Through the influential researchers and partners involved, this learning will also be actively fed into UK policy and international endeavours, ensuring the programme has wide-reaching and long-lasting impact
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Yorkshire
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