A stand-out moment for Dominic Watters, as he took part in a national food inquiry, was eating a plate of scrambled eggs at Yolk Farm near York.
“Not only was it the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had in my life,” Dominic says, “it’s a stark difference to the food available where I live. The only hot food available on my estate in Kent is breaded, processed, imported chicken that’s not even cooked on site but just kept warm. There’s not even a KFC or a Tescos. I live in a place where you can buy blueberry vapes and blueberry energy drinks, but you can’t get a packet of blueberries. It’s a food desert in the garden of England.”
Loading up the “Queen of Greens” mobile greengrocer bus at Kindling Farm, just outside Knowsley, on Merseyside, Lucy Antal is also talking about food deserts – defined as places where people have to walk 1k or more than 15 mins to be able to buy any fresh food.
“When you’re living in a space where it’s easier to buy a vape than an apple, that makes it very difficult for people to follow public health advice,” she says, as she loads trays of freshly-picked cucumber. “Yet people are always being told ‘you need to eat more healthily…you need more fresh food’.”
Queen of Greens is just one of the projects visited by a Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) that has been working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to help shape The Good Food Cycle – a strategy for the food sector that works for farmers, food businesses and the people who eat it.
Dominic is one of the members of the CAC, who have met more than 80 people across the country with different connections to food. The result is an ambitious new report, ‘From the Ground Up’ which calls for a new approach to food – that helps create fairer, more equal country.
It is backed by new polling released today by More In Common – which shows huge public support for action on food across parties and across postcodes. At a moment when risks to food systems are highly visible – from the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, to the current heatwave – the polling, commissioned by The Food Foundation (FF) and the Food Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC), reveals a striking consensus.
Less than one in ten people (7%) think the food system works well and should be left as it is. More than two in three (69%) say the government should do more to make sure food is healthy – including 88% of Green voters, 80% of Labour voters, and 59% of Reform voters. Two in three (65%) say the government should ensure people are able to eat healthy foods. Meanwhile, nine in ten (90%) say farmers deserve a fair price.
Sue Pritchard, Chief Executive, FFCC says: “Having enough good, healthy food, sustainably produced by UK farmers, is important to people across the political spectrum – a quite remarkable consensus. Yet 9 in 10 of them think the food economy is not working for them, right now. For a new PM, intent on making a real difference in peoples’ everyday lives, this is a clear steer towards the kinds of policies that people want to see delivered.”
Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy, The Food Foundation says: “Across the country, and across parties, it is clear that the public wants government to take decisive steps to ensure everyone can access healthy, affordable and local food. All eyes are on the next Prime Minister to step up to ensure this happens.”
Maria Chukwu-Nsofor, 48, is on the CAC with Dominic. Also from Kent, she is a full-time carer for her son Adebambo, 19, who is autistic and attended the Cornwall ‘What Works Here?” inquiry with her. “I got involved after responding to an advert in the paper,” she says. “It’s been enlightening and empowering for me as a member of the general public.
“I am a carer to my son, and I wanted to be a voice for the SEN community. When Adebambo goes to a shop he can manage the shopping list, but he can’t think about healthy choices as well. I just want him to be able to choose something healthy and be okay, and it all starts from that.” Maria and Adebambo enjoyed visiting the Kellehand Trust in Camborne, where people with disabilities are growing and serving food. “Food brings people together, just like music and like football is doing at the moment,” Maria says. “It’s not just about survival.”
Back on Merseyside, at the Children and Family Centre in Everton, a steady stream of customers is waiting for Queen of Greens, which serves around 400 families a week. “We all love the strawberries, but because the prices are lower here I can get new things for my family to try too,” says mum-of-three Asma Omer. “There is nowhere like this near my house.”
Dorcas Udugbai, 41, a full-time mum who lives down the road, says: “Every week I come for apples, strawberries, bananas…everything is so good and so cheap.” Mum Sara Sabine, 39, agrees. “You can taste the difference,” she says. “When you have kids it all goes fast – but it’s helping them make healthy choices.”
Driver Aaron Rossiter, 53, from Anfield, says he enjoys seeing familiar faces. “We have one lady who buys 21 satsumas a week,” he says. “It’s great for older people – they might just want to get two carrots and a spud, and that’s fine with us.”
When the bus calls at a women’s refugee project at St James in the City, many of the women have Healthy Boost vouchers – a city-wide public health scheme. Among them is pregnant mum Giftie Epine, 36. She found the project online after struggling to find fresh food – taking two buses and walking half an hour each way, to trek to a market.
“I asked Chat GPT where I could get fresh food locally,” she says. “I’ll definitely be back.” Ahead of her in the queue is Augustina, 33, and her 18-month-old daughter. “In other places the food goes bad very easily,” she says.
What’s striking about CAC’s report is that it highlights the ways our food system is currently failing everyone apart from the Big Food multinationals – from single dads to food retail workers, farmers to doctors seeing patients struggling with health problems caused by a lack of access to healthy food. But it also highlights the amazing projects across the country that are tackling these problems with imagination and flair.
Farming Minister Stephen Morgan says that CAC’s “vital work shines a light on the values we want to see in our food system that are already alive in communities across England, from farmer cooperatives to city-wide food alliances.”
Back on his estate in Kent, Dominic is reflecting on what he has learned. “I raised my child on free school meals,” he says. “I know what it’s like to not always have access to food, electric, internet. Sometimes I would be able to feed her but not myself. Sometimes the electric wasn’t on.
“There is a 12 year difference in life expectancy between people who live on our estate and people just over the road. We need to reflect that unevenness in the country, and build a food system that works for everyone.”