Tim Lang, professor of Food Policy at City University, London, spends 2 years writing Feeding Britain: our food problems and how to fix them and when it comes out it is in the midst of a global pandemic when feeding people hits the headlines due to COVID-19. Food bank use shoots up, catering stops, supermarkets shelves are emptied at first as people prepare to be locked down, and food parcels are delivered to the most vulnerable. If ever there was a time to seriously examine how to feed a country long term this is it. Britain is his and my country. In this interview, Tim discusses the major themes in the book, including what food defence means for the UK today, the failure of current policy to get to grips with the challenges, 12 interlocking problems and the framework needed to address them. He challenges what he sees as the complacency in government to do so and the failure to address food security in current thinking.
Tim was also a member of the Eat Lancet Commission and co-author of Sustainable Diets. Do watch his two keynote talks on the Food Systems Academy : Changing our fatally flawed food system and Sustainable diets and public health.
Geoff Tansey blog 