Author Archives: Geoff Tansey

About Geoff Tansey

I curate the Food Systems Academy, a free, on-line, open education resource to transform our food systems. I was also a member of the Food Ethics Council from 2000-2021 and chaired the independent Fabian Commission on Food and Poverty, which reported in 2015.

Cutting food loss and food waste – the role of true cost accounting

Posted on 12 April 2022 by Geoff Tansey

Miranda Burke from Lancaster University is one of the team of early career researchers who won the UK’s Global Food Security programme (GFS) Policy Lab competition for their report  ‘A tool in the toolkit: Can True Cost Accounting remove siloed thinking … Continue reading →

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The multiple roles for agriculture, forestry and other land use change in mitigating climate change – findings from latest IPCC report, interview with Dr Jo House

Posted on 8 April 2022 by Geoff Tansey

The latest almost 3000 page full report on Mitigation of Climate Change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just landed. Here Dr Jo House, Reader in Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Bristol, and a … Continue reading →

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Earthlings – Grow Up or Die Out

Posted on 18 March 2022 by Geoff Tansey

I wondered what a benign long-lived alien race observing Earth for millennia would make of what is happening to us on Earth today. Perhaps it might go something like this. An open letter to all of humanity In a lot … Continue reading →

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Guest blog*: New Scenarios on Global Food Security based on Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Posted on 11 March 2022 by Geoff Tansey

by QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Over the past two years, COVID-19 has presented many challenges to global food security. Today, what is happening in Russia and Ukraine adds another significant challenge. … Continue reading →

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Food, politics, capitalism, and health – a conversation with Prof Marion Nestle

Posted on 22 February 2022 by Geoff Tansey

In this conversation, lifelong US food system analyst, Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, discusses how food is the lens through which to see society and why capitalism’s requirement … Continue reading →

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Food, poverty and ‘The Bread and Butter Thing’ – intercepting food surplus to avoid waste and feed people

Posted on 7 February 2022 by Geoff Tansey

It’s not a food bank nor a shop, The Bread and Butter Thing (TBBT) is an intermediary that intercepts food that would be surplus in today’s food system and dumped. TBBT turns it into bags of more affordable food for … Continue reading →

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Cutting the harms #agriculture does, GHG emissions and increasing #resilience – some key priorities for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Posted on 1 February 2022 by Geoff Tansey

The US-based, non-profit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has aimed to foster sustainable rural communities and regions for over 30 years. Here, its Executive Director, Dr Sophia Murphy outlines their key priorities. These include cutting the harm industrial agriculture … Continue reading →

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Protecting biodiversity for food systems in the face of climate change 

Posted on 18 January 2022 by Geoff Tansey

Biodiversity, food systems and climate change are inextricably linked. The recent COP26 on climate change in Glasgow got worldwide coverage but it was sandwiched between the two-part COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming China – which has … Continue reading →

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Changes to UK food and farming to reach net zero less than those between 1940s-1980s says Prof Neil Ward

Posted on 11 January 2022 by Geoff Tansey

Prof Neil Ward* argues the changes needed for climate change mitigation in agriculture in the UK are less dramatic than those between the 1940-1980s but more challenging owing to the different neo-liberal ideology prevailing now. We discuss the changes instigated … Continue reading →

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Concepts of development in the Highlands of Scotland – The Lewis Association 1943 -1954

Posted on 6 January 2022 by Geoff Tansey

Best wishes for 2022 everyone. It’s 50 years ago this year that I graduated with a soil science degree from Aberdeen University. At the end of my first year in Aberdeen I changed from chemistry to soil science, a seemingly … Continue reading →

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