Urban Food Futures

Where are we heading?

Explore a reimagined urban food future

No one knows for sure how the food environment will evolve over the next 15 years, but analysis of multiple, interconnecting trends can show us what’s likely to happen. The probable future involves starker inequalities. Families living on lower incomes will spend more of their income on food, be more vulnerable to food system shocks, and have less access to affordable, nutritious food. In this future childhood obesity is even more entrenched, and the socio-economic food divide becomes wider.   

Research with families living on low incomes in Lambeth and Southwark shows they have a clear vision for a more equitable future food environment in which access to healthy, tasty, convenient, affordable food is a right, not a luxury. But they are sceptical that businesses and policymakers are committed to building this future.

These four platforms for change provide a shared ambition for businesses, policymakers and charities to align around. They are evidence-based mechanisms to mobilise parts of the system that support a better food environment and damp down the parts of the system that don’t. 

1) Enshrine access to healthy food as a right

Access to healthy food is currently a luxury only affordable to the more affluent in our society. Parents we spoke to want a future where access to affordable food and nutrition is a right, not a privilege based on wealth. In 2035, it will be even more of a luxury unless we make a change. As a society we acknowledge the importance of ensuring everyone has access to healthcare and water, regardless of their income, but we leave access to healthy foods to market forces.

The universal right to healthy food matters because the consequences of poor nutrition and obesity ultimately affect us all. The NHS estimates that the social costs of obesity will reach nearly £50 billion in the next 30 years

2) Enable local communities to demand better and play a part in change

Charities, government and businesses have a key role to play in improving the food environment, but success relies on citizen participation. Social change happens most effectively, and most in line with citizens’ needs, when people are supported to organise and campaign for what they want to see happen.  

Citizens and small local businesses often have a vision of a healthier food environment and are deeply invested in a better future for them and their family. However, their voices are not prioritised and they lack the power and mechanisms to influence or demand change.

We need to find better ways to listen to communities and act on their priorities in a way that gets new voices in the food system – influencing discussions and shaping what happens.

3) Support and promote values-led actors in the food system

Historically, the food sector has been dominated by businesses driven primarily by profit, with limited regard for public health or the societal costs of the products they sell. This needs to change.

Values-led businesses consider health and social impact alongside profit, resulting in a very different contribution to the food environment. Instead of treating health and wellbeing costs, like childhood obesity, as an externality, they factor it into their business model and innovate accordingly. This results in more accessible, affordable, healthy food options.  

4) Raise the regulatory floor to set better parameters for a better urban food future

 We need to use regulation to more effectively address the market failures and false externalities of the food system. Currently, market failures mean the food system can operate without factoring in external costs to health, society or the environment to its business and operating models. The goal is to raise the regulatory floor and disclosure requirement, so there is less ambiguity about whether increasing access to healthy options is an ‘opt in’ decision for businesses. Regulation also enables businesses to go further because it levels the playing field. 

Help change the urban food future for the better

What we’ve seen from this piece of work is not altogether surprising. In broad terms, without a concerted cross-sector effort, inequalities will widen. People with less money available will continue to have worse food options than others as a result of market failures.

However, as this work demonstrates, this future is not inevitable. We can influence change for the better through our choices and actions now. To shape a better urban food future for our food environment, we need to come together around a shared agenda, with a clear role for businesses, charities and policymakers, and a clear voice for communities.

We invite all actors within the food system, and with influence over it, to engage with this research and roadmap to create a preferred future food system for all.