Food Policy on Trial (ONLINE) – in the dock: companies paying for past harms?

Our Food Policy on Trial events explore selected emerging food policy ideas at inquiry-style sessions. Expert witnesses provide evidence and are then questioned by both a Food Ethics Council jury panel and members of the audience. They are designed primarily for policymakers and policy influencers, but are also open to interested members of the general public.

For this online Food Policy on Trial, we will consider the idea of food and agricultural companies paying for past harms. We want to critically explore the merits, pitfalls and nuances of such an idea, particularly focusing on paying for historic climate impacts and reparations for historic racial injustice. We welcome your participation – to ask questions of the expert witnesses or just to listen – and encourage you to form your own judgement as to whether reparations of this kind have the potential to contribute to fair, sustainable food systems and/ or are feasible.

The event will take place online from 6.00-8.00pm (UK time) on Thurs 25^th November 2021.

Speakers will be:

• Charles O’Malley, Senior Systems Change Advisor, Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems, United Nations Development Programme
• Dr.Jur. Ana Maria Suarez Franco, FIAN International’s Permanent Representative in Geneva and Accountability Coordinator
• Charles Redfern, Founder and Managing Director, Organico Realfoods
• Esther Stanford-Xosei, Reparationist, Jurisconsult, Community Advocate, Educator and Ourstorian of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations

Our jury panel will consist of members of the Food Ethics Council:

• Dr Nigel Dower, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Aberdeen University and Chair of the Food Ethics Council (Chairing the discussion)
• Ruth Layton, Founder of sankalpa
• Dr Alexandra Sexton, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield
• Albert Tucker, Independent consultant, advisor and social entrepreneur

Please register using the ‘sign up button’ to join.

‘Food policy on trial’ sessions are run by the Food Ethics Council and are a way of encouraging constructive debate about possible policy ideas relating to food and farming. We run at least two ‘food policy on trial’ sessions each year. This event is kindly supported by the Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation. With thanks to Lindy Sharpe from Food Research Collaboration for her invaluable input in helping design the format of this series.