Roots and Routes: ‘When policies collide’ ONLINE webinar
Online Food Ethics Council ‘Roots and Routes’ webinar: unlocking root causes and fairer routes forward for joined-up, resilient UK food systems
Please join the first in our new series of ‘roots and routes’ workshops – the first part of which is a 75-minute webinar diving into the root causes of policy incoherence in relation to UK food system policymaking.
Chaired by Food Ethics Council Member Dr Sinéad Furey SFHEA, our expert speaker line-up will be:
- Rt Hon George Eustice, Managing Director of Penbroath Ltd and former Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Dr Kelly Parsons, Assistant Research Professor, University of Cambridge; post-doctoral researcher whose research interests include policy integration and policy coherence
- Matt Bixby, Member of the Citizen Advisory Council
- David Thomson, Director of Strategy and Devolved Nations, Food and Drink Federation and CEO Food & Drink Federation Scotland (and formerly held several positions in Scottish Government)
In the session, we will explore:
- examples of ‘policies colliding’, where government may say or do something ‘with one hand’ and say or do something else ‘with another hand’, in relation to policymaking linked to food and farming. That might include policies that directly conflict as well as those that are inconsistent with each other between different government departments and those that aren’t “joined up”
- why policymaking on food systems is not as joined up as it needs to be, what are the root causes, and to what extent is incoherence (where it exists) deliberate or accidental?
- what is there to give hope about policy coherence going forward*.
*That will form the kick-off point for a subsequent follow-on online workshop (on 1st October 2026), where we will move away from diagnosis of the root causes to instead looking at fairer routes (or pathways) forward, i.e. ‘when policies align’.
We are likely to focus primarily on national government policymaking – across the four nations of the UK – but we may also consider more local government policymaking where relevant. There will be an opportunity for participant Q&A.
Click the Sign Up button now to register your place via Eventbrite.
