Food Issues Census 2011
In 2011, the Food Ethics Council researched and published the first Food Issues Census.
The 2011 Food Issues Census provides a frank assessment of the activities and capacity of civil society groups working on food or farming in the UK, based on a survey of over 300 organisations.
It details a diverse sector, powered by an army of tens of thousands of volunteers working on a wide range of environmental and health initiatives that focus mainly on education and service provision.
These charities and non-profit organisations are at the forefront of government’s vision of the Big Society, showing people how to grow and cook their own food, bringing communities together, and supporting local food economies through farmers markets.
The survey was conducted by the Food Ethics Council on behalf of charitable funders The A-Team Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, JMG Foundation, Mark Leonard Trust, Organix Foundation and the Tubney Charitable Trust.
The 2011 Food Issues Census estimates that UK civil society:
- Consists of up to 25,000 mostly small organisations, out of 870,000 civil society organisations nationally.
- Spends at most £700 million per year on food and farming issues, which amounts to less than 1% of total UK voluntary sector and charity income;
- Spends one penny on food and farming-related activities for every £2 that consumers spend on food; and
- Employs at most 20,000 full-time equivalent staff, compared to around 634,000 across UK civil society.
Almost half of the funding received by charities working on food and farming comes from the public sector, a figure that rises to around two-thirds for national and regional organisations. Against a backdrop of public sector budget cuts (including a 30% cut at Defra), this puts the financial stability of such organisations at serious risk.
A quarter of organisations depend on charitable and other third sector funders as their top source of funding. While these funders only contributed a tenth of the total income that groups spent on food or farming issues, they were the most important income stream for organisations spending less than £20,000 per year on food or farming.
The Census revealed that the largest number of groups worked on local food, and animal welfare issues attracted the greatest expenditure. Overall, groups tended to focus more attention on environmental issues than health, but health issues tended to be specialised, while environmental issues were addressed alongside other themes, such as farming or education.
The information contained in the report is designed to help the sector’s organisations – big and small – in their strategic planning and grant funding applications. It will also help current and potential grant funders make strategic funding decisions.
You can download the full Food Issues Census 2011 report via the ‘download 2011 report’ button.
You can also access the raw data (anonymised) for the 2011 Census via the ‘download 2011 raw data’ button.