Tag - 9th February 2012
Birmingham 2050: Pathways to Famine, Pathways to Feast
Eight people sat round my kitchen table on 9th February. It was a meeting on the issue of food poverty/food deserts in Birmingham, raised by Jim Parle in a video interview at an earlier Forum event.
Ellie Richards had the brief to categorise what the guys said and, where possible, draw out causal links.
She’s created two broad-brush possibilities, Pathways to Famine, and Pathways to Feast.
Both are written in the same format with the issues, trends and
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In the future, we’ll all work like this?
The table around which eight of us sat and talked about food poverty in Birmingham on 9th February is this one (see left) — about a week later.
The paper tablecloth stayed for several days, a suitable surface for more ideas, more diagrams, more words — as well as the odd coffee ring along with books, yet more papers, the computer, iphone, felt-tips . . .
I didn’t think about ideas-competing-with-meals on my kitchen table until Matthew Green (of @policyworks) and I had a meeting about all this food Forum stuff here t’other day.
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#TNOfood event — Food poverty in Birmingham: And finally . . .
At the end of Forum conversation on 9th February, I asked the people round the table to write the answers to two questions. And here are the questions, and what they wrote in reply:
What is the most interesting /important thing you’ve heard this evening?
- That supermarket data sets could be followed and federated to get a proper view in real time of consumption (though I’m not sure how!)
- Efficiency (and growing efficiency) of the food supply system.
- We eat safe food of very high quality but if supermarket supply chains (i.e. us) become too picky, growers will sell to other countries where they aren’t so fussy
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What choices technology and planning give us with supply and consumption of food. #TNOfood
- GM foods – there is a mis-education around the implications of GM foods because we wouldn’t really know the impact until 20 years into the scheme.
- If there was a choice between no food or GM food people would go for GM food
- We have a luxury in this country that we have a choice about GM food so is it our responsibility to test it out to find out what the effects are before we have no choice.
- Fridges and freezers changed the way we store food.
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Supply and demand: Are we efficient in the way we buy food #TNOfood
Is the way food is supplied to us the problem with out market or is the way consumers shop the issue?
- If we take over the food market what would that look like to for supplies?
- Supermarkets play a huge part in making food safe – they have to protect their brand.
- If we kill off food miles by growing all our own food will kill off economies in other countries and negate the changes we’ve made for the world.
- Could we kill off our own market place by making it too hard for companies to import food with tough quality standards about the appearance of our food?
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Limits, Choices and Affluence: Do these affect our relationship with food #TNOfood
- Are disposable incomes changing the way we eat? Fish and Chip suppers used to be a luxury, now it’s the norm for some.
- Will the gap between those with disposable incomes and those without widening – and will it get wider as food prices rise?
- Have we got a long way to go before we have civil unrest based on the cost of food? It’s already happening in other parts of the world.
- Costs will rise, choices will be limited will this make food boring.
- Education – there is no reason why kids should be taught the basics of cooking.
- As out incomes have risen we’ve marginalised food as a the percentage we need to spend to eat has reduced.
- There’s a link between Fuel Poverty and Food Poverty – if we can insulate and reduce heating costs can we improve diets.
- Fuel shortages result in panic buying and hoarding.
- Distribution of food is deeply linked to fuel supplies
- If fuel supply stopped today we’d have worst case scenario 7 – 14 days before we ran out of supplies.
- We rely more than ever on pre prepared food …
- ….microwaves are a very energy efficient way of cooking but lack of education means people see it as a way to reheat food rather than cook it.
- Sociable eating in foods and the ages we are introduced to food effect our eating habits.
- Supermarkets are noticing a change in peoples shopping habits – value packs, smaller portions.
- Have we gone through a “bonkers” stage with what we eat - do we need 3 full meals a day and why are we obsessed with meat and 2 veg - we used to eat beans on toast and that was a meal.
- Economics of feeding a family play part in demand for cheaper options, we may know the impact of battery hens, food miles but we need to do what’s best for us.
- We live in a democratic country and we have choice, but choice can be influenced through design – if there are 3 sets of stairs and one lift – people will walk – reverse the choices to 3 lifts and one set of stairs people will take the lift. Choice editing.
- Have we been influencing peoples choice in the wrong way towards convenience?
- Could mass unemployment change the way we prepare food as they have more time to learn how to do it?
- But then could they afford to make the right choices for healthy eating?
How accessible is fresh food: Could planning for better communities help people eat healthier? #TNOfood
Jim Parle recapped on the idea of Food Deserts and it started a conversation with Nick Booth, Jayne Bradley, Norman Leet, Parveen Mehta, Kate Cooper, Lucy Bastin, Sandy Taylor and Jim about what else that could actually mean and what factors would contribute?
- Is it caused by lack of accessibility?
- Is is an issue with nutritional education?
- Or is it linked to child / household poverty?
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#tnofood: Food poverty in Brum? Join on-line 6pm to 9pm this evening
What will Brummies be eating in 2050? There’s food a-plenty in the city now. However, a significant proportion of us eat highly processed, high calorie crud.
So how much of a problem is food poverty in the city today? What are the factors that could redress things? And what might make matters worse?
That’s the topic for the New Optimists Forum this evening.
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Join a conversation on food poverty in Brum on 9th February
On 9th February between 6pm and around 9pm, these people (from left to right: Jim Parle, Lucy Bastin, Nick Booth, Farida Vis, Sandy Taylor and Parveen Mehta) will be discussing food poverty in Birmingham, the factors and events could worsen or ameliorate the situation towards 2050.
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