Time 1:00pm

Chair: Professor Tim Lang

Panel: Rosie Boycott, Chair London Food, Kath Dalmeny, Director of Sustain; the alliance for better food and farming, Mike Duckett, Catering Manager Royal Brompton Hospital, Chris Horridge, Chef

Why is £2 billion of our money being spent on bad food?

Every year, government spends £2 billion of tax-payers’ money to feed people in public institutions such as hospitals, care homes, universities, schools and nurseries. Yet most of the food is provided with woefully little attention to health, how the food was grown, or how much money was spent with hard-working smaller businesses to promote local economies. At the same time, the NHS that taxpayers also pay for, has to pick up the bill for the health problems caused by poor food – with spiralling costs for heart disease, some cancers, diabetes and obesity, which all have a link to food quality. Meanwhile, food producers in the UK and abroad suffer from the perpetual focus on squeezing prices rather than meeting food quality and ethical trading standards.

What would our food system look like if instead we injected £2 billion of public money into food that is better for health, better for the economy and better for the planet?

Does government have a duty to lead by example and insist on good quality, healthy, environmentally friendly and ethical food, or are these simply pipe-dreams that we choose not to afford?

Can we rely on there being enough pioneering caterers to champion health and sustainability in schools and hospitals, or do we need concerted action, or even a law?

Our panel will debate these questions and explore what the future should be for public sector food to help support better food and farming.