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1. The Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) ippr is the UK’s leading independent
progressive think tank. Through our well-researched and clearly argued policy analysis, our
strong networks in government, academia and the corporate and voluntary sectors and our
high media profile, we can play a vital role in maintaining the momentum of progressive
thought.
Top Line
Food has become a powerful symbol of changing social and political relations in society, at all
stages from its production to consumption. Food features heavily in many public policy debates
and focuses on issues of concern to progressives, such as the nation’s health, environmental
matters whether food miles or ecological health, revitalising local economies, low farm incomes
in contrast to perceived supermarket (super) profits and power, and consumer access to
affordable quality food. Despite this, the UK does not possess a distinct or coherent ‘food policy’.
While social, economic and environmental justice aspects are present in the foregoing debates,
they are never considered together. Consequently, as long as these aspects remain 'single'
issues competing for public attention it is unlikely that social justice and sustainability in relation
to food policy can be achieved. By providing a cohesive social, economic and environmental
understanding of food, this research sets out to identify the priorities for a progressive UK food
policy.
Timescale
This project will run for 12 months commencing January 2007.
During this time two working papers will be published on-line, extensive public engagement will
be conducted gathering primary evidence from different areas of the UK, complemented by
original analysis of the Expenditure and Food Survey, and in the final stage of the project a high
level seminar will be held with the broad policy community to discuss findings and inform
recommendations.
Political and Policy Context
Food for thought

2. Food is a necessary condition of life, and has always occupied a space in public debate.
However, it is evident that a range of food issues are of increasing concern to progressives.
These issues include:
• socio-economic inequalities between the perceived low prices paid to farmers for the food
they produce and the low wage levels associated with those working in both agriculture and
food processing, in contrast to the prices consumers pay for food and the resulting perceived
(super) power and (super) profits of the supermarkets.
• disparities in consumer access to healthy and fresh quality food defined by both place and
income.
• varied levels of food preparation and cooking skills present in the population to enable the
self-provision of a healthy diet through purchasing and preparing raw ingredients rather than
ready-made convenience foods.
• the costs incurred through diet related ill-health both now and in future, given current levels of
child obesity.
• environmental concerns, such as the extent of food miles travelled in contrast to our ability to
eat seasonally and locally; the acceptability of genetically modified (GM) products; the
environmental benefits of organic production versus pesticide residues; and wider ecological
health matters.
A further contextual layer is the current changes within British agriculture. The agriculture
industry is becoming increasingly multifunctional, so food production is not necessarily the
farmers’ primary activity. Increased trade liberalisation and continued CAP reform decoupling
support from production means that it is far from certain where food sits in the public policy
landscape.
The variety of issues outlined here suggests it is increasingly necessary for public policymakers
to engage more readily with food matters. While being timely, the research will also need to be
wide-ranging, being informed by literature from outside the UK. For example, in the US there are
long standing debates about food democracy and the limits of civic agriculture which are rarely
evoked in UK research and go unacknowledged by policy.
Two overarching themes will run through the research, to produce a unique and timely
contribution to public and policy debates:
1. What do we understand by food? What social, economic and environmental values do
people associate with food, and are these reflected by current policy?
Public policy relating to food appears so inherently linked to improving the situation of the

3. producer and the ways in which consumers can support the domestic industry that it fails to
consider the wider social, economic and environmental justice impacts. We don’t know, for
example, what people, producers and consumers see as the key issues surrounding food
with respect to their daily lives. Consequently, there appears to be a large evidential omission
as to what public policy seeks to achieve, including negotiating the relationship between food
and farming policies, the policy separation and tensions evoked by considering consumption
and production, and what public policy could achieve in relation to food.
2. What progressive role can public policy play in relation to food and what would a
progressive food policy for the UK look like?
The research will consider if greater regulation is necessary within the food industry
(production and retail) to improve the nation’s health and / or the viability of food producers
and the rural communities in which they live. For example, is there a need for greater
redistribution measures to improve access to quality foods (whether for vulnerable groups,
such as low-income households or women during and immediately after pregnancy to
improve infant health or the population as a whole) ?
Current policies and activities relevant to the research are
1
:
• Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy: Forward Look
2
(Defra, 2006) outlines the key
priority themes for farming and food and recognises broader environmental justice
aspects of farming and the role of sustainable consumption (improving consumer
information about seasonality, local production, and diet and health linkages as well as
environmental impacts).
• The Common Agricultural Policy will not be a direct focus of the research but during 2008
the EU will embark on the next stages of the CAP reform, with the UK Government’s
intentions outlined in A Vision for the Common Agricultural Policy (Defra / HM Treasury,
2005). This document identifies a vision of European agriculture to 2015-2020 which is
sustainable, internationally competitive without reliance on subsidy or support and with
market rather than tax payer rewarding the production of safe and good quality food.
• Choosing a Better Diet: a food and health action plan (DH, 2005) brings together the
1
Devolved administrations have equivalent and similar policy statements; for example, Scottish Executive
(2006) A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture: Next Steps.
2
This builds on the previous The Strategy for Sustainable Food and Farming: Facing the future (Defra, 2002)
responding to the Independent Policy Review Commission into Food and Farming (Curry, 2001).

4. suggested actions necessary to meet food and nutrition commitments contained in the
Choosing Health white paper, and follows from the Sustainable Food and Farming
Strategy paper (2002).
• The current Competition Commission investigation into the groceries market (primarily
food) in response to an Office of Fair Trading referral in May 2006. Due to report in
October 2007, the investigations asks whether grocery retailer practices may prevent,
restrict or distort competition and lead to higher prices, less choice or lower quality of
available products to consumers.
Desired outcome
This project will provide a contemporary and coherent progressive narrative on food. It will offer
an understanding of food (the social, economic and environmental values that are inherently
associated with food from production to consumption) to provide a firm and coherent evidence
base for public policy debates and ultimately actions. This coherence is currently lacking as
debates are overly dominated by single interest issues and organisations. One key outcome of
the research will be to bring together public and policy concerns surrounding food, and succeed
where current debates and actions arguably fail. Ultimately this research would outline the public
policy value in the UK possessing a distinct food policy, and make appropriate
recommendations.
Key stakeholders
Relevant Government Departments (Defra, Department of Health, HM Treasury, and devolved
administrations)
Food Standards Agency, Scottish Food and Health Council
Commission for Rural Communities and Natural England
Regional Development Agencies and Government Offices for the Regions
Environmental, Farming, and Food NGOs
Political Parties
Media
Key components and methodology
The project will have three distinct stages (see following timetable), and it is necessary for each
stage to be fully completed before the next stage can be embarked upon.
Stage 1: Establishing the policy context. Literature review and desk based
research will be undertaken to bring together the range of existing research and public policy
debates relevant to food. As part of this stage an original analysis of the Expenditure and Food
Survey (available 2001-2005) will be conducted exploring in detail the food purchases of different

5. income groups and households, the finding of which will be published as part of the literature
review. In framing the literature review and in preparation for the first working paper, we will seek
interviews and comments from the external advisory group.
Stage 2: Establishing an understanding of food. Extensive qualitative research will
be conducted to generate primary evidence using innovative deliberative research methods. The
research will be informed by research undertaken in three study areas across the UK;
provisionally Middlesbrough and surrounding area (north east England), Fife (central east
Scotland) and East Sussex/Kent (south eastern England). In each area discussions will be held
with a range of participants (including farmers, food processing employees, health professionals,
middle and low income consumers among others), to discuss aspects of food that they
understand as relevant to themselves and then broader public policy debates incorporating
social, economic and environmental justice issues. The methodology and key emerging findings
will be published as the second working paper.
Stage 3: Policy deliberation and final reporting. A high level research seminar will be
held during the early phase of the final project stage. The emerging findings of the research will
be presented to an audience of policy makers (national and regional) and other stakeholders
such as NGOs and academics where key issues will be raised, challenged and
recommendations mooted to inform the final report.
Additional. The creation of an external peer review group. As this project marks a further
move for the ippr into a new area of research, albeit building on previous rural research projects,
it is proposed that a small advisory group (approx 3-5 members) is created to run throughout the
life of the project to compliment ippr’s internal processes.
It is not anticipated that any papers will be commissioned.
Timing Project stage Work to be completed
November –
December 2006
Lead in Fundraising to commence.
Advisory group to be established.
January – May
2007
1. Establishing the
policy context.
Extensive and comprehensive literature review to
be undertaken.
Analysis of Expenditure and Food Survey to be
undertaken by ippr north.

6. Working paper 1 to be published at end of stage 1.
June –
September 2007
2. Establishing an
understanding of
food
Extensive qualitative research to be undertaken.
Working paper 2 published late September.
October 2007 3(a). Policy
deliberation
High level policy seminar held to assist
development of recommendations.
October –
December 2007
3 (b). Final
Reporting
Writing of final draft report. Advisory group and
internal ippr review of draft.
Publication late December (desk based launch).
Outputs
This project would have 3 main outputs:
1. Two working papers will be published at different stages during the life of the project. The
first would be a comprehensive and extensive literature review of the social, economic and
environmental justice aspects of food within the UK and include analysis of UK households’ food
purchase and behaviour from the Expenditure and Food Survey. This paper, published at the
end of stage 1, will highlight the key questions which the research seeks to address and in
particular those areas that are currently underserved or overlooked by policy (May 2007). The
second paper would be a detailed discussion of the qualitative research and emerging findings
(September 2007).
2. A policy seminar would be held as the first phase of the final stage of the project. This will
bring together high level policymakers and stakeholders alongside the advisory group, to help
develop policy recommendations (October 2007).
3. A final report would be published outlining a progressive food policy for the UK (hard copy,
anticipated length 20,000 words) authored by Jane Midgley (end October 2007).
Dissemination
Wherever possible the research will seek to engage with national and local media throughout the
life of the project (print and broadcast). Realistically media engagement will be loaded towards
the end of the project. However, the original analysis included in the two working papers
published during the project may enable earlier media engagement, both nationally and in study
areas.
The working papers will be freely available as web-based publications. The final report will be

7. hard copy and available for purchase, as it is anticipated there will be a reasonable demand for
this report. An accessible executive summary will be available on-line and sent to all research
participants if they wished to receive it.
Funding strategy
This project will be of particular interest to a range of organisations and more than one funder will
be sought –
Government agencies as this research and its policy relevance falls within their remits (such as
Food Standards Agency, Commission for Rural Communities)
Regional Development Agencies
Major industry organisations (agri-food, and food retail)
NGOs
Staffing
This project will be led by Dr Jane Midgley, Research Fellow, j.midgley@ippr.org
Since joining ippr north in September 2005 Jane has led and published research on a range of
rural issues, culminating in ‘A New Rural Agenda’ (June 2006) and ‘Should I stay or should I go?
Rural youth transitions’ (August 2006). Before joining ippr north Jane completed post-doctoral
research on the implications of gendered household roles and practices for financial inclusion
and community development, taking forward her doctoral research (both funded through ESRC
awards). Prior to this Jane worked as a Researcher at the universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge,
Liverpool John Moores and Newcastle. Jane continues to work across a range of socio-
economic policy concerns and their impacts, particularly in rural areas.
Budget available on request.