Birmingham’s Food System Revolution

The Food Programme

BBC

Arts, Food

4.4 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The city of Birmingham is about to launch its own ambitious Food System Strategy. It’s vision is to create a bold, fair, sustainable and prosperous food system and economy, where food choices are nutritious and affordable. The strategy faces many challenges – Birmingham has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country, and worrying levels of food poverty with 6.8 % of residents reporting using food banks during lockdown.

Last week the government published its long-awaited Food Strategy for England – a policy paper responding to Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy, a landmark national review into the food system. Reaction has been mixed, with campaigners disappointed that many of the review’s bolder recommendations - like a tax on salt and sugar - haven’t been taken up, and no mention of a Food Bill. So in today’s programme Jaega Wise visits Birmingham to ask if cities could take up the mantle of improving what we eat, and talk to grassroots food groups about the change they want to see. Is it time for cities to step up and drive the food agenda, and far can they go in creating the radical change we need?

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Transcript

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0:44.6	Hello, you've downloaded a podcast of BBC Radio 4's The Food Program.
0:49.7	Welcome to our world, from cooking to culture, politics to pleasure.
0:54.7	We hope you enjoy it.
0:56.7	Birmingham is blessed with more Michelin stars than any other city outside of London.
1:01.9	Our dining scene is fantastic. We have a phenomenal
1:05.6	street food scene, but until Birmingham can provide regular good access to good
1:12.3	food, we will never be a food city. I'm Jager Wise and today I've come to
1:17.4	Birmingham because this is a city that wants to create a new food revolution. Now Birmingham is not alone in some of the problems it faces, it
1:26.2	has many, one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country, food deserts,
1:31.2	and now with the rising cost of living worrying levels of food poverty
1:35.4	Birmingham's grassroots food groups are hungry for change. What is interesting to me is the food supply is going down the demand is going up.
1:43.8	You know we're living in a tail of two cities.
	...

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