Event co-organiser Dr Adrian Ely (SPRU) introduces plenary discussion

The city of Brighton and Hove has an ambitious food strategy. It aims for a sustainable, healthy and fair food system which tackles food poverty, improves the security of food production and aligns with environmental goals.

As part of a strategy refresh, the city council and Brighton and Hove Food partnership held a multi-stakeholder consultation on Thursday 7 March at the University of Sussex. The event showcased research on topics like urban farming and biodiversity, land-use laws and earth justice, and alternative food support. Cross-disciplinary insights were shared with researchers presenting from across the Universities of Sussex, Brighton, Birkbeck, Kingston, and the Institute of Development Studies.

Researchers were able to share relevant research with stakeholders who are involved in day to day running of the strategy, and to reflect on potential improvements that can be made to it. Speakers from the University included Dr Tilly Paz (Brighton & Sussex Medical School) on poverty proofing the school day, Dr Chris Sandom (Life Sciences) on the South Coast Sustainability project, and Dr Katerina Psarikidou (Science Policy Research Unit, SPRU) on the FoodSEqual project. Stakeholders included the council, Food Partnership and other action-oriented groups like FareShare.

Reflecting on the event, Senior Manager of Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, Ali Ghamini, stated:

“I think it’s really important when re-doing the city’s food strategy that it’s evidence-based and informed by the latest research and the latest data, and so I think we did some really good work today, focusing on priorities and what is going to make a difference and to make sure we feed that into the city’s food strategy for the next five years."

Hear from co-organiser of the event, Dr Adrian Ely (SPRU):