Creating Good Food Areas

Good food matters to us all. Eat well and you will live longer. Eat well and your environmental footprint improves considerably.

Good food (if you can afford it) should be the default position for most of us who want to stay well and contribute more.

But is it ever that straightforward?

There is a debate in the food world about what is meant by ‘good food’ and it is often contested that good food means something different to each individual. So, to avoid any confusion, what do we mean by good food?

Good food is food that always tastes good and is good for your health, too. (As opposed to just tasting good.) We define good food as ultra-processed (UPF) free.

So how do we all go about choosing to eat better, look after ourselves, our families and friends – and look after the planet too?

It’s difficult – and it’s difficult because, no matter where you live, your access to food is dominated by ultra-processed products, often dressed up as doing you good if you eat them. Big Food companies have advertised us all into submission and then surrounded us with access to UPFs, often with misleading health claims attached. Let’s be clear and use the words of someone else – ‘Eating UPF will shorten people’s lives, maybe by as much a 10 years’. We’ve all been warned.

We campaign a lot about the diet fed to children which, across the public feeding chain (schools) in the UK, is almost entirely made up of UPFs. This means our children, in their most vulnerable/formative years, are having food chosen/fed to them by adults (teachers, not parents) that is bad for their health. Every day, this food is mistakenly fed to them in the name of better health. This is just one example, look at hospital food as another.

It is easy to sit and write this stuff and criticise the standards of others, without anything to offer as a solution in return.

But that is not what we are doing here… We have an approach to feeding everyone well – and by everyone we mean from the youngest to the oldest and including the wealthiest to those in financial struggle.

Imagine everyone being able to eat well, no matter where they sit down to eat; no matter how much money they have in their pocket and no matter what their food preferences are. And imagine an approach that links the produce of farms, directly to the dining table and every meal eaten is UPF-free. It can be done… we are doing it.

We’ve called our approach Good Food Areas – areas where everyone has access to great tasting healthy food in schools, care homes, hospitals and shops, or delivered directly to people’s doors.

We call it ‘regeneration through good food’. It’s a regenerator because it will feed everyone great/ fresh food, it will improve health, it will make sure no person goes without good food, regardless of their circumstances. And it means all profit stays local for local benefit; creating jobs as the services develop.

If over 50% of the population cannot afford to eat well, obesity is at record rates and over 60% of our diet is made up of food that could eventually kill us, the problems we face due to poor food have moved well beyond the confines of those in poverty.

It is a negative shift traveling quickly in the wrong direction and, to change course, new ideas based on us all having better food options are needed.

If you’re interested and want to know more or work with us, get in touch – there is a lot to do.