Toward a ‘Green Recovery’ in Food Provision: Influencing Policy in Manchester

This project will develop proposals for how to use the COVID-19 recovery as an opportunity to shift toward healthier, more equitable, more sustainable and zero-carbon food systems.

Manchester town hall lit up in green

To mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic the UK government is developing large recovery packages. Many scholars and policy organizations call upon governments to use these packages to accelerate a transition toward greener, fairer societies (Hepburn et al., 2020; IEA/IMF, 2020; IPPR, 2020). 

The organisation and governance of the production, distribution and consumption of food have multiple implications for the health, wellbeing and economic welfare of citizens. Nevertheless, so far, debate on the ‘green recovery’ has focussed on opportunities in energy, transport and digital infrastructure. 

This project builds on a stream of research exploring social, cultural and technological aspects of food system transition at different scales, on-going at the SCI. It aims to mobilise established social scientific expertise on food-system transitions and working in collaboration with Manchester Climate Change Agency, to identify opportunities and make policy recommendations on how to use post-COVID recovery funding and policy to stimulate innovation in food provision in the city of Manchester.

Project leader