How can we fix our food system?

The UK’s food system contributes to climate change, biodiversity loss, and public health challenges such as the obesity crisis. All of these interlinked problems suggest that we need to transform our food system. The H3 project (Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People) aims to fundamentally transform the UK food system by placing healthy people and a healthy natural environment at its centre, addressing questions around what we should eat, produce and manufacture and what we should import, taking into account the complex interactions between health, environment and socioeconomic factors.

The project has run for five years, and this wrap-up video illustrates some of the key interventions that the project team have made. These include advancing novel growing technologies such as hydroponics, which have the capacity to produce nutritious, sustainable food all year round; evaluating the benefits of regenerative farming on soil health and food quality; improving resilience in food supply chains; understanding consumers’ views on biofortification to enhance the nutritional value of foods; and working with schools and community kitchens to give more people access to healthy, affordable food.