Oxfam report: The Food Transformation

Brook Lyndhurst were commissioned to write a report for Oxfam entitled The Food Transformation – Harnessing Consumer Power to Create a Fair Food Future. This report looks at the social and environmental injustices in the global food system, and at the potential of consumer action to help address these injustices. It focuses on the five principles which make up Oxfam’s GROW Method: wasting less food, supporting small-scale food producers in developing countries, eating seasonal food, smart cooking, and reducing meat and dairy consumption. We looked at possible scenarios which ask ‘what if’ consumers were to take simple actions in each of these areas, and we then calculated the scale of the positive social and environmental impacts that would result.

In order to understand what consumers themselves think about these issues, we asked GfK NOP to conduct a survey of consumers who are key decision-makers when it comes to households’ food choices – women with families, living in towns and cities across six different countries. The survey results, which are also presented in the report, paint a picture of consumer concern over the current state of the global food system and a desire to improve it.

You can download the report for free using the link in the centre column.

The report supports Oxfam’s ongoing work on the GROW campaign, which you can read more about at www.oxfam.org/GROW.