Everyone has the right to enjoy safe, nutritious and sustainable food. This project advocates the realisation of the Right to Food in UK law.
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Around 8.4 million people in the UK currently struggle to get enough to eat, whether because of low household income, debt, disability or personal crisis. The huge growth in charitable food banks over recent years illustrates that many people live precariously on the edge of hunger, or are stuck in long-term food poverty. Other fundamental challenges – such as loss of soil, struggling farmers or unhealthy food that causes new patterns of disease – also undermine the long-term reliability of our nation’s food supply.
The Right to Food is one of a series of rights that are called socio-economic rights. These rights also include our right to healthcare and our right to housing. A legal right places responsibilities on public institutions to help us when we are having difficulties meeting our basic needs, and to take action to fix any barriers to our enjoyment of that right.
Read the blog post, co-authored by Right to Food project partners: Beyond hunger and the food bank: a new right to food
We believe that our society should be taking progressive steps towards the eradication of hunger, and towards the development of fair and balanced system for sustainable farming and fishing that works for both food producers and consumers alike. Our government could take a lead on making this happen, for everyone’s benefit, by upholding our Right to Food.
If you would like to read more on this topic we have produced a concise briefing paper that outlines our vision of what a legal Right to Food in the UK could be.
This project is a collaboration between Nourish Scotland, Just Fair, the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Newcastle and is supported by the Baring Foundation. If you would like any more information, please get in touch with sustain@sustainweb.org
The project is supported by:
