The Politics of Food

Food - and who gets it - is in many ways one of the oldest political questions of all. Despite a radical change in our capacity to produce and distribute food, it is not a question that has a definitive answer. With the war in Ukraine disrupting supplies from two of the world's most important suppliers of cereals to many dependent markets, questions of resilience in global food suppliers are again at the forefront in 2023. The role and responsibilities of the world's small number of calorie superpowers - and the small number of private companies that distribute these calories around the world - is an inevitable theme of our conference series. 

But the politics of food goes far beyond these critical questions of production and distribution. Food is an area of technological innovation at every point from the farm to the field to the supermarket shelf. That innovation has delivered transformational benefits in productivity and choice, but it can also be contested. The regulation of this technology and the food it produces, is another important evolving picture in 2023. 

Food is also central to the human impact on the environment. Food production and transportation is an important source of green house gas emissions. Agriculture is also by far the single largest driver of global deforestation. An effective global approach to climate change will require robust changes to the impact of food production on the environment. 

At the heart of many of these questions are important interdependencies between trade, sufficiency, resilience, cost and environmental sustainability. Consumer preferences, political imperatives and practical realities all interact to shape these.

Whether you are a policymaker a business or an investor, our analysis of the policy and politics of food, including event recaps and views from each of the markets we operate in, will be timely and important theme in 2023. For more information, visit our conference hub.