TABLE's official launch event on 2 June 2021 celebrated the transition from the Food Climate Research Network into TABLE. The event centred on perhaps one of the most complex questions around food and sustainability: At what scale should the food system operate? In other words, should the future food system be more globalised or localised, and why?
Please leave your comments and reflections on this question or the event in the commenting section at the bottom of this page.
Our main conversation was between two thoughtful panellists who approach this topic from different backgrounds and perspectives:
- Pat Mooney is an IPES-Food (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems) panellist, one of the founders of ETC Group and, most recently, lead author of the “Long Food Movement" report. He received the Right Livelihood Award in 1985 for his work defending peasants and their seeds. Pat kindly stepped in for our original speaker Maryam Rahmanian (co-Chair of IPES-Food).
- Prof Sir Charles Godfray is the Director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford and Co-Director of the cross-disciplinary Wellcome-funded Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) Project.
Pat Mooney works closely at IPES-Food with our original speaker, Maryam Rahmanian, who was unable to attend the launch. Maryam is an IPES-Food co-Chair and an independent international expert on innovation, biodiversity and agroecology in food systems. We are grateful for Pat's ability to step in at the last minute.
The panel discussion was followed by audience questions and reflections and final remarks by representatives from the three universities that participate in TABLE: the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the University of Oxford (UoO) and Wageningen University and Research (WUR).
Agenda for the event:
| 00:00:00 | Welcome by Sigrid Wertheim-Heck (one of TABLE's strategic directors and associate professor at WUR) |
| 00:04:50 | Introduction to TABLE by Tara Garnett (TABLE's director and fellow of the Oxford Martin School) |
| 00:16:30 | Conversation between Pat Mooney (panellist at IPES-Food) and Charles Godfray (director of the Oxford Martin School) moderated by Matthew Kessler (research and communications officer for TABLE at SLU) |
| 01:00:55 | Q&A and reflections |
| 01:29:55 | Concluding remarks by representatives of WUR, SLU and the UoO |
| 01:40:44 | Wrap up and formal end (Tara Garnett) |
TABLE staff