Attendees are responsible for booking their own rooms at the New York Hilton Midtown. Room reservations made by Thursday, May 23, 2019 will be eligible for the group rate of $399.00 plus applicable taxes and fees for single or double occupancy. The negotiated group rate is based on availability and applies to reservations for Sunday, June 9, 2019 through Wednesday, June 12, 2019.
Should businesses expect to rethink Chinese sourcing strategies? Will Chinese firms face similar pressures?
Chaired by Senior Practice Lead Rebecca Park
Innovation in policymaking is something politicians usually want to be associated with. Except, it seems, when it comes to British politicians talking about food and obesity policy. Despite being genuine innovators on this topic over the last few years, British politicians from both the governing Conservative Party and the opposition Labour Party have cooled on measures to improve population health via food regulations such as sugar taxes, reformulation, advertising restrictions, volume promotions and labelling reforms. Introduced measures are not promoted. Further initiatives of the same kind are not ruled out unequivocally, but unlikely to be embraced.
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This is despite the fact that, pre-pandemic, over 60% of British adults was overweight or obese, with the latter disease costing the NHS £6 bn a year (on a conservative estimate). More recent figures suggest obesity amongst reception aged children (4-5 years old) is running 45% higher than before the pandemic. This is alarming because childhood obesity is hard to shake. Even when a recent prime minister drew a direct link between his excess weight and his struggles with covid, his enthusiasm for greater intervention in food policy to improve health quickly waned.
Why is this? And does it have any lessons for other jurisdictions considering similar questions? Some hypotheses. First, in a country where wage growth has been sluggish for years, increasing costs of certain foods to disincentivise their consumption risks a political backlash. Second, the evidence that interventions on food policy lead to tangible improvements in people’s diet is relatively thin (at least to the politicians). Third, a group of politicians with principled objections to regulating food for health outcomes beyond basic safety protections have fought a successful rear guard action in arguing for individual responsibility.
Combined with a UK institutional set up that splits responsibility for food policy across a number of different departments in the UK system, indecision over obesity has led to inertia. Nonetheless, as much of the world grows older, richer and, as a consequence, probably fatter, the politics of food and health playing out in the UK could well have lessons for other jurisdictions. Advocates of these kinds of interventions would do well to watch the UK closely.
Our co-chairs, Peter Mandelson and Stephen Adams were joined by senior policymakers, industry leaders, and the international community to discuss:
-- The biggest challenges in making food sustainable
-- The main ways in which the rise of ESG is playing out in food and agriculture
-- The key themes in the public health debate on food
-- The big incoming policy questions on diet and food
 We heard from:
-- Archie Norman, Vice Chairman of Global Counsel in conversation with Henry Dimbleby, Co-founder of Leon, Food Campaigner and Speaker on creating a sustainable national food strategy
--Â Emily Miles, Chief Executive, the Food Standards Agency on regulating food at times of innovation and insecurity
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-- Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation and Professor Tim Spector, Scientific Co-Founder, ZOE on the public health debate
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-- Karen Betts OBE, Chief Executive, The Food and Drink Federation and Stefano Agostini, CEO of Nestle UK & Ireland on environmental sustainability in food systems
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Global Counsel works with companies and investors across a wide range of sectors to anticipate the ways in which politics, regulation and public policymaking create both risk and opportunity – and to develop and implement strategies to meet these challenges.
From high-level in-conversations and policy webinars, to large scale conferences, our events draw from a network of government, industry, academia and civil society to foster debate and discussion.
