Just as Engage is building up to our 2025 seminar series on food sustainability ‘Liverpool’s Food Culture – have we got one? ‘ articles are appearing in the national media highlighting exactly the reasons why we wanted to create a forum where these important issues can be raised and discussed.

An article we became aware of recently was published on August 29th 2025 by the academic publication The Conversation. It highlights issues around the UK’s dependence on supermarket food and the national obsession with cheap food – which often does not reflect the actual or true cost of producing our food. This year, during the longest drought in decades, the system we have set up is revealing its weaknesses and it is often the farmers who are paying the price.

Sheila Dillon, from BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, will be our guest speaker at the first seminar and she will be addressing these questions. Sheila is probably one of the most knowledgeable speakers in the country on this topic. Did you realise that only 62% of our food is produced in the UK? And an even smaller amount, 53% of our fresh vegetables, are grown here.

If we add to that the startling figure of 9.5million tons of food is thrown away every year in the UK and 60% of that food waste is from households, you begin to see why our seminars are not only necessary but critical.  We have invited 2 local farmers to speak at the 2nd seminar so we intend making sure we can see things from their perspective too. And the 3rd seminar will address the issue of food waste in the home, amongst other things.

You can read the full article HERE;

• The Conversation: The UK’s food system is built on keeping prices low – but this year’s droughts show up its failings. 29.08.2025

You can register for the seminars HERE

Image courtesy of Pexel and photographer Marcus Winkler