The Food & Drink Innovation Network

January 15th, 2010

The United Nations Climate Change Conference started on December 7th and finished on the 18th with an ambiguous outcome.

And yet we, as a food and drink industry, still have to meet some tough sustainability targets.

On January 27th the Food & Drink Innovation Network will hold the UK’s only Post-Copenhagen Action Planning Summit.

This Seminar / action planning day will include a series of hot-off-the-press presentations including direct accounts from those present at Copenhagen as well as “edgy” panel debates conducted by Professor Alan Knight OBE who will be chairing the event.

The conference will include lively table-team discussions and whole-room-debates looking to co-create a way forward for the uk food & drink industry.

Professor Alan Knight OBE will manage a series of real-time electronic opinion-poll sessions on emerging themes. These will be directly linked with representatives from DEFRA and The FDF, as well as the media.

Here is the agenda.

HRH The Prince Of Wales, the keynote speech from the opening ceremony of Copenhagen week two.  The video will cover The Prince’s pioneering work on the environment and will focus on The Prince’s Rainforest Project.  He will highlight the essential melding of economic development with ecological capacity.  He will stress the need for public, private and NGO sector partnership. http://www.rainforestsos.org/

Bronwen Jones, Food Policy Directorate, DEFRA, will de-brief us on the Government’s new Food 2030 report published recently at The Oxford Farming Conference.  She will also take part in the question setting, and results gathering during the voting sessions. http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/pdf/food2030strategy.pdf

Stephen Reeson, Head Of Climate Change And Energy Policy The Food & Drink Federation, will bring us up-to-date on the FDF’s view of the emerging sustainability roadmap and will be drawing on the day’s meeting and voting sessions to inform the FDF agenda going forward. http://www.fdf.org.uk/

Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, City University,  will be talking us through the Sustainbile Development Commission’s new report “Setting The Table”.  Published last month, but used by DEFRA to inform its own 2030 strategy.http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/Setting_the_Table.pdf

Craig Bennett, Director, Cambridge Sustainable Leadership Programme, was on-site throughout the Summit and (together with Alan Knight) will give us his first-hand reports and views on the role of our businesses in helping our planet to survive.  Naturally Alan has briefed him on the sorts of things to look out for on our behalf. http://www.copenhagencommunique.com/

Rowland Hill, CSR/ Sustainability Manager, M & S, will be our retailer representation on-the-day and will give us his considered opinion on timescales, likely outcomes, advocacy, hot spots, consumer education and regulation. http://plana.marksandspencer.com/you-can-do/climate-change/cop15

Euan Murray, Strategy Manager, The Carbon Trust, will be giving a forward-looking summary of the overall emission reduction ambition and the food & drink industry’s progress with carbon footprinting and carbon labelling plus the Trust’s calculations on what we have to do next to reduce our impact on global ecology. http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/climatechange/policy/copenhagen.htm

Dr Tim Finnigan, R & D Director Quorn, will be giving his company’s view on the new fundamentals and required paradigm shift in food policy, the life cycle analysis, Quorn versus meat, sustainable diets and the role of healthy eating and environmental impact. http://www.quorn.co.uk/

Click here for more information and booking details for this important industry event.