Sustainable food: public attitudes and engagement in the UK,…

Navigating the Future of Food: Strategic Insights for Public Engagement and Sustainable Systems

The global food system stands at a critical juncture, facing the immense challenge of feeding a growing population, projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, without accelerating climate change. With a third of all food wasted globally and profound inequalities in access to nutritious food, our current systems are demonstrably unsustainable for the planet and its people. This urgency has been grows ever more vital with recent global events, from rising social inequality to extreme weather and critical climate discussions.

To navigate this complex landscape and identify effective strategies for public engagement, the Science Museum Group (SMG), supported by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), commissioned “Feeding Tomorrow”. This initiative aligns with SMG’s mission to “Inspire Futures” and “Engage everyone with science” , and LRF’s commitment to “engineering a safer world” by reducing risks in critical infrastructure, including food systems. This collaborative research is part of our work with mission-driven organisations, delivering strategic insights that address high-stakes, globally relevant issues, underscoring our robust, innovative approach to understanding and influencing public perception on critical societal challenges.

Our research adopted a comprehensive, cross-continental methodology to capture diverse perspectives. We engaged 1,604 individuals across the UK, Brazil, and India, including 300 participants in in-depth interviews and focus groups, and 1,304 who completed a broad survey. Additionally, nearly 40 professionals involved in public engagement around food sustainability contributed their expert insights. Flow Associates led an international research team of Flow India and People’s Palace Projects do Brasil, with key support from the National Council of Science Museums in India and the Museum of Tomorrow in Brazil. This extensive reach ensured a nuanced understanding of cultural contexts. A core analytical tool, Flow’s “Three Lenses” coding mode, categorising responses based on “Self and Family,” “Society and Community,” and “Ecosystems and Climate” mindsets, allowed us to effectively dissect motivations and tailor engagement strategies.

Key Findings: Unpacking Public Perceptions and Preferences

The research revealed a major opportunity: public interest in food issues and concern for the environment are remarkably high across the globe, with over 75% of respondents in all three countries scoring high on both metrics. Despite this widespread concern, a pervasive “value-action gap” emerged as a central challenge: individuals often know about food sustainability issues but feel unable, uninformed, or unmotivated to take effective action. This confusion is exacerbated by common discussions in public discourse, such as the perceived conflict between nature-friendly and high-tech solutions, or the trade-off between affordability and ethical food choices.

Cultural nuances, illuminated by our “Three Lenses” model, significantly shape these perceptions. In Brazil and India, conversations frequently centered on the “Society and Community” lens, emphasising family roots, cultural traditions, empathy for those in poverty, and a strong desire for systemic, top-down changes driven by those in power. In the UK, the focus was more evenly split between “Self and Family” (e.g., household budgets) and “Ecosystems and Climate” (e.g., animal welfare, global food transportation), with a greater inclination towards individual, consumer-level changes. Across all regions, a general lack of awareness was observed regarding the global impacts of local food systems and the intricate links between ecosystem damage and climate breakdown. However, specific issues like food waste and plastic waste were at the forefront of people’s minds.

When presented with potential solutions, the public consistently favored practical, nature-based approaches. Regenerative farming, community supported farming, and greener aquaculture were particularly well received, with a strong desire to learn more about their benefits. Emerging food technologies such as eating insects, lab-grown meat, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were consistently the least popular, often raising concerns about uncertain benefits, high costs, and ethical implications. This skepticism highlights the need for transparent communication that addresses these reservations.

Recommendations: Optimising Engagement for Impact

Our findings provide clear pathways for public engagement and driving collective action:

Strategic Communication: Leverage the powerful influence of media (social media, news, documentaries) to simplify complex systemic effects and disseminate messages inclusively. Addressing credibility concerns, particularly in regions like the UK where audiences gravitate towards trusted mainstream sources, is crucial.
Transformative Experiences: Move beyond traditional narrative exhibits. The public desires interactive, sensory, and “tongues-on” experiences that actively support social change. Creative suggestions for museums included transforming them into living greenhouses, dynamic food laboratories, or experimental restaurants, signaling a shift towards active agents of change. Engaging youth as co-creators of solutions can foster agency and long term commitment.
Tailored Approaches: Utilize structured models like Flow’s Engagement Thresholds Model to guide engagement from “Inclusive & Welcoming” to “Empowering & Power-Shifting”. Programs should be designed to fit specific mindsets, Self & Family, Society & Community, and Ecosystems & Climate, by supporting initial concerns, incrementally increasing scientific knowledge, and broadening perspectives.
Solutions-First Mindset: Public engagement should always include, and ideally foreground, solutions to inform people about underlying causes and impacts. Solutions must be presented in ways that clearly show how individuals can get involved, rather than as interventions reserved for experts or governments.
Community Integration: There is a consistent demand for activities to extend beyond traditional institutional walls, into places where food is produced and consumed. This includes occupying public spaces with seed banks, food markets, and debates, and strong public service messaging via mass media and practical workshops.

The “Feeding Tomorrow” research offers invaluable insights into the intricate dynamics of public perception around food systems. By embracing a nuanced, data-driven approach that respects cultural contexts, addresses specific knowledge gaps, and empowers individuals and communities, we can bridge the “value action gap” and inspire hope driving the necessary transformation towards a more sustainable and equitable food future.

We were really pleased to carry out this important research. You can download the main research report from the SMG website here.

If you’ve arrived at this blogpost from a URL in the main report, you might be looking for the appendices. These provide full resources about our methodology, detailed research into the context of each of the three countries, and full accounts of our conversations and analysis of the online survey.

You can download the appendices from here:

https://flowassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sustainable-Food_-Appendices-to-main-report-Nov-2021-Flow.pdf

Do let us know what you think. We’re keen to carry on conversations and enquiries about public engagement in sustainability and wellbeing, in food and other areas.

University of Cambridge Museums Environmental and Sustainability Evaluation Framework

The University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) group commissioned Flow to develop a strategic initiative, the UCM Environment and Sustainability Evaluation Framework. This framework, launched in July 2025, represents a proactive commitment to systematically embedding and evaluating sustainable practices across all UCM activities, including collections management, facilties, exhibitions and public engagement. It signifies a fundamental shift in approach, moving beyond isolated “sustainability” projects to integrate environmental responsibility into the core operations and public engagement of the entire UCM collection group.

The framework is designed to empower UCM to effectively fulfill its environmental responsibilities, identify opportunities for positive impact, and make informed, evidence-based decisions towards achieving its sustainability goals within the broader context of the Earth Crisis. By providing a structured, cyclical approach to planning, evidence collection, reflection, and reporting, the framework ensures continuous improvement and accountability in UCM’s environmental stewardship. This comprehensive integration of sustainability across all functions, rather than limiting it to designated “green” projects, underscores a mature and deeply embedded organizational commitment, positioning UCM for more effective and enduring progress towards its environmental objectives.

Foundational Principles: The Dual Approach to Impact

At the core of the UCM framework is a dual approach to environmental responsibility, conceptualized as achieving a “Lighter Footprint” while cultivating a “Stronger Handprint”. The “Lighter Footprint” focuses on minimizing direct environmental harm from UCM’s operations. This involves tangible actions such as embedding sustainable materials and energy sources into new buildings, with progress often measured through numerical targets. Complementing this, the “Stronger Handprint” emphasizes the broader, positive influence UCM can exert by engaging, exciting, and inspiring people to take action. Cultural institutions like museums and gardens are uniquely positioned to foster learning and behavioral change, leveraging innovative thinking and outward communication to achieve wider societal good. Many initiatives will naturally encompass elements of both footprint reduction and handprint expansion. This strategic emphasis on the “Handprint” signifies a progression from merely mitigating negative impacts to actively generating positive societal and environmental change, recognizing the powerful role museums can play as agents of transformation in the face of global environmental challenges.

To guide its public-facing activities, the framework adopts five core UCM Environmental Outcomes for People. These outcomes are adapted from Flow Associates’ Generic Environmental Outcomes (Flow GEOs), which are themselves rooted in the widely utilized Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) framework prevalent in the museum sector. This adaptation ensures that the evaluation criteria are directly relevant to UCM’s unique public engagement activities, allowing for precise measurement of impact on attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors related to environmental responsibility. This localized tailoring enhances the framework’s practical utility and effectiveness in achieving UCM’s specific mission.

The five outcomes are:

Enjoyment, Connection and Curiosity: Fostering engagement and discovery through UCM spaces.
Environmental Attitudes and Values: Inspiring personal motivation and care for the Earth.
Knowledge in Environmental Topics: Increasing awareness and understanding of human, natural, political, and creative responses to environmental issues.
Green Skills for the Future: Developing practical life skills and foundational knowledge for environmental careers.
Activity and Progression for Environmental Change: Enabling active citizenship and community well-being through environmental action.

The framework also promotes an ongoing, cyclical approach to evaluation, integrating environmental responsibility into all aspects of UCM’s work. This iterative process involves continuous planning, evidence collection, reflection, and learning to strengthen future initiatives. This philosophical grounding in both measurable operational improvements and the broader, qualitative impact on human behavior and community engagement underscores the unique role of cultural institutions in fostering environmental stewardship.

Empowering Action: The Framework’s Core Tools

The UCM framework provides a comprehensive suite of five practical tools designed to support its cyclical evaluation process and embed environmental responsibility across all activities. A key strength in the design of these tools is their integration with existing UCM and University frameworks, such as the UCM Evaluation Framework, the University’s Planning for Impact tool, and the Local Environmental Sustainability Plan (LESP). This intentional avoidance of creating additional administrative burdens significantly enhances the likelihood of staff adoption and consistent application, addressing a common challenge in implementing new organizational policies. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form a common language between faculties and iniatives within the university and and such, these were used to map the impacts of activity to enable staff to easily connect with wider institutional work. The inclusion of both quantitative and qualitative tools further indicates a robust mixed-methods approach to evaluation, capturing both measurable outcomes and deeper insights into behavioral changes and operational challenges.

Environmental Sustainability Checklists: Simple checklists for collections management, conservation, planning activities, exhibitions, events, or programs.
UCM’s Planning for Impact Tool: Building on the Univsersity of Cambridge’s PER tools with considersations of environmental responsibility.
Evaluating Environmental Outcomes for People: A menu of standardized questions categorized under the five UCM Environmental Outcomes for People.
Awareness and Action Audit: A quantitative survey assessing individuals’ awareness and activity in key environmental sustainability areas.
Reflection Prompts

Flow provided a rollout plan for embedding the framework, delivering workshops with staff to lead on piloting and advocacy. The framework is also designed for iterative refinement, recognising that environmental challenges are dynamic, building in mechanisms for continuous learning, refinement, and adaptation. This allows the framework to evolve with new insights, technologies, and changing environmental contexts, ensuring its long-term relevance and effectiveness.

Natural History Museum

A major research and consultation project working with curatorial and Learning teams to develop a new Children’s Gallery, a global international education initiative, onsite programming and online activities. We worked alongside the teams onsite on remotely to establish the guiding principles for the project, develop key interpretive themes and programming which engages young people with caring for and understanding their immediate natural environments and ecosystems as well as those globally.

The research explored how to:

Optimise the experience of the new Children’s Gallery, through activities on themes of Wild Voices, connecting with animals’ lives in different habitats.
Lift barriers of access to schools, families and groups with intersecting factors of disadvantage or SENDs, by consulting them, travelling to settings with activities, and easing their experience of the NHM as a whole.
Inspire and acknowledge young children as imaginative friends of the natural world, and provide templates for partners in the GEI, through online resources for digital and real-world play and nature connection.
Develop skills of adults (including NHM staff and volunteers) to reconnect with nature and support children through a ’School of Nature Play’.
To do action research as the activities are developed, to serve the global initiatve with insights.

Green Futures – Royal Parks

Green Futures aims to connect hundreds of young people with nature conservation in the Royal Parks, gaining new skills to help combat the climate emergency. Funding from the Kusuma Trust has enabled the Green Futures project to offer each participating school three day-long nature conservation experiences in the Parks over one school year. There will be two cohorts, the first made up of five schools in year one and of six schools in year two. Each school is invited to bring its entire KS3 year group, and a selection of Year 12 students (c.50 each year in total) will take a leadership role.

The activities will include citizen science and practical fieldwork, designed to show how conservation work is experimenting with adaptive measures in the context of environmental changes. Back at school their experience will be used to support project work, reflecting on the work they have contributed to the parks.

Year 12 students work towards completing ASDAN short course awards, through which they will gain experience of planning events and activities whilst learning about careers in the sector. They also play a leadership role in supporting KS3 students, directing activities during their visits. In the second year of the project Year 12 students returned to support the new cohort of students. Some of these will be invited in future to advise the Royal Parks on its approach to creating engaging and meaningful programmes for young people.

We established an evaluation framework colelcting baseline attitudes and skills of the students which would measure progression through the programme. Evaluation of Green Futures demonstrated a positive experience of situated learning with strong outcomes in an understanding of biodiversity and ecosystems. Year 12 students gained ASDAN qualifications and showed an increased confidence in their leadership and communication skills. Across the project, there was a strong likelihood that at least 75% of participants will feel more confident in visiting more natural settings and are more appreciative of biodiversity and facilities in the Royal Parks. Interviews with teachers were undertaken throughout the project to capture the impact on their professional knowledge, the curriculum and schools. The report was presented alongside a workshop with Royal Parks staff to set out actions for the future of their programming and identify key opportunities and challenges as the programme expands.

The first two years of the programme ran from 2021 to 2023 with students working with staff at Hyde Park. Funding has been extended for a further two years enabling Royal Parks to expand to other parks in its estate, enhance the digital resources for schools, and offer more in-school outreach sessions.

Project Type: Sustainability