Focus area: Food

The economy of our region is based around food: we are both the breadbasket and garden of England. The East and South ­East of England are responsible for a third of income from farming (TIFF), and 62% of fruit and vegetable imports, 43% of meat and 41% of dairy from the European Union come through Kent; with 40% of containerised food entering the UK through Felixstowe. As a result, our region has over 10,000 food and produce enterprises.

Our universities work closely with these businesses and organisations, through centres such as UEA’s Broadland Food Innovation Centre, the Who Buys My Food? programme, the Essex Plant Innovation Centre (EPIC), Growing Kent and Medway (GKaM), and Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP). In addition, we undertake world­leading work on diet and nutrition through centres such as the Norwich Institute for Healthy Ageing (NIHA) and collaborations with the John Innes Centre, the Quadram Institute, Cefas and NIAB.

However, we also recognise the social and economic challenges to food in a time of international crisis, and we will build on the groundbreaking work of Kent’s Right to Food initiative and the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD).