The Public Plate

This research theme explores the role and potential of the ‘public plate’ which can be defined as the provisioning of food by, or on behalf of, public sector organisations. This research stream attempts to tie together existing pieces of work by scholars in Brass and its parent schools over recent years.

Interest in this area stems from the fact that public food provision as a provider of sustainable development benefits has long been overlooked by mainstream policy makers and academics. This is highlighted most clearly by the status of school food in the UK which was largely considered as a service that should be driven by cost efficiencies at the expense of food quality and health until recently years.

In many ways sustainability in the public plate can be argued to be a 'litmus test' of a state's commitment to sustainable development in the fullest sense of the term because, depending on the nature of the provisioning, it can address social justice, human health, economic development and environmental goals, the main domains of sustainable development.

Key questions under this work package include:

• What are the effects of public food provisioning systems in terms of economic, environmental, social and health impacts?
• How can more sustainable public food provisioning systems be encouraged? What are their key success factors? How can these be replicated?
• What are the effects of public food provisioning systems in terms of non-local or external economic, environmental and social impacts?

For more background on Public Plate research at Cardiff University including bibliography and access to non Brass reports, please click here: www.brass.cf.ac.uk/public_plate.html 

Research Projects:

Food For Life Partnership Evaluation (Ongoing)

Delivering Sustainability: Towards the Creative Procurement of School Meals (2005-2008)